No Plans For Mansfield-Foxborough Train Route

FOXBOROUGH, MA — Don’t expect to be able to take the train from Mansfield to Foxborough when full-time rail service comes to Gillette Stadium in 2019, state officials said this week.

During a Foxborough community forum on issues concerning rail service in the area, State Rep. Jay Barrows, R-Mansfield, said a train between the two towns is not in the works and is very unlikely.

“I don’t see that happening. We don’t see the need for this. We’re working with GATRA to connect some of these dots around Mansfield and Foxborough,” Barrows said.

Barrows said the towns are talking with the local transit authority to create an electric bus route that would include stops in Foxborough, Mansfield, and Plainridge Park Casino on Route 1.

The need to use the track for freight traffic was also cited as a reason that a full-time commuter train between the two towns is not in the works. The track, however, could be used as a backup line for the Providence/Stoughton line. State officials at the meeting said the link between the towns is an alternative route to Boston and if there was an issue between Mansfield and Boston, trains can be routed up what is known as the Framingham Secondary Line.

The Foxborough pilot program will include six round trips from the Gillette Stadium platform to South Station by way of the Readville Line. Work on the program is expected to start next year, with the pilot commencing in spring 2019.

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