Kingston station (Rhode Island)

19th and 20th Centuries

The New York, Providence and Boston Railroad opened in November 1837. Since its tracks did not go through the village of Kingston, a new village - West Kingston - sprang up around the railroad station on Waites Corner Road.

The station has remained in continuous use from the day it opened in June 1875. Historically, Kingston Station also served the Narragansett Pier Railroad. Travel time for the 8 ¹⁄₂-mile (13.7 km) trip between Kingston and Narragansett Pier was approximately 20 minutes before passenger service ended unofficially in June, 1952. (In 2000 the former right-of-way was converted into the William C. O'Neill Bike Path.)

By the 1960s, service to Kingston consisted of regional service from Boston to New York City, plus a single commuter round trip from New London to Boston. When Amtrak took over intercity service from Penn Central in May 1971, Penn Central was not given license to discontinue the commuter trip. When permission was given in 1972, it was replaced with a state-funded Westerly-Providence round trip also stopping at Kingston. This trip lasted until June 1977. From September 1976 to October 1977 and January–April 1978 Amtrak's Clamdigger ran local service from Providence to New Haven with a stop at Kingston. The Beacon Hill replaced the Clamdigger in April 1978, running local from New Haven to Boston. Faced with declining ridership and the loss of state subsidies, the Beacon Hill was discontinued effective October 24, 1981, leaving Kingston with just intercity stopping service.

The station was added to the National Register of Historic Places on April 26, 1975 as Kingston Railroad Station.

An organization called "The Friends of Kingston Station" was instrumental in preserving the station and assuring its restoration after a fire there on December 12, 1988.

Although most Northeast Regional trains stop at Kingston, Acela Express trains do not. Kingston is located on one of several sections of track where the Acela Express is permitted to run at its full 150 mph (240 km/h) speed. Kingston and Mansfield are the only stations where the Acela will pass through at full speed on tracks adjacent to platforms. Signs and automated announcements warn passengers of the potential danger. Since it is the only station between New London and Providence which can deboard passengers from Acela trains, they occasionally do stop at Kingston in emergencies such as downed wires or problems with the locomotives.

Railroad museum

For a time, half of the station was home to the Rhode Island Railroad Museum. The museum, operated by Friends of The Kingston Railroad Station, was open Sunday afternoons, and included old artifacts from railroads in Rhode Island. Its highlight was an operating model railroad which depicted Kingston in 1948. The museum was closed because the second half of the building is needed due to increasing ridership at the station. The area will be renovated and used as a second waiting room with outlets and extra seating.

Infrastructure expansion

In 2009, RIDOT requested American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 funds for engineering of a siding and platform that would allow local trains to stop at the station, possibly including future MBTA Commuter Rail trains on an extension of the Providence/Stoughton Line. On June 29, 2015, Amtrak and local officials held a groundbreaking on the expansion of the station. This project will replace the current low-level platforms at the station with new, ADA-accessible high-level platforms and add a 1.5 mile-long third track, allowing Acela Express trains to pass through the station while Northeast Regional or possible commuter rail trains are stopped in the station. Construction work also includes installation of drainage, retaining walls and poles to support catenary wires for the new track. The project is projected to cost $41 million, of which $26.5 million is provided High-Speed Intercity Passenger Rail Program (HSIPR) grant from the federal government and RIDOT, with Amtrak providing the remainder of the funding. Amtrak projects completion of construction by summer 2017. With the third track added, Kingston will become similar in layout to Old Saybrook station, located 53 miles to the south on the Northeast Corridor.

Proposed commuter service

Currently, Kingston is one of only three stations on the Northeast Corridor - along with adjacent stations Westerly and Mystic to the south - that is served exclusively by Amtrak, with no commuter rail service. In 1994, a Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT) report indicated that the Northeast Corridor was the most viable route for commuter service in Rhode Island. That same year, a Federal Railroad Administration report estimated that Kingston-Providence service would begin in 1999. In 2001, RIDOT released a potential operations plans for South County commuter rail service from Westerly to Providence, with a stop at Kingston plus infill stops at Wickford Junction and T.F. Green Airport. The report considered the service as an extension of Shore Line East, an extension of the MBTA's Providence/Stoughton Line, or a stand-alone service. However, the 2003 Environmental Assessment and a 2009 report studying service to Woonsocket did not discuss extending service further south than Wickford Junction. Service to T.F. Green Airport began in December 2010, and to Wickford Junction in April 2012.

However, that same year, the application for funds for the third track was noted as a prerequisite for the extension of commuter service.

Bus connections

Two RIPTA bus routes connect the station to the URI campus and major cities in Rhode Island: