Madison (Shore Line East station)

Madison

The rebuilt Madison station at its opening on July 28, 2008
Location 79 Bradley Road
Madison, Connecticut
Coordinates 41°17′01″N 72°35′58″W / 41.2836°N 72.5995°W / 41.2836; -72.5995Coordinates: 41°17′01″N 72°35′58″W / 41.2836°N 72.5995°W / 41.2836; -72.5995
Owned by CDOT
Line(s)
  Shore Line East
Platforms 1 side platform
Tracks 2
Connections Estuary Transit District
Construction
Disabled access Yes
History
Opened 1852 (NH&NL)
May 29, 1990 (SLE)
Rebuilt July 28, 2008[1]
Electrified 25,000V (AC) overhead catenary
Services
Preceding station   ConnDOT   Following station
toward Stamford
Shore Line East
toward New London

Madison is a passenger rail station along the Shore Line East commuter rail line, which runs on the Northeast Corridor between New Haven and New London. Madison station consists of a mid-sized parking lot and one high-level side platform on the southbound side of the tracks.

Madison is a commuter-only station; Amtrak's Acela Express and Northeast Regional services run through the station without stopping. Madison is served by about 11 Shore Line East trains in each direction on weekdays and 5 in each direction on weekends.

History

New Haven Railroad

The 1852-built station as depicted on an 1881 map. Note the cross-shaped NYP&B emblem

The New Haven & New London Railroad was charted in 1848, began construction in 1850, and opened for service in July 1852.[2] A station was located off Wall Street just north of downtown Madison.[3] The line was owned by the New York, Providence and Boston Railroad (the "Stonington Road") from 1858 to 1862, and by the Shore Line Railway from 1864 until it was acquired by the New York, New Haven, and Hartford Railroad (the "New Haven") in 1870.[2] The New Haven continued local service along the route, including the stop at Madison, for nearly another century. Commuter service east of New Haven ceased on January 1, 1969, after the New Haven merged into Penn Central.

The 1852 depot was replaced by a newer station between 1900 and 1910, but it remained extant until it was declared structurally unsound around 2000. The Madison Senior Center, which had been a possible reuse of the station, was rebuilt on Old Route 79 as an exact replica.[4] The early 20th century depot was built slightly west of the Wall Street location, off Bradley Road. It is still in place, although the canopy was removed in the late 1990s during electrification work, and an expansion in 2005 modified its shape.[4]

Shore Line East

The single platform at Madison in June 2013

Prior to the establishment of the Shore Line East system, Madison was a stop for Amtrak's Beacon Hill trains,[5] On July 28, 2008, a new station with a high-level side platform and commuter shelter area opened for service a short distance to the West of the previous station.[6][1]

A second platform and three-story parking garage are planned to allow the station, which is less than half a mile from I-95 and US-1, to serve as a park-and-ride station. The second platform is mandated by a 2003 agreement between ConnDOT and Amtrak.[7] A Record of Decision for the project was released in 2009.[1] By 2012 it was to go out to bid in 2013, but this was indefinitely delayed as platform construction at busier Branford and Guilford and electrification work for future M8 service were prioritized instead.[8]

Transit connections

References

  1. 1 2 3 "RECORD OF DECISION Prepared in accordance with the Connecticut Environmental Policy Act: Madison Shore Line East Railroad Station" (PDF). Connecticut Department of Transportation. March 2009. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
  2. 1 2 Karr, Ronald Dale (1995). The Rail Lines of Southern New England. Branch Line Press. pp. 94–96. ISBN 0942147022.
  3. ↑ S.I. (1850). "Madison, Conn. (Petersen Collection)". UConn Libraries. Retrieved 9 October 2012.
  4. 1 2 Roy, John H. Jr. (2007). A Field Guide to Southern New England Railroad Depots and Freight Houses. Branch Line Press. pp. 62–63, 199. ISBN 9780942147087.
  5. ↑ "1979 The Beacon Hill". www.rrpicturearchives.net. Retrieved 2016-01-21.
  6. ↑ "Shore Line East/What's New". 2008-10-01. Archived from the original on October 1, 2008. Retrieved 2016-01-21.
  7. ↑ "Expanding Rail Service" (PDF). Connecticut Department of Transportation. 1 January 2007. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
  8. ↑ Mazzacane, Steven M. (31 July 2012). "New Ethics Complaint Filed Against Meyer; Meyer Fires Back". Branford Seven. Retrieved 13 March 2016.
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Madison (Shore Line East station).
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 4/28/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.