Tuesday, October 1, 2013

The final train has left the yard in Allston


All around the water tank, waitin' for a train
A thousand miles away from home, sleeping in the rain
I walked up to a brakeman, just to give him a line of talk
He said, if you've got money, I'll see that you don't walk
Well, I haven't got a nickel, not a penny, can I show
He said, "Get off you railroad bum", and he slammed the boxcar door...

-Mr. Johnny Cash



Folks…the final train has left the yard in Allston. It’s odd how this story went completely un-reported, considering that it means freight will no longer reach the city by train in any capacity what-so-ever. All the action has been moved to Worcester, which means that freight will be unloaded out west and will be trucked into the city of Boston instead. Yep – more trucks and traffic on the Pike and eventually spilling into the streets of Boston.


With absolutely zero fanfare (except, um…me and my girlfriend), here’s last train to leave the yard (Beacon Park Rail Yard to be exact), never to return…  


So how does any of this help you the average citizen of Boston? It doesn’t - and it won’t. This is about land and money. Here’s the deal; Harvard has about as much bling as the Vatican and therefore can do pretty much whatever the fuck they want. If Harvard wants to kick all the trains out of Allston – something like $200 million should do the trick. Unfortunately, we can’t blame the government or some shady state representative for this deal because the land was owned by CSX, fair and square. 





















Before this area was a train yard it was home to the Riverside Trotting Park, drawing crowds of 10,000-12,000 on race days. This park was also used by Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show whenever it came to Boston right up until the early 1890’s when the land was sold to the Railroad.



How long this slice of land will sit dormant is anybody’s guess. Harvard already has plans drawn up for the space (that they keep changing), but they have a history of delaying projects if their gabillion dollar endowment fluctuates by half a percent.  Either way, this new 91 acre neighborhood is most likely going to be named “Allston Landing South” when Harvard gets around to developing it. 


 The grand finale...

3 comments:

  1. Great pics and analysis, except ... Mr. Jimmie Rodgers.

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  2. There will still be freight trains in the Boston area, but there aren't nearly as many freight customers in that area as there used to be, so a major sorting yard, although nice and convenient, is only worth what it gains after taxes for the railroad.

    The story I heard was that at some point the land was sold to the city of Boston, and that it was leased to the railroad. The city sold the land to Harvard and Harvard was going to kick the railroad out, but the federal government said otherwise because CSX said they needed it and that removing it would interfere with interstate commerce.

    If you ever saw one of those trains going along the pike, they were hundreds of cars long and often would have two containers per car. The hundreds of trailers and containers on each train as well as all the bulk (one boxcar=2.5 truckloads) goods and materials will now be stuck in the same insane traffic as the rest of us.

    For a university that charges so much for an education, it seems they really didn't give this whole thing a lot of thought.

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  3. Isn't there a CSX freight yard in Readville?

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