Pawtucket-Central Falls MBTA Commuter Rail Station | Pine and Barton Streets | Pawtucket

New England Born & Raised said:
Update on former station

www.valleybreeze.com

Grant sought to pay for old train station’s demolition

PAWTUCKET/CENTRAL FALLS – Plans for the derelict structure known as the old Pawtucket-Central Falls Train Station off Broad Street still center on demolition as the best and only feasible option,
www.valleybreeze.com www.valleybreeze.com
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Wish something could have been done to save it, but it's probably time for it to go. It looks like it could collapse on the tracks at any moment.
 
RIPTA riders have gone without an indoor waiting area since the old space in Downtown Pawtucket was closed and the bus hub was moved to the station. Glad to know this new facility will benefit both rail and bus riders. One thing is for sure: it'll be much more modern than RIPTA's old digs.
 
The new Pawtucket Transit Center passenger facility will feature public restrooms, driver restrooms and break room, a waiting area with seating and real-time passenger information screens, and a Pawtucket Police sub-station and security office. RIPTA will also have a staffed customer service window to assist riders as needed. This new building will improve the passenger experience for both bus and rail passengers.
The expected open date is late 2025/early 2026.

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Fantastic! I haven't seen numbers recently, but it seems like there are more and more people boarding the trains here in the AM. It'll be a godsend to have this during nasty weather. It's especially beneficial for people who will live in some of the new/converted buildings nearby and don't have the luxury of waiting in their car.
 
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Here's another render I found of the proposed building that's more photorealistic; it also appears they couldn't find the space for a retail vendor.

Only 2 minor pet peeves - not to take away from it being amazingly useful, and I realize they were budget constrained, but the building has a rectangular footprint on a site that isn't - that means if they build it aligned to the busway, the side and rear will be "on the wonk" to the paths and platform. Secondly, the faces of the building that do face the platform / train station entrance are less inviting cinder block facings. They're already screaming I'm a perfect canvas for a mural.
 

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Lrfox said:
Fantastic! I haven't seen numbers recently, but it seems like there are more and more people boarding the trains here in the AM. It'll be a godsend to have this during nasty weather. It's especially beneficial for people who will live in some of the new/converted buildings nearby and don't have the luxury of waiting in their car.
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Keep in mind this is not just for the train passengers. It will be used by RIPTA riders and its employees as well as the Pawtucket bus transfer hub is located there.
 
New England Born & Raised said:
Keep in mind this is not just for the train passengers. It will be used by RIPTA riders and its employees as well as the Pawtucket bus transfer hub is located there.
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You're right. I'm definitely coming at it from a rail-rider perspective, but it will benefit a range of users.
 
Lrfox said:
Wish something could have been done to save it, but it's probably time for it to go. It looks like it could collapse on the tracks at any moment.
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This year’s update of the Northeast Corridor Commission’s 5-year Capital Investment Plan includes an item for demolishing the old Pawtucket-Central Falls Station. Shows a $500,000 FY25 expenditure out of a total project cost of $15 million.

I share your sentiments. It was a station befitting the prosperity of Pawtucket and Central Falls when it was built, and its decline mirrored the fortunes of its host communities. Much has changed since it was built more than a hundred years ago, and maybe the most important change was just that accessibility standards went into effect, which ultimately made it impossible to build ADA-compliant high platforms along that curve.

Shame they couldn’t at least use some of the bricks from the old station in the construction of the amenity building at the new station, but at this point, it is what it is.
 
Today is the two year anniversary of the opening of the Pawtucket-Central Falls MBTA Commuter Rail Station. The station has been a big success quickly exceeding passenger expectations. In March of 2024 it was already averaging 701 daily boardings and that number is likely to have since risen. An additional expansion of the surface parking to 470 spaces was completed and construction of a 2,600sf passenger facility building that will house an indoor waiting area and restrooms was started and is expected to open in or around the end of 2025. Renovation and new construction of residential housing units is presently underway all around the station in the Conant Thread District. By all measures, the station has been a resounding success.
 
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The new (re)development occurring in the vicinity of the station and the passenger facility building are unambiguous successes, but to play devil’s advocate on the station exceeding ridership expectations, the elephant in the room is South Attleboro’s sudden closure, which was not anticipated back when those expectations were set. We don’t know exactly how much of Pawtucket’s apparent overperformance in boardings (and parking demand) is really just temporarily-displaced South Attleboro riders, but I’m sure that’s a factor.

Once they reopen that station, and establish paid parking at Pawtucket like all the other stations, we’ll probably see Pawtucket’s ridership stats deflate back down to the original projections. But hopefully in the meantime, enough new housing units will be built around the station to make up for that future gap. Regardless, this was a successful project, and a major win for the community.
 
riptide said:
The new (re)development occurring in the vicinity of the station and the passenger facility building are unambiguous successes, but to play devil’s advocate on the station exceeding ridership expectations, the elephant in the room is South Attleboro’s sudden closure, which was not anticipated back when those expectations were set. We don’t know exactly how much of Pawtucket’s apparent overperformance in boardings (and parking demand) is really just temporarily-displaced South Attleboro riders, but I’m sure that’s a factor.

Once they reopen that station, and establish paid parking at Pawtucket like all the other stations, we’ll probably see Pawtucket’s ridership stats deflate back down to the original projections. But hopefully in the meantime, enough new housing units will be built around the station to make up for that future gap. Regardless, this was a successful project, and a major win for the community.
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The South Attleboro stop reopened many many months ago; however, the service frequency is... modest [to put it mildly]:

https://www.mbta.com/schedules/CR-Providence/timetable
 
DBM said:
The South Attleboro stop reopened many many months ago; however, the service frequency is... modest [to put it mildly]:

https://www.mbta.com/schedules/CR-Providence/timetable
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My bad, meant to say “rebuild” instead of “reopen.” The basic point still holds: until both stations have equal levels of service and equal parking fares, we won’t know how much of a boost South Attleboro’s closure gave Pawtucket during the time it was closed. For now, Pawtucket enjoys the comparative advantages of more departure options and free parking. When ridership was originally projected, they weren’t envisioning a situation where it had those advantages, so that is probably part of the explanation for why Pawtucket has started off so strong.
 
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Its going to be great to see pawtucket add some new housing around the station. Its pretty weird that once the station opened they kind of looked around and had the realization like oh shit were actually allowed to build new things… Looking around pawtucket its hard to see anything that stands out as being built within the last 20 years. Seeing the new stadium and some new proposed housing is going to be huge, theres so much potential there. Its so weird that so many places just forgot to build anything for like 20-30 years, but its also nice to see that is now turning around. Hopefully they push full steam ahead cuz pawtucket has great bones and theres plenty of empty lots around that could be developed quick.
 
riptide said:
My bad, meant to say “rebuild” instead of “reopen.” The basic point still holds: until both stations have equal levels of service and equal parking fares, we won’t know how much of a boost South Attleboro’s closure gave Pawtucket during the time it was closed. For now, Pawtucket enjoys the comparative advantages of more departure options and free parking. When ridership was originally projected, they weren’t envisioning a situation where it had those advantages, so that is probably part of the explanation for why Pawtucket has started off so strong.
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There's no question that South Attleboro's closure (along with the free parking at Pawtucket) has had an impact on Pawtucket's above-expected ridership levels. And if SA reopens in full, there's a good chance that those numbers come back down to earth a bit (or more). But I'm not thoroughly convinced we'll actually ever see South Attleboro reopen in full. Construction is currently on hold and unfunded and the MBTA is dealing with a budget crisis. Pawtucket and Attleboro are a reasonably short distance from SA and adequately serve former SA passengers.

Best case for SA, the MBTA understands this and continues to kick the can down the road re: funding because it's simply not a priority. Worst case, they scrap the project because the Pawtucket/Attleboro combo negates the need for an SA station. From a financial standpoint, the latter makes a whole lot of sense to the MBTA. They have a brand new station a short distance away that was paid for and is being maintained by someone else. They can make the case that between the new station and the existing Attleboro station former SA passengers have adequate service and it's not cost effective to spend $70+ million to rebuilt the existing station. They can also argue that eliminating SA will help reduce trip times on the line. Finally, if the number of cars in the lot and passengers boarding rush hour trains are any indication, the limited reopening isn't exactly generating a ton of riders. The MBTA will almost certainly point to this as "proof" that riders don't need/want to use the SA station. I personally think there's a high likelihood that this will happen.
 
stick n move said:
Its going to be great to see pawtucket add some new housing around the station. Its pretty weird that once the station opened they kind of looked around and had the realization like oh shit were actually allowed to build new things… Looking around pawtucket its hard to see anything that stands out as being built within the last 20 years. Seeing the new stadium and some new proposed housing is going to be huge, theres so much potential there. Its so weird that so many places just forgot to build anything for like 20-30 years, but its also nice to see that is now turning around. Hopefully they push full steam ahead cuz pawtucket has great bones and theres plenty of empty lots around that could be developed quick.
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I think it just goes to show how hesitant developers were to invest in some of these old industrial cities outside of Boston. The same story has played out all over the region - Worcester, Pawtucket, Haverhill, Lowell, New Bedford, Brockton, etc. All of these places went decades without seeing much major development in/around their cores. But as developers have seen there's demand (and money to be made), they've begun to invest. It's great to see the development in Pawtucket (and all of the other cities), and having immediate access to a train station certainly ups the chances for success.
 
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