Woburn station (1844–1981)

For the current station in Woburn, see Anderson Regional Transportation Center.

Woburn
1908 postcard of Woburn station
General information
Location	Pleasant Street at Woburn Common (until 1959) Main Street at Summer Street (1959–1981) Woburn, Massachusetts
Coordinates	42.47885°N 71.152748°W / 42.47885; -71.152748 (until 1959) 42.476784°N 71.149932°W / 42.476784; -71.149932 (1959–1981)
Owned by	Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority
Line(s)	Woburn Branch
Platforms	2
Tracks	2
Other information
Fare zone	2
History
Opened	1844
Closed	1981
Former services
Preceding station MBTA Following station Terminus Lowell Line Woburn Branch Closed 1981 Cross Street toward North Station Preceding station Boston and Maine Railroad Following station Central Square toward Concord, NH Boston – Concord, NH via Woburn Loop until 1959 Woburn Highlands toward Boston Terminus Woburn Branch after 1959 Cross Street toward Boston

Woburn station was a railroad station on the Woburn Branch (formerly the Woburn Loop), part of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority's Lowell Line.

History

The station site used from 1959 to 1981, seen in 2016

It was closed in 1981 when service on the Woburn Branch was terminated due to poor track conditions and insufficient funding; service north of Woburn station had already been discontinued in June 1959.

After the closure of the Woburn Branch, all trains travelling outbound from North Station on the Lowell Line simply stayed on the main line all the way north to Lowell. The only station on the Lowell Line left in Woburn was Mishawum, a low-capacity station that was only meant to serve the sparsely-populated northern neighborhoods of Woburn. The need for a larger station in the city quickly became apparent, so in 2001, the Anderson Regional Transportation Center, signed on MBTA maps as "Anderson/Woburn," was opened. Today, Anderson RTC is the MBTA station with the second-highest number of daily train departures outside of downtown Boston (30), and serves both the Lowell and Haverhill lines, as well as Amtrak trains on the Downeaster service.

Although the northern part of the Woburn Branch within the town of Wilmington (about a mile in length) is still used as an industrial spur to service customers along the line in South Wilmington, and the right-of-way of the entire branch is still owned by the MBTA, the part of the branch within Woburn is abandoned. After its closure, the former station building was destroyed by vandals.