I've often wondered when the local passenger train service to Boylston, Jamaica Plain (Green street), and Forest Hills ended. I've read somewhere that ridership had fallen off significantly by the end of World War I. I was under the assumption that my father used the Forest Hills station in my early childhood (vague memories of watching for the train from our back porch on Spalding street), but I suspected that the former two stations had been mothballed quite a bit earlier. Now I know - and I mis-remembered my father's 1960-era commute.
Daily Boston Globe July 30, 1940
Three Suburban B.& P. Stations to Close Sept. 30
Request to Abandon Boylston-St., Forest Hills, Jamaica Plain Approved
Abandonment of the Boylston st., Jamaica Plain and Forest Hills stations on the Boston and Providence stations of the Boston & Providence Railroad, effective Sept. 30, was approved yesterday by the State Department of Public Utilities at the request of the New Haven Railroad trustees, who operate the road.
The action follows a recent hearing conducted by the department, which found that the stations were not sufficiently patronized to justify operation. The three stations were among those closed July 17, 1938, by order of the United States District Court, and subsequently re-opened under order of the State Department last February.
"We are aware of the destructive possibilities of enforced continuation of passenger train stops where passengers have made little use of them or are adequately served by other means of transportation," said the commissioners, "and are strongly of the opinion that in the problem of determining the question of abandonment of passenger stations which are not well patronized consideration must be given to those stations made use of by the very substantial number of passengers to the end that the large pubic convenience may be served and requirements met."
The commissioners pointed out that other means of transportation were "reasonably available."
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