The historic train station in Bourne will undergo a change. Here's what to expect.

Paul Gately
·3 min read

BUZZARDS BAY – The state is investing $775,000 to rehabilitate the 1912 Spanish-style train station complex at the foot of the Cape Cod Canal railroad bridge.

Scaffolding has been attached to the station and the interlocking signal tower, but the headquarters of the tri-town Cape Cod Canal Region Chamber of Commerce and its tourist information office remains open to the public.

Greenwood Roof Services of Milford is replacing both the station and inter-locking tower roofs under a contract with the Massachusetts Department of Transportation Rail and Transit Division. Rot will be eliminated, and both structures will be repainted white. Acrylic Spanish-style clay tiles will be used for the roofs.

The Cape Cod Canal Region Chamber of Commerce visitor center in Buzzards Bay is about to undergo a makeover, with state funding. The old railroad station building houses the chamber's business office and also the visitor center, which will remain open during the renovations. Work should be completed by mid-May, a chamber official said.
The Cape Cod Canal Region Chamber of Commerce visitor center in Buzzards Bay is about to undergo a makeover, with state funding. The old railroad station building houses the chamber's business office and also the visitor center, which will remain open during the renovations. Work should be completed by mid-May, a chamber official said.

“The roof has been a long-standing problem, causing leakage inside the building,” Chamber President Marie Oliva said. “The chamber is encouraged that the work will be completed by end of May. The original tiles have seriously degraded and cracked over the years.”

Former Bourne Historical Society President Jack MacDonald had wondered in early March if the project should have been subject of a town demolition-delay hearing.

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Both structures with their southwest architecture, however, are state-owned.

“On top of that, everything’s going to be done to historical specifications,” Bourne Select Board Chair Peter Meier said on March 10. State Rep. David Vieira, R-Falmouth, secured the funding to upgrade the buildings, Meier said.

Marie Oliva, president and CEO of the Cape Cod Canal Region Chamber of Commerce. Photo provided.
Marie Oliva, president and CEO of the Cape Cod Canal Region Chamber of Commerce. Photo provided.

Oliva, meanwhile, said during construction project equipment will be in the chamber parking lot, along with staging around the building. A canopy provides access to building offices. Parking, she said, “will remain accessible but limited.”

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The train station complex has multiple uses, and is a village landmark.

The distinctive complex at first glance seems to be an architectural outlier. The station also serves as a summer CapeFlyer passenger train service stop.

State investment in the station may be a precursor to a return of commuter rail service, even as the Bourne Planning Board tries to determine if the town officially remains a “neighboring” Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority community.

The station has also been a village landmark for a century, competing with the gothic canal rail span, which provides a picturesque backdrop.

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The rail stop is next to the Buzzards Bay Park that for decades served as a dusty train-engine switching yard. The complex was built when railroad tracks ran along the north side of the river that would be merged into canal construction operations; with tracks ultimately moved to the south side, parallel to what is now Sandwich Road.

The history of the train station dates to the 1840s.

Originally known as Cohasset Narrows, the station was built as part of the Cape Cod Branch Railroad in 1848. Its name was changed to Buzzards Bay in 1879 by the Old Colony Railroad, which had acquired the line in 1872 with a merger of the Cape Cod Railroad, according to town archival materials.

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The present building was constructed by the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad. The complex was a stop for Amtrak’s Cape Codder, which ran from 1986 to 1996 on the New York-to-Cape Cod route. The station was also a stop for the Cape Cod and Hyannis Railroad, from 1984 to1988.

In 1988, the state refurbished the station and added an accessible platform in preparation for never-realized commuter rail service. The last passenger train departed Buzzards Bay’s west end for Boston in the early 1960s.

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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: With state money, Canal Region Chamber headquarters will get new roof