Gov't Center Closure 2014 Discussion

Just a few thoughts on all of this.

As a new resident of Eastie (and there are lots of us, with many more to come with all the new buildings along the harbor front), we rely on the Bowdin station to reach
stores like the Whole Foods at Charles River Plaza, and other services along Cambridge Street. Bowdin needs to remain open during all operating hours, and a group of us have already
approached our Councilmen's office about this.

As for the opening of Govt Center on March 26th, that is good news, provided it opens with the start of service that day, and no delays due to a ceremonial ribbon cutting.

Ken

If I am not mistaken,
Assembly had a soft opening. I believe it actually opened the day before?

Assembly opened with start of service, with the actual ceremony in the afternoon. I suspect GC will be similar.

The EGE wrote:Assembly opened with start of service, with the actual ceremony in the afternoon.

Thank you, I knew it was something like that.

Since it's opening on a Saturday, I'll probably head downtown to see it when it opens. I'm excited to see the changes.

Re: Bowdoin post-GC reopening

For the past two years, the T’s Bowdoin station in Beacon Hill has remained open at night and on weekends while the nearby Government Center stop underwent extensive renovations.

Those extended hours at Bowdoin, the final stop on the Blue Line, will become permanent when Government Centerreopens in March, said the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority’s general manager, Frank DePaola.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massa ... urn false;

"Permanent" means different things to governmental agencies and quasi-governmental agencies than it does to you and me.

The Bowdoin hours dates back to 1982, when there were some really wacky budget things going on. Bowdoin, Chinatown, and Boylston were all briefly closed (Bowdoin for a whole year), the Orange Line north of Wellington was bustituted on Sundays, and a lot of nonsensical commuter rail cuts were made. Other than the Brigham Circle weekend cut to the E (which lasted all of two months), the T hasn't tried anything silly like that for a while, and I doubt they'll try here.

I rode through GC today. It looks to be about 95% done. There are two sets of escalators, one set where the original ones were, and a new set facing the wall where the pass office used to be. Looks like you'd be able to get off an inbound train and go right up the escalator without having to walk to the middle of the station.

Station signs with the new pathfinding signage (similar to the ones at Assembly) were propped up against the wall awaiting installation.

Three hi-rail trucks were sitting on the brattle loop.

Besides the second set of escalators (and the presumed elevator that I didn't see) the layout of the rest of the station doesn't seem to have been changed much, but the face lift makes it look amazingly clean (for now)

Someone posted on Reddit last night that they had snuck into the construction site.

https://imgur.com/a/7D430" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

According to the MBTA group that runs the countdown signs, live data, etc. the opening is set for a very specific time:

Developer at MBTA wrote:... Government Center station will be opened for passenger service on March 21st, at approximately 11:45 AM. ...

https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/massdotdevelopers/Buh2cjOYY48

StefanW wrote:the opening is set for a very specific time

That's just the ribbon cutting, I'd expect it to be open at the start of service. They did the same thing with Assembly Sq.

I took a short video yesterday of the Blue Line portion of Government Center. It looks spiffed up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kit1JIGt6uA" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This has been addressed numerous times; it is only an emergency egress.

I was on the blue line in mid-afternoon on Sunday, 13-MAR-16. The announcement over the train's P.A. was that the opening of Government Center had been advanced to Monday, March 21st.

I have no reason to doubt this, but I thought the MBTA usually opened new lines/stations on Saturdays so that any bugs would be fixed by the Monday rush hours.

I rode through this area on both the blue and green lines. There are several signs that say, "SCOLLAY", but there is no context as to what 'SCOLLAY" means. I only know because I'm over 60. Is Charlie's wife going to be there every day at quarter past two?