Ayer (Massachusetts)

**Ayer Station** is an MBTA Commuter Rail stop in downtown Ayer, just south of Main Street (Routes 2A/111) and next to the Ayer Main Street Historic District. The two-track Fitchburg Route runs east–west through the station, with two side platforms serving the Fitchburg Line in both directions. What makes Ayer worth watching is freight. South of the station a wye joins the Fitchburg Route to the former Pan Am Worcester Branch, and a quarter mile further south lies **Hill Yard** — built by Pan Am Railways and operated by CSX since its 2022 acquisition — handling manifest, local and intermodal traffic. The **Ayer Intermodal Facility** there covers roughly 52 acres and was designed for 75,000 truckload equivalent units a year, with room to grow to 175,000. It connects to the 2,000-mile ex-Pan Am network across New England, New York and Atlantic Canada, with interchanges to fifteen railroads; both CSX and Norfolk Southern serve it. Ayer has been a railway crossroads since the Fitchburg Railroad opened through South Groton in 1845, joined by the Stony Brook, Worcester and Nashua, and Peterborough and Shirley railroads in 1848. A union station with a trainshed followed the same year, and the boom that came with it led the town to incorporate separately in 1871. By 1900 five Boston and Maine lines served Ayer. Passenger service on all but the Fitchburg main line ended between 1931 and 1961; the MBTA took over the commuter service, and after a closure between 1975 and 1980 the station has run ever since. The camera is hosted by The Cottage Restaurant on Main Street.