Lexington & Boston Street Railway

The Lexington & Boston Street Railway was the electric line that came into Billerica from Bedford along Concord Road and ended at Billerica Centre, where its cars met the lines to Lowell, Woburn and East Billerica. The Lexington & Boston Street Railway Company was incorporated on May 18, 1899. Its main line ran from the Boston Elevated connection at Arlington Heights through Lexington to Bedford, and from Bedford a branch ran north on North Road and, in Billerica, on Concord Road to the Centre. The Billerica location was granted in 1899: on November 20 of that year the Board of Railroad Commissioners approved a stock issue of which $170,000 was for roadbed, tracks and overhead wires "upon locations granted to it in the city of Waltham and in the towns of Lexington, Billerica, Bedford and Arlington," and the town's accounts for 1899-1900 record a payment of $50 from the company for the expenses of a town meeting. John H. Foster of Billerica was one of its directors.

The company had asked the commissioners in 1899 for leave to cross the Boston and Maine at grade on Bedford Street in North Lexington and on the railroad's Billerica Branch "on Bedford Street in Billerica." The board refused, finding that the crossings could be avoided "without unreasonable expense," so the line was built to pass under the railroad. By July 11, 1900, when the board approved a further extension of the company into Carlisle and Chelmsford (never built), it reported that the Lexington & Boston was authorized to operate in Bedford and Billerica and "has built and is running its railway" there. In Billerica the cars ran from the Common south on Concord Road past the Riverhurst summer colony, where the company had a small station (Riverhurst Trolley Station), to the Bedford line. Passengers changed at Billerica for Lowell and at Bedford for Lexington and Arlington Heights, where Boston Elevated cars ran into Boston; the company's car barn and power house were in North Lexington, not in Billerica. In 1904 the tree warden cleared trees near the Mitchell Boys' School, where "the electric road crosses the highway to pass under the railroad," after a citizen "narrowly escaped an accident" there, and the company lent men to trim trees that interfered with its cars and wires.

On May 9, 1912, by order of the Railroad Commissioners, the Lexington & Boston was consolidated into the Middlesex & Boston Street Railway, which ran the Billerica line for the rest of its life. In 1917 the town paid 8 cents a day for each school child carried on the Middlesex & Boston, against 6 cents on the Bay State lines. Service was suspended for two weeks in October 1919, and from February 5 to April 1, 1920 both the Middlesex & Boston and the Eastern Massachusetts lines were closed, so that 485 school children had to be carried by horses. The school superintendent wrote at the end of 1923 that "the trolleys as in the past are serving the North and South sections of the town," the south being this line.

The end came soon afterward. In their report for 1923 the selectmen (Thomas F. Sheridan, Maurice A. Buck and Thomas Q. Nickerson) wrote that they had licensed the Middlesex and Boston to run motor buses, since the company "intends to discontinue its electric service from Billerica to Arlington, motor busses to be operated on the same schedule as the electric cars," adding that "at the present writing the change from electric cars to busses has not been made." The electric cars were given up in favor of buses after that, probably in 1924, and by 1930 the tracks were gone: the warrant for the annual town meeting of 1930 asked the town to gravel and tar Concord Road from Cummings Street to Charnstaffe Lane "on that part of said road formerly used for the tracks of the Middlesex and Boston Street Railway" (the article was dismissed). The Middlesex & Boston kept running buses from Billerica through Bedford, and the school department was still paying it for pupils' transportation in the late 1930s; its Bedford to Arlington Heights route survives as MBTA route 62.

Operators

• Lexington & Boston Street Railway (1900-1912)
• Middlesex & Boston Street Railway (1912-1924)

References

1. Massachusetts Board of Railroad Commissioners, annual report 1899: order of Nov. 20, 1899 approving Lexington & Boston stock for track on locations in Waltham, Lexington, Billerica, Bedford and Arlington
2. Massachusetts Board of Railroad Commissioners, annual report 1899: Lexington & Boston petition to cross the Boston & Maine at grade on Bedford Street in Billerica refused
3. Massachusetts Board of Railroad Commissioners, annual report 1900: order of July 11, 1900 on extension to Carlisle and Chelmsford, noting the line built and running in Bedford and Billerica
4. Billerica annual report 1900 (year to Feb. 28, 1900): Lexington & Boston St. R. R. pays $50 for expenses of town meeting
5. Billerica annual report 1904: tree warden on the electric road passing under the railroad below the Mitchell School, and the Lexington and Boston company trimming trees
6. Massachusetts Public Service Commission, first annual report (1913), vol. 2: Lexington & Boston Street Railway incorporated May 18, 1899; consolidated into Middlesex & Boston May 9, 1912 (Railroad Commissioners orders 8786-8787)
7. Billerica annual report 1917: school transportation by trolley at 6 cents a day on the Bay State and 8 cents on the Middlesex and Boston
8. Billerica annual report 1919: suspension of traffic on the Middlesex and Boston for two weeks in October
9. Billerica annual report 1920: Eastern Massachusetts and Middlesex & Boston street railways closed Feb. 5 to Apr. 1, 1920
10. Billerica annual report 1923: school superintendent on the trolleys serving the North and South sections of the town
11. Billerica annual report 1923: selectmen license Middlesex and Boston motor buses to replace its electric service from Billerica to Arlington
12. Billerica annual report 1930: warrant Article 40, Concord Road on the part formerly used for the tracks of the Middlesex and Boston Street Railway
13. Billerica annual report 1930: Article 40 (Concord Road on the former street railway tracks) dismissed
14. Billerica annual report 1937: school transportation payments to the Eastern Massachusetts and Middlesex & Boston street railway companies
15. Wikipedia: Middlesex and Boston Street Railway (Bedford line, transfer at Billerica for Lowell, North Lexington car barn, later bus route 62)
16. The Bedford Citizen, Trolley Cars in Bedford (2014): Bedford junction for the branch to Billerica via North Road; last rail laid in 1900