MBTA Commuter Rail (Operations, Keolis, & Short Term)

[themissinglink]

It makes a bit more sense within historical context. South Acton has always been one of the more significant stations on the line - it was the junction for the branch to Marlborough (after the 1930s, Maynard), and has been a short turn terminal since the late 19th century. Littleton never was a significant station; the town was very small until I-495 was built in the late 50s. It had only 21 daily riders when service was dropped in 1975. South Acton was rebuilt around 1977 with a parking lot to handle the commuters from Route 2.

When the extension to Gardner opened in 1980, all the stations were built cheap and quick. Littleton was just a small strip of asphalt, with parking temporarily rented from a nearby factory; when that rental ended, it had just 15 official and 25 unofficial spots. South Acton was still the turnback point for half of service, with single track between there and Willows.

Littleton/495 has never been well-placed for a park-and-ride; it's on a narrow two-lane road and is more than 2 road miles from the 495 mainline. In the 90s, the town planned a new station with dedicated ramps from Route 2 and more parking - the first time the station was really imagined as a major park-and-ride - but that went nowhere. A private entity built a lot near the station around 2007, at which time the MBTA lot was only 47 spaces. The MBTA bought the private lot and expanded it when the station was rebuilt. Pre-COVID, there were plans to add more parking at Littleton/495.

Direct ramps from Route 2 (or 495) and a parking garage would greatly improve Littleton/495, I wish they had followed through with those 90s plans.

More sidewalks on Foster Street would also be a big improvement.

 

[Stlin]

It's just not a well situated station for walk-up demand, that's for sure. Notably, Littleton is also really quite suddenly lukewarm on the concept of TOD on the sites surrounding it - despite the existence of an ~2020 Littleton Station Village planning effort and associated studies. This is one of those cases where I think the MBTA communities act actually interrupted what was a good planning direction - it's planned TOD 40R zoning was pulled from town meeting when the MBTA communities act was passed, and now it's MBTA zoning explicitly avoids all of the neighboring parcels, despite advocacy by the developers that own those sites. Those are all still zoned industrial. Instead Littleton primarily rezoned the former IBM/HP/DEC Office Park complex and two parcels on the other side of RT2 - albeit granted the IBM redevelopment is supposed to break ground this year.

Direct ramps from Route 2 (or 495) and a parking garage would greatly improve Littleton/495, I wish they had followed through with those 90s plans.

More sidewalks on Foster Street would also be a big improvement.

My understanding is that improved bike/ped has been under construction over the winter; certainly segments of Foster have been shut intermittently for work. I believe that MassDOT is building a 10' shared path between Taylor & Balsam, while town of Littleton is starting planning for a phase 2, working from the other end to extend it's sidewalk network from where it ends at Tahattawan to join up. Unfortunately I don't believe the town is currently planning on continuing the path or other bike infrastructure - last I've heard it was planned as sidewalk & shared street.

 

[RandomWalk]

Do you have links to both the 40R and MBTA communities plans?

 

[Stlin]

Do you have links to both the 40R and MBTA communities plans?

See the difference between the proposed plan as of January 2021; this was Phase 1 (North) of a 2 phase plan. This was on the Spring Warrant but was pulled bc MBTA communities act regulations hadn't been promulgated yet, and no one knew if this would comply.

This is what the town actually passed as a result of MBTA zoning in May 2024: the Littleton station sites were only included somewhat begrudgingly because the MBTA communities act required a minimum of 20% area and units within ½ mile of the station, so they pushed it to the limit - 305 Foster is exactly ½ mile from the station.

All posted at the same site since they folded everything together in 2021; also see the 245 Foster planning page for the proposals for the 40R site. The developer that owns it wasn't particularly keen that the town abandoned it's prior planning effort, but it still may become senior housing.

That said, I sort of get it on the part of the town - Lupoli is redeveloping the IBM/HP/DEC site, and which currently is supposed to break ground shortly (they told the town in January that they were funded to start infrastructure work) and which has 807 units, plus retail & industrial, proposed on that site alone - that's already 57 more than the 750 MBTA zoning requires, and is honestly better as a proposal - more dense and walkable, more like a small urban center. The only thing this needs is a ped bridge to the mall on the other side of 495.