Framingham–Worcester Line
West Natick station
This is the temporary pedestrian bridge over the tracks which was erected after an improperly secured load struck and severely damaged the Boden Lane vehicular bridge, just east of West Natick station. A residential neighborhood just north of the tracks was cut off from the station and nearby commercial establishments when the bridge was declared unsafe. Before being demolished, the vehicular bridge was weight-limited and one-way southbound.
Natick Center station
The line runs in an open trench through Natick Center. The new station will include full high platforms, elevators, and a connection to the Cochituate Rail Trail; it will be the first station along the line to be constructed with room for a third track since the old express tracks were lifted decades ago (although the third track won't be built; space will merely be reserved for it in the station footprint).
Natick Center station
On the north side of the station, a temporary stair leads down to the old platform. Construction staging for this project will have passengers accessing new high platforms at the east end of the station for about a year so the old platforms can be demolished and the trackbed widened.
Natick Center station
The pedestrian bridge at top will be replaced as a part of the station reconstruction project. Beyond the vehicular bridge at center, the former Cochituate Branch diverges to the right (before the small grey building); when the Rail Trail is finished, it will connect directly to the new station.
Wellesley Square station
All of the parking at commuter-rail stations in Wellesley is town-owned. Here at Wellesley Square, the spaces are metered and limited to four hours per day — apparently there's another lot adjacent to the northern platform, in a part of the business district I had no idea even existed. This is a nice, dense, walkable part of down and really deserves better than this.
Wellesley Farms station
Hmmm, I sense a theme here: more oceans of parking. As with the other stations in Wellesley, this is a town-owned lot — but unlike the other stations, this one serves a wooded, low-density single-family residential neighborhood, so nearly all station access is going to be park-and-ride.
Wellesley Farms station
Like the other Wellesley stations, this one is also totally inaccessible. Notice how the center trackway fencing extends all the way to the end of the platform; getting from the parking lot to the opposite platform involves walking all the way to the east end of this platform, climbing stairs up to Glen Road, crossing an overpass, and then back down again. A pedestrian grade crossing at the station was closed in 2004 for safety reasons.
West Newton station
The station in West Newton is little different from Auburndale, except that the stairs are outboard of the overpasses rather than facing the platforms. These stations are still irretrievably awful with traffic rushing by on the Turnpike — hopefully the rebuild of these stations can add some noise walls.