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For the first time ever, MBTA commuter rail trains will start carrying passengers on South Coast Rail this Monday.
The first train is scheduled to leave New Bedford Station at 4:27 a.m., stopping at Church Street Station at 4:33 a.m. and arriving at Boston’s South Station at 6:01 a.m.
Later on Monday morning, state and local officials will board special trains from New Bedford and Fall River, meeting in East Taunton for a kickoff celebration at 10 a.m. Lt. Gov. Kim Driscoll will board in New Bedford with Mayor Jon Mitchell, while Gov. Maura Healey and MBTA General Manager Phil Eng will depart from Fall River.
Fares will be free for South Coast riders every day through the end of March, then every weekend through the end of April. Parking at South Coast stations will be free every day through the end of April.
Now, New Bedford will have a rail connection to Boston for the first time since 1958, when the New Haven Railroad closed the South Coast train route it had run for a century.
The city has waited decades for this MBTA extension to open. Roughly half of New Bedford’s population is too young to remember a time before officials started promising commuter rail service for the region in the early 1990s.
The project had many stops and starts as officials gathered funding and deliberated over possible routes.
The most recent groundbreaking took place in 2019, after the state settled on a plan to connect South Coast cities to the existing Middleborough/Lakeville line, dodging a more difficult and expensive option to build tracks through the Hockomock Swamp toward the Stoughton line. That more direct route is still planned as “phase two” of the project, to be completed in the 2030s.
Even after construction began, the project faced more delays. Its schedule was in limbo as recently as last spring, after the MBTA scrapped opening dates scheduled for late 2023 and summer 2024.
The MBTA then targeted May 2025 as its launch date. But it finished safety testing ahead of schedule, and in February announced that the project was sprinting toward a March 24 launch. Local officials scrambled to make arrangements for public transit and parking.
Starting on March 24, the Middleboro/Lakeville commuter rail line will be renamed the Fall River/New Bedford line. New Bedford has two new stations — one near downtown, and another on Church Street in the North End. New stations are also opening in Fall River, Freetown, and Middleborough on Monday.
On Thursday, the MBTA announced that fares will be free for passengers riding to or from South Coast stations through the end of March. This expands a promotion that includes free fares on weekends through the end of April, including the Patriots’ Day holiday on Monday, April 21. All you need to do is inform the conductor of your origin and destination.
As part of the promotion, parking is also free at South Coast stations every day through the end of April.
After the promotion ends, the standard fare for a one-way trip to South Station will be $12.25. Reduced fare will be $6 for riders who qualify. Standard monthly passes are $388, and reduced monthly passes are $190. Children aged 11 and younger don’t need a ticket. Unlimited weekend passes will be available for $10. The passes also work on some holidays.
Parking will cost $4 a day on weekdays. When the free parking promotion is over at the end of April, parking will be $2 on weekends. Overnight parking is allowed, but at New Bedford Station it will come with a multi-day rate of $15 per day.
Riders can buy tickets on the MBTA’s mTicket app, or with cash or card onboard the train. For more information, see our guide to buying tickets.
You can pay for parking at most MBTA lots using the PayByPhone app, but the lot at New Bedford Station will use a different text-to-pay system because it’s managed by the New Bedford Port Authority instead of the MBTA.
For more information on parking, see our guide on getting to the stations.
Direct rides from downtown New Bedford to Boston’s South Station will generally take 94 to 98 minutes, the schedule shows. Some trips that include a transfer will take nearly two hours.
Inbound trains will leave New Bedford Station from 4:27 a.m. to 9:23 p.m., with 14 total departing trains throughout the day. Outbound trains from South Station will have weekday departures from 6:45 a.m. to 11:59 p.m.
On weekends, inbound trains will leave New Bedford Station from 4:47 a.m. to 9:53 p.m., with seven departures throughout the day. Outbound trains will leave South Station from 6:37 a.m. to 11:59 p.m.
Some trips will require a transfer at East Taunton Station. That’s because the MBTA will run “shuttle trains” adding extra service along the two branches of the route without clogging up the rails north of Taunton. Check out our explainer on shuttle trains.
New Bedford Light reporters will ride the first trains and share updates in real time. Check our homepage throughout the day on Monday to follow our live coverage of this historic launch.
