The platforms at the Plymouth MBTA commuter rail station offer a spectacular water view, access to a rail trail, and parking.
One thing they do not offer: trains.
The adjacent Cordage Park development’s website still touts “an MBTA station, providing direct access to Boston, conveniently on-site.”
But the two college campuses and offices and restaurants of the Cordage development and the 303 Harborwalk apartments are still T-less, more than two-and-a-half years after it closed.
“The reason it was all built was because of the train station,” State Rep. Matthew Muratore, R-Plymouth, said of the large apartment complex.
Service at the station began in 1997, Lisa Battiston, a spokesperson for the MBTA, said, with the restoration of the long dormant Old Colony commuter rail line.
A schedule from 2007 shows that four trains operated in each direction between Plymouth and Boston’s South Station on weekdays. None ran during rush hour. On weekends, three trains operated daily.
The station was one of 6 commuter rail stations to close in April 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, and has remained closed since.
Muratore said that until then, he and other members of the Plymouth delegation in the state Legislature had pressed to keep the station open, even though its limited schedule yielded about a dozen passengers per train. The North Plymouth location and limited parking didn’t help.
“So when COVID came and they decided to shut it, we were all very concerned about that,” Muratore said. “Once you close a station, it’s a lot harder to open it back up. We really need to get that station opened with a better schedule because of all the growth that’s not just in that area, but the town of Plymouth itself.”
Currently, the end of the line is in Kingston, less than three miles away, a station with easy access to Route 3 and plenty of parking spaces.
“It doesn’t bother me,” Lisa Golz said as she got off the 5:33 p.m. train from Boston before heading to her car for the short drive home to Court Street in Plymouth. Besides, she said, given the scarcity of trains to Plymouth when they did run, she still had to drive to Kingston because of her schedule.
“There were no times for commuters,” she said of the pre-pandemic service.
Passenger Victoria J., who declined to give her full last name, had to order an Uber from the Kingston station to meet a friend who had just moved to Cordage Park. “I don’t get to walk to her apartment,” she said.
Muratore said MBTA management has assured the Plymouth delegation that it will meet with them over the next few months to discuss the status of the Plymouth station.
Battiston said the meeting is in the process of being scheduled.
Fred Thys can be reached at fred@plymouthindependent.org.