South Coast Rail

South Coast Rail
The completed Freetown station in December 2022
Overview
Status	Under construction
Locale	Southeastern Massachusetts
Termini	Boston South Station Battleship Cove (Fall River Branch) New Bedford (New Bedford Branch)
Stations	28 (10 new)
Service
Type	Commuter rail
System	MBTA Commuter Rail
Services	2
Daily ridership	4,570 (estimated)[1]
History
Planned opening	May 2025 (Phase 1) 2030 (Phase 2)
Closed	Previous New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad service ended on September 5, 1958
Technical
Track gauge	4 ft 8+1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge
Electrification	Phase 2 only (proposed)

South Coast Rail is a project to build a new southern line of the MBTA Commuter Rail system along several abandoned and freight-only rail lines. The line will restore passenger rail service between Boston and the cities of Taunton, Fall River, and New Bedford, via the towns of Berkley, and Freetown, on the south coast of Massachusetts. It includes passenger service to some of the southern lines of the former Old Colony Railroad and the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad (service along the Southeastern lines was largely restored in 1997 and 2007).

Passenger service was discontinued in 1958, and the restoration proposal surfaced in the 1980s. A full planning process was held starting in 1990 but was suspended in 2002 due to increasing costs.^[2] Planning restarted in 2007 and in March 2017, the project was split into two phases. Phase 1 provides interim service to Fall River and New Bedford while the northern section of the line is built in Phase 2.^[3] Several separately-funded projects were constructed between 2013 and 2019 in preparation for the project. Phase 1 construction began in 2019 with a projected cost of $1.047 billion. It is expected to open in May 2025. Total cost of the program is estimated at $3.42 billion with completion in 2030.