Geospatial data about Worcester County, Massachusetts Railroads. Export to CAD, GIS, PDF, CSV and access via API.

In the 1800s, the spread of railroads enabled the growth and spread of the United States. Although slow by today’s standards, trains traveled more quickly than other forms of transportation available at the time. By train, it took roughly four days to reach San Francisco from Omaha, Nebraska. By contrast, it had taken covered wagons four to six months, and stagecoaches around a month. In addition to travel, railroads facilitated trade and economic growth. Prior to railroads, people relied on a system of roads and canals for transportation of goods and crops. But this system could be unreliable depending on road conditions, the weather, and many other factors. Trains brought products made in the factories of the East and Midwest to the rest of the country and carried farm produce and livestock to urban markets. The first railroad charter was granted to John Stevens in 1815, and several railroads were in service by 1830. Early rail development was haphazard, financed by individual investors and built without government oversight. Rail gauges, or the distance between rails, could be different depending on the company. This caused a lot of problems for connecting railroads, because only trains designed for that gauge could use those sections of track. Despite miles of track being built, people were generally still skeptical about the usefulness of railroads. In 1843, the Western Railroad of Massachusetts proved to Americans that trains could transport crops and other goods long distances at low costs. By 1861, there were 35,400 kilometers (22,000 miles) of track in the North and only 15,300 kilometers (9,500 miles) in the South. Troops and supplies could be transported quickly using trains. Many battles, like the Battle of Bull Run, were fought over control of Southern railway depots, and tracks were used to move both Confederate and Union soldiers to battles. After the Civil War, railway construction increased significantly. In 1862, Congress passed the Pacific Railway Act with the goal of building a transcontinental railroad. The first, built by the Central Pacific Railroad Company in the West and the Union Pacific in the Midwest, was completed in 1869. Following roughly the route previously taken by the Pony Express and the California Trail, the route was called the Overland Route. Construction was dangerous, as rail crews had to cross mountains, rivers, and other difficult terrain. For this work, the Central Pacific and Union Pacific relied mainly on immigrant labor, recruiting Chinese immigrants in the West and Irish immigrants in the Midwest. Formerly enslaved people and Mormons were also part of these crews. Between 10,000 and 15,000 Chinese workers completed an estimated 90 percent of work on the Central Pacific’s portion of track, facing racism, violence, and discrimination. Chinese workers were often paid less than white workers and were given the most undesirable and dangerous jobs. The Overland Route was one of the first land-grant railroads. To fund construction of such a long and expensive project, the U.S. government gave railroad companies millions of acres of land that they could sell for profit. Following this model, many more railroads were built, including four additional transcontinental railroads. These new railroads took southern and northern routes across the country. In addition to connecting existing cities on the West Coast to the rest of the country, the railroads also influenced where people settled. Trains made multiple stops to refuel, make repairs, and take on more food and water. In return, towns grew around these stops. More than 7,000 cities and towns west of the Missouri River started as Union Pacific depots and water stops. In 1890, the U.S. Bureau of the Census announced that the “Frontier was closed.” The railroads had played a large role in that milestone. This dataset was researched and built by Dr. Jeremy Atack, Professor Emeritus and Research Professor of Economics at Vanderbilt University. His procedure and sources, as well as downloadable files, are documented here.

Railroad tracks in Easton, Massachusetts. Compiled from 2017 vector mapping project conducted by WSP. The aerial photographic mission was carried out on April 12, 2017. The vector data was collected at scale of 1"= 40'.

This arc data layer contains the rail network covering the Commonwealth of Massachusetts by owner. This layer identifies rail types (active versus abandoned), rail operations (passenger versus freight), passenger rail use (commuter rail versus AMTRAK versus rapid transit), rail yards, and rail spurs/ sidings. Rail mileage can be calculated for center-line mileage or rail mileage.ProductionThe location of the tracks were digitized from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts1:5000 color orthophoto imagery.StatusThis data is current as of December, 2014.Table 1 - Type1Active rail service2Multiple use i.e. active and recreation3Abandoned rail service4Abandoned rail service ROW in public ownership5Unknown status6Out of service7Right-of-way (ROW) used for hiking and biking8Other ROW (once used for trolleys, or never built or used for rail)9MBTA Rapid Transit

When using apps or web maps from MassGIS in ArcGIS Online, this map may be added as a basemap from the Basemap Gallery (based on the MassGIS Basemap tile layer).This general-reference map for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts uses MassGIS data and includes a topographic base featuring water bodies, rivers and streams, open space areas and hillshade; many "detailed features" including roads, points of interest, place names, and more; and 2D building structure outlines. The three "layers" in this map are also cached separately and may be added to maps individually as needed:Building Structures (2D)Detailed FeaturesTopographic Base>> See a map legend and read more about this map. The tile layer in this basemap is refreshed regularly.

Provide the arrival time information for up to the next four trains of the Airport Express, Tung Chung Line, Tuen Ma Line, Tseung Kwan O Line, East Rail Line, South Island Line, Tsuen Wan Line, Island Line, Kwun Tong Line and Disneyland Resort Line. Please refer to the data dictionary for more information about the content.

The data defines the locations of the various types of zoning districts as described in the Town's Zoning by-Laws, as approved at Special Town Meeting 2024.Where any uncertainty exists with respect to the boundary of any district as shown on the Zoning Map, the following rules apply:1. Where a boundary is indicated as a street, railroad, watercourse or other body of water, it shall be construed to be the centerline or middle thereof, or where such boundary approximates a town boundary, then to the limits of the town boundary.2. Where a boundary is indicated as following approximately or parallel to a street, railroad, watercourse, or other body of water, it shall be construed to be parallel thereto and at such distance there from as dimensioned on the Zoning Map. If no dimension is given, such distance shall be determined by use of the scale shown on the Zoning Map.3. Where a dimensioned boundary coincides within ten (10) feet or less with a lot line, the boundary established by records as of March 1973 shall be construed to be the lot line.4. Where a boundary is indicated as intersecting the centerline of a street, railroad, watercourse or other water body, it shall be construed to intersect at right angles to said centerline, or in the case of a curved centerline, at right angle to the tangent to the curve at the point of intersection.5. Whenever any dispute arises on district boundaries as to the exact location of a district boundary line, the location of such line shall be determined by the Planning and Zoning Board.