Announcing Boston RailFest 2023: Saturday 4/22/23 and Sunday 4/23/23 (with optional trip on Friday and/or Monday)
Boston RailFest (BRF) 2023 will take place over a weekend in April. This will be our group's first return to the Boston area since our OTOL New England RailFest 2013 event. We were supposed to have done a different version of this Fest in 2020, but the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic forced its postponement. Since then, some new features have gone into service such as the Green Line Extension (GLX) and regular service to Foxboro. This also will be our first city-oriented RailFest (as compared to the strictly Amtrak meets we had the past few years) since our Toronto and Denver visits in 2019.
For BRF 2023, the main event will be over the weekend named above. However, since the Foxboro branch of the Franklin/Foxboro Line is not in service on weekends, we will have to ride it on a weekday. An alternate itinerary shows possibilities to ride this either on Friday afternoon 4/21 or Monday morning 4/24. I plan to be in town for both, so if we are not in agreement on which would be better, then we can do both days in smaller groups.
One goal is to ride the entire Amtrak Downeaster to Brunswick, ME and back. While we are no strangers to the Downeaster, previous Fests have taken us only as far as Wells or Portland. Another goal of this event is to ride MBTA's Fitchburg Line to its current endpoint at Wachusett (before late 2016 it only ran to the namesake city). We also added a re-ride of the relatively short MBTA Fairmount Line, whose infrastructure has seen much improvement in recent years. On the transit side of things, we will use it to travel between South and North Stations, as well as riding the 2 branches of the recently opened Green Line Extension.
By previous discussion, the Downeaster trip will be achieved by travelling midday up to Brunswick (with a 2-1/2 layover there), returning one stop to Freeport where we can stay overnight in a hotel fairly close to the station. Then we will return to Boston by taking an early morning train so we can resume our activities there. MBTA rides will be on Saturday morning and Sunday afternoon, aside from the aforementioned trip(s) to Foxboro.
In our 23 year history of having these events, this is the first one happening in April. I did not have time availability during the month of March. The weather and the longer daylight should be favorable to us.
A homepage has been created to provide links to more information pertinent to this RailFest. Once we get some positive interest, a participant list will be created.
For those who will be with us for multiple days, hotels will be needed in Boston on Friday night 4/21 and Sunday night 4/23, and in Freeport on Saturday night 4/22. Hilton Garden Inn is the hotel in Freeport closest to the station; and there are others you would need a taxi or rideshare to get to along US 1 about a mile south of there. Be mindful that our train back to Boston leaves at 7:23 AM, so it may be beneficial to be close to the station.
Boston Rails To Rooms page for hotels near train stations
Amtrak trains:
- Train #693 departing Boston and arriving Brunswick on Saturday 4/22
- Train #698 departing Brunswick and arriving Freeport on Saturday 4/22
- Train #692 departing Freeport and arriving Boston on Sunday 4/23
Plus any other trains needed for your trips between your home station and Boston.
Usually our participants do not necessarily remain with the group from start to finish. Folks might leave us early or join us in progress. If you don't wish to travel all the way to Maine for instance, you might still come along for the Boston activities.
As we get closer to the event, other helpful documents will become available, such as fare information and our participant list. You can start to send me e-mail with your planned participation dates.
Looking forward to resuming what we had in the old days of riding transit and commuter lines in a major city area, as well as our Amtrak journey to Maine!
