Wellesley Square station is a commuter rail station on the MBTA Commuter Rail Framingham/Worcester Line, located just north of the MA 16-MA 135 intersection in downtown Wellesley, Massachusetts. It serves both walk-up and park-and-ride commuters, with a 224-space parking lot for the latter group. The station has low-level platforms and is not accessible.
History
The Boston & Worcester Railroad (B&W), extending outwards from Boston, reached through the West Parish of Needham in mid-1834. In 1839, the line was double tracked through the area. A station on the B&W opened at West Needham by 1850. It was renamed to Wellesley after the adjacent village in 1863, though the West Parish did not formerly separate from Needham to become Wellesley until 1881. The wood-framed building was moved half a mile to the east in 1889 (where it still stands, in use as a restaurant), when H. H. Richardson's successors Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge designed a stone Richardsonian Romanesque station for the Boston & Albany Railroad (B&A), which had taken over the B&W.
The 1889-built depot was demolished around 1962 to make room for a post office; only bare asphalt platforms remained. Amtrak Inland Route service served it until 1975, and from 1984 to 1986. In 1977 or 1978, the station was renamed Wellesley Square to differentiate it from the other two stations in Wellesley.
In 2019, the MBTA listed Wellesley Square as a "Tier I" accessibility priority. In June 2021, the MBTA issued a $28 million design contract for a project to add a third track from Weston to Framingham, including reconstruction of the three Wellesley stations and West Natick station. The project was expected to cost around $400 million, of which rebuilding Wellesley Square station would be $31-35 million, with completion in 2030. , the MBTA plans to pilot a freestanding temporary accessible platform at Beverly Depot in late 2023. If successful, Wellesley Square would be one of the first four stations to receive a temporary platform while a full reconstruction is planned.