Worcester Business Journal

8 Worcester Business Journal | April 20, 2026 | wbjournal.com Research Bureau. Two major rail upgrades have the potential to further improve the usefulness of the line, with a planned Allston project requiring a careful approach to navigate the disruption the project will bring to commuters traveling by both car and rail. Transit-oriented housing More than 2,600 housing units have been built within a half-mile radius of Commuter Rail stations in Central Massachusetts over the past 10 years, with at least 1,000 more units planned, according to real estate data firm CoStar. e vast majority of those built or planned units are in Worcester (1,927) and Framingham (980). ese include Cirrus, a 398-unit apartment completed in Ashland in 2017, and the 370-unit complex now known as Aria on the Row in Worcester completed in 2024, among more than 20 other projects. "Between around 2016 and 2019, there were construction cranes all around Framingham, and a huge number of units were added to down- town Framingham within walking distance of their station," Matthews said. "ere's transit interconnections there, and huge housing growth, and we're seeing it here in Worcester, too." A 2022 meta-analysis by London School of Economics researchers found residential property values in- crease by a few percentage points for every 250 meters closer to a passenger rail station. In addition to encouraging housing production, the existence of the Com- muter Rail can attract employers as well, particularly as improvements are made to service, said Rick McKenna, executive director at the Framingham Economic Development Corp. "If you want to be a small economic hub, you have to become a transpor- tation hub first, and right now, we're waiting for more work to be done on the Commuter Rail, because that would make things a lot easier for companies to come into MetroWest," McKenna said. Improving the line e line's future importance will depend on continued investment, Matthews said. "ere's several indicators that there's tremendously untapped prom- ise for the line, should service contin- ue to improve and the infrastructure investments be made," Matthews said. "It will only become more important, and it will be another critical econom- ic lifeblood, not only for Worcester and the communities along the line, but for the Commonwealth itself." e most pressing improvement is the Allston Multimodal Trans- portation Project. is $1.9-billion effort will replace the aging viaduct supporting Massachusetts Turnpike traffic into Boston, freeing up space for development and the new West Station Commuter Rail hub. e project would be the largest infrastructure project in Massachu- setts since the Big Dig, but has faced a nebulous timeline and uncertain funding, with the latest blow being the President President Donald Trump Administration's rescinding of $327 million of funding in July. Despite the uncertainty, the aging viaduct will need to be replaced at some point. WRRB is encouraging Central Massachusetts leaders to work together to lobby for improved and more frequent service on the line before the Allston project begins, and to ensure the project has a minimal impact on the region's riders. With MassPike traffic being im- pacted by the Allston project as well, Matthews sees this as an opportunity to increase Commuter Rail ridership. "Even just shiing 2% of people from car to rail will mean another 2,500 riders a day on Commuter Rail," he said. e Allston project is tied to a long-standing expectation in Worces- ter that improvements to Commuter With MBTA ridership rebounding, planned improvements are needed to keep pace with housing and business growth Economic ENGINE BY ERIC CASEY WBJ Managing Editor O n a typical weekday, thousands of Central Massachusetts residents board Commuter Rail trains bound for Bos- ton, connecting a lower-cost housing market with one of the state's high- est-paying job centers. at flow has helped make the MBTA's Worcester/Framingham Line a key driver of housing development and economic activity across the region. As ridership rebounds and construction clusters near stations, questions remain about whether the rail system will deliver the level of service tied to that growth. Central Massachusetts stations recorded just under 7,000 average weekday boardings in fall 2024, according to MBTA data. About 42 trains pass through the Natick Center station every weekday. e ridership figure approach- es pre-COVID levels and reflects the line's role in linking workers in Worcester County, where the aver- age weekly wage is $1,373, to Suffolk County jobs, where the average is $2,386, according to 2025 data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. "It's huge economic impact for the communities with direct access," said Paul Matthews, executive director and CEO of the Worcester Regional Commuter Rail, a joint project WBJ collaborated with the nonprofit Worcester Regional Research Bureau on this story about the economic impacts of the MBTA Commuter Rail in Central Massachusetts. Visit wrrb.org to read the full WRRB report "The Promises of the Worcester/Framingham Line." With $45 million in upgrades to Worcester's Union Station now complete, Central Massachusetts policymakers are looking toward future improvements to the Worcester/Framingham line.

• Cover