Millis Branch

MILLIS BRANCH
The former station building at Dover, as seen in 2014
Overview
Type	Commuter rail
System	Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority
Status	Abandoned
Locale	Southeastern Massachusetts
Termini	Boston South Station Millis
Stations	14
Operation
Opened	1861 (Charles River Branch Railroad)
Closed	21 April 1967
Owner	New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad
Operator(s)	New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad
Character	Surface-level
Technical
Line length	22.1 miles
Track gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm)
Route map South Station Back Bay Framingham/Worcester Line Providence/Stoughton Line, Franklin Line, and Dedham Branch Roslindale Village Bellevue Highland West Roxbury Former route to Dedham Bird's Hill Needham Junction Needham Line Charles River Dover Farm Street Medfield Framingham Secondary Clicquot Millis Medway West Medway Former route to Woonsocket and Pascoag, RI This diagram:

The Millis Branch was a branch of what is now the MBTA Commuter Rail system. Branching off the still-operating Needham Line at Needham Junction, it ran through the towns of Dover, Medfield, Millis, and Medway. Due to lack of subsidies and poor ridership, the line was cut back to Millis station in April 1966, and all service ended on April 21, 1967.

The Charles River Branch Railroad was extended from Needham Center to Woonsocket, Rhode Island in stages between 1861 and 1863 under the New York & Boston Railroad, with service operating to Boston via the Highland Branch. Initial plans to extend the line to New York City as an air-line railroad never came to pass, but a small portion of this route was built as the Woonsocket and Pascoag Railroad, opening from Woonsocket to Pascoag, Rhode Island in 1891; the latter line became functionally an extension of the Charles River Branch, with through trains from Pascoag to and from Boston, although not on schedules suitable for commuting. Ownership of the line passed through the Boston, Hartford and Erie Railroad, New York and New England Railroad, and, finally, to the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad (commonly referred to as just the "New Haven Railroad"), which consolidated essentially the entire southern and southeastern Massachusetts rail network under its umbrella. After the Needham Cutoff opened on November 4, 1906, service from Woonsocket and intermediate stops ran over the cutoff rather than via the Highland Branch.