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Gov. Maura Healey and an array of public officials from the South Coast and beyond cut a ribbon Monday, March 24, 2025, to celebrate the first day of service on the Fall River/New Bedford Line of the Commuter Rail, the first passenger rail service between the South Coast and Boston in nearly 70 years. Photo: Colin A. Young
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Want to get to Martha's Vineyard this summer but you don't have a car? How about taking a train from Franklin to South Station and from there to New Bedford where it's a short walk to the ferry terminal? That, and other minor miracles became possible Monday as the South Coast of Massachusetts regained a nearly forgotten amenity: train services to Boston.
Right on schedule and literal seconds after Gov. Maura Healey asked, "are we going?", one of the first Boston-bound trains in decades pulled out of Fall River Depot station Monday morning.
A parade of public officials joined Healey for the trip to celebrate the first day of passenger service on the new Fall River/New Bedford Line of the MBTA’s Commuter Rail, including T General Manager Phil Eng, Senate Ways and Means Chairman Michael Rodrigues of Westport, Economic Development Committee co-chair Rep. Carole Fiola of Fall River, and Fall River Mayor Paul Coogan.
There were plenty of jokes about Healey seemingly snapping her fingers and making the train go, but also lots of talk about how getting to the point where South Coast Rail is now a reality was nowhere near as simple of a process.
"This is a day we never, you know, it was hard to believe we're here. If I had a dollar every time somebody told me, 'I'll believe it when I see it,' I'd be a millionaire. We see it, and now we believe it," Rodrigues said. "This is an amazing day for not just Fall River, but for the entire South Coast, the entire commonwealth of Massachusetts."
The South Coast region has lacked rail service to Boston for the last 67 years, and the new line joins a string of others into Boston at a time when state officials are trying to encourage more people to swap their emissions-intensive drive for public transit, including by developing badly-needed housing near commuter rail stations. With Monday's start of service from Fall River and New Bedford, all major cities within 50 miles of Boston now have commuter rail access to the state's capital.
Eng said there were about 350 people on the first train to Boston on Monday, and nearly 200 people on the return trip to the South Coast. He said some people were making multiple trips Monday. Asked about the breakdown between riders expected to be regular commuters on the line and those riding the train for the novelty of it Monday, the GM said the T's projections are from before the pandemic and he would rather see hard ridership numbers first.
"We made a conscious decision to run robust service all day long. But we're also running weekend service, which was not part of the original plan. What we've seen on commuter rail is actually discretionary travel has exceeded, in some cases, 200% of what we had pre-pandemic," he said in Fall River. "So I'd rather let the numbers play out for itself. But the reason we wanted robust service is to allow people that flexibility, all day, all weekend."
Fiola and Coogan were at Fall River Depot station around 5 a.m. Monday, talking to riders getting on the very first train out of the city at 5:05 a.m. Fiola said she spoke with a couple that wanted to take the train to see how well it will work for their trips into the city for Boston Celtics games, a mother who was bringing her son into Boston to tour Suffolk University, and a pair of "public transit fans" from New York City who wanted to be on the first trip on the new line.
"It was an exciting morning, and those are just a few examples too of the economic impact of this line," Fiola said.
Decades in the making, the $1.1 billion first phase of the South Coast Rail project brings online about 36 miles of tracks with stations in Middleborough, East Taunton, Freetown, Fall River and New Bedford. The eventual full build is expected to extend the existing Stoughton Line south with stations in Easton, Raynham and Taunton before connecting with the Fall River and New Bedford lines.
