Gardner (MBTA station)

GARDNER
Abandoned platform at Gardner in May 2013
Location	Main Street, Gardner, MA
Coordinates	42°34′03″N 71°59′05″W / 42.5675°N 71.9848°W / 42.5675; -71.9848Coordinates: 42°34′03″N 71°59′05″W / 42.5675°N 71.9848°W / 42.5675; -71.9848
Line(s)	Fitchburg Line
Platforms	1 island platform (1980s station)
Tracks	7 (shared with freight; only 2 tracks served the platform)
Connections	MART: Gardner Route 1, Gardner Route 2, G-Link Gardner-Orange, G-Link Gardner-Winchendon, MWCC Commuter Rail/Intercity
History
Opened	1851 (original); January 13, 1980 (later)
Closed	1960 (original); December 31, 1986 (later)
Traffic
Passengers (1983)	24 daily
Services
Preceding station   MBTA   Following station Terminus Fitchburg Line Fitchburg toward North Station

Gardner is a former station stop on the MBTA Commuter Rail Fitchburg Line, located in Gardner, Massachusetts. Passenger service to Union Station ran from 1851 until 1960, and commuter service also briefly ran from 1980 to 1986. Restoration of passenger service was considered in the early 2000s, but was rejected due to low cost-effectiveness.

Gardner gained train service on the Fitchburg Railroad (via the Vermont & Massachusetts) in 1851. Located at the intersection of the Fitchburg Railroad with the Boston, Barre and Gardner Railroad (which began service to Worcester in 1871), Gardner once had a large union station which was angled to serve both lines. The Fitchburg bought the BB&G in 1885, and was itself bought by the Boston and Maine Railroad in 1900. The "Biggest Chair", a 12-foot-tall chair made by a local company, was placed in the station lawn around 1910. Passenger service to Worcester ended in March 1953, and service to Boston ended in 1960 when the B&M discontinued all trains west of Fitchburg, ending more than a century of rail service. Union Station was demolished soon after.

On December 27, 1976, the MBTA bought the Boston and Maine Railroad's northside commuter rail assets, including the entire length of the Fitchburg Line. The closure of the Lexington Branch the next month represented the limit of the contraction of the northside lines; as a results of the 1970s energy crisis and especially the 1979 energy crisis, a period of rapid expansion began in the end of the 1970s. On January 13, 1980, the MBTA extended commuter service on the Fitchburg Line from South Acton, with two round trips extended as far as Gardner. Trains did not stop at the former Union Station site, but instead at a narrow asphalt platform in the freight yard just to the west off Main Street. Service to Gardner ended seven years later on January 1, 1987, due to a dispute between the MBTA, Amtrak (who ran the trains), and Guilford Transportation (who owned the tracks between Fitchburg and Gardner). The MBTA contracted with Wilson Bus Lines to run Gardner-Fitchburg connecting service until June 1993, when the Montachusett Regional Transit Authority took over the route as a local service.