| Style: | MBTA | ||||||||
| Concord | |||||||||
| Address: | 90 Thoreau Street | ||||||||
| Borough: | Concord, Massachusetts | ||||||||
| Line: | Fitchburg Route | ||||||||
| Platform: | 2 side platforms | ||||||||
| Tracks: | 2 | ||||||||
| Parking: | 86 spaces (free) | ||||||||
| Bicycle: | 10 spaces | ||||||||
| Passengers: | 367 (weekday average boardings) | ||||||||
| Pass Year: | 2018 | ||||||||
| Owned: | Town of Concord | ||||||||
| Zone: | 5 | ||||||||
| Mapframe: | yes | ||||||||
| Mapframe-Custom: |
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Concord station is a commuter rail station on the MBTA Commuter Rail Fitchburg Line located in downtown Concord, Massachusetts. It has two side platforms, which are low-level and not accessible, serving the line's two tracks.
Fitchburg Railroad service from Concord to Boston began in June 1844, and has continued since.[1] When he lived at Walden Pond, Henry David Thoreau complained that the village's schedule was set by the times of arrivals and departures at the station.[2] Although the Fitchburg Line went through a series of contractions due to funding issues in the 1960s and 1970s, service to Concord was never interrupted.
A new station was completed in January 1875.[3] The current station building was built in the Queen Anne style in the 1890s. The new station was damaged by fire in 1895 and substantially rebuilt. When built, it was a squat hip-roofed station similar to other stations on the line. A control tower on the trackside roof was added later.[4]
In 1958, the station building was purchased from the B&M at a cost of $35,000 .[5] It was converted for use as a gift shop by 1962.[6] By 1977, it was subdivided for use as offices, a restaurant, and retail space.
The depot was later modified during the 20th century and scarcely resembles the original. The trackside doors and windows have been boarded over, replaced by a mural painted in the early 1980s. Large side wings have been added, and the building converted for retail use. The circa-1907 express office is present just to the west and also in retail use; a freight house east of the station was demolished in 1991.