Foxborough Commuter Rail Service Delayed Until Fall

FOXOBOROUGH, MA — An 11-month pilot program for commuter rail service between Gillette Stadium and Boston was supposed to begin this spring. But the project has been delayed until Fall 2019 because track renovations taking longer than expected, the MBTA announced.

Currently, the only train services offered at Gillette Stadium are during Patriots home games and major summer concerts. However, allowing the nine trips per weekday the pilot program provides requires the replacement of tracks and signals. Right now, it's not safe for a train to go more than 10 miles per hour, MBTA officials told the Boston Globe.

“This ongoing infrastructure work is necessary not only for the commuter rail pilot but also for freight service and passenger trains that serve multiple events at Gillette Stadium annually,” MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo said in a statement to the Globe.

Foxborough town officials, Kraft Group representatives, the MBTA, and MassDOT have been working on bringing full commuter rail service to Gillette Stadium for over a year. All sides came to an agreement for a pilot program at a selectmen meeting last November. The agreement addressed residents' concerns over noise, trains blocking roads, and sitting idly overnight were addressed. These problems were not with the MBTA, but resulted from the town's reported issues of CSX freight trains blocking intersections in town and making noise early in the morning.

"A number of considerations have been made by this board," Town Manager William Keegan said when the pilot program was approved, "As part of the conditions, a number of those have been addressed."