Line(s) Fitchburg Line Tracks 2 Year built 1908 | Platforms 2 side platforms Parking no spaces Added to NRHP 4 December 1998 | |
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Location Common St & Concord Ave
Belmont, MA 02478 Connections MBTA Bus: 74, 75, 72/75 Address Belmont, MA 02478, United States | ||
Belmont Center is a commuter rail station on the MBTA Commuter Rail's Fitchburg Line. It is located at the intersection of Common Street, Concord Avenue, and Leonard Street in Belmont, Massachusetts. The station is labeled Belmont on MBTA maps.
Contents
History
Wellington Hill station opened in 1852, with a former school building built the previous decade moved to the site for a depot. A two-story wooden depot was built around 1879; the old station was moved and used as a summer house and an art studio at the Underwood Estate nearby. It was given to the Belmont Historical Society in 1975, and moved to its present location across the street from the modern station in 1980.
To eliminate the busy grade crossing of Concord Avenue, the tracks through Belmont Center were raised in 1907. A massive two-story California Bungalow station was built from 365 tons of fieldstone quarried from Belmont Hill by a local farmer. All service to Belmont Center and nearby Waverley ended in 1958.
Service to Belmont Center and Waverley resumed on March 4, 1974. The Central Mass Branch had been discontinued in 1971, so all service was on the South Acton (now Fitchburg) Line. Weekend service was discontinued at the two stops on January 30, 1981 as part of general cutbacks, but restored on December 6, 1993.
The 1908-built station building, which is now owned and occupied by the Belmont Lions Club, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1998.
As part of budge cuts, in 2015, the MBTA was considering an option to shutter the current Belmont Station due to expenses related to costs for making Waverley station ADA-accessible. Plans to combine both stations have been outlined in previous studies as early as 2005. Such works as Fitchburg Commuter Rail Line Improvement Implementation Plan, released in September 2005 have considered this plan.
Station layout
There are two low-level side platforms, the southern (inbound) one adjacent to the station building. The station has no high-level platforms or ramps and is therefore not handicapped accessible.
The station does not have a ticket office or ticket vending machines.
Bus connections
Two MBTA Bus routes serve Belmont Center on weekdays and Saturday:
On Sundays, the 72, 74, and 75 routes are combined into the 72/75 route, which runs on segments of all three routes from Harvard to Belmont.