Green Line Extension Lechmere to Medford

[madcrow]

I have my doubts about whether the Green Line will ever make it to these stations they're designing. I also wonder why they're designing such fancy stations to begin with. Surely simple platforms, with concrete ramps for ADA purposes and an enclosed booth for ticket machines would be more cost effective.

[F-line to Dudley via Park]

I have my doubts about whether the Green Line will ever make it to these stations they're designing. I also wonder why they're designing such fancy stations to begin with. Surely simple platforms, with concrete ramps for ADA purposes and an enclosed booth for ticket machines would be more cost effective.

It's paid for to College Ave. and stations are all final-designed, so it will happen. Well past point of no return on any fiscal recourse for backing out, so it's a 'safe' project.


The billion-dollar question is, of course, whether it'll happen within 8 years of projected finish date.

[Arlington]

I have my doubts about whether the Green Line will ever make it to these stations they're designing. I also wonder why they're designing such fancy stations to begin with. Surely simple platforms, with concrete ramps for ADA purposes and an enclosed booth for ticket machines would be more cost effective.

The design is a bit of gold plating and a lot of future proofing.

Original concept had bees "D-Branch" simplicity (but ADA-compliant.

Somerville's density and car-free or car-lite households meant that when they crunched the numbers, they got Heavy/strong ridership projections favored 3-car ops and all-door boarding, and a future of 4 car ops.

Beacause proof-of-payment was "not invented here" all door boarding meant fare gates and unpaid/paid areas, which lead to headhouses, which led to elevators and escalators, and you are looking at an extra $200m worth of headhouses.

The real takeaway is that we could have gotten more transit at lower cost and sooner if people could just see how wasteful fare gates are. There is areason why most new light rail (even in the USA) relies on Proof of payment (all the savings on stations and ops, and frankly equal-or-better fare compliance vs the T), but we were blind to that and are locked in to paying the price. It will get built as you see it in those designs.

[ceo]

Proof-of-payment or no, using ramps for accessibility doesn't meet current standards. You try getting up a 25'-vertical ramp in a manual wheelchair.

And I'm glad they're spending the money to build nice stations rather than the cheapest thing possible.

[The EGE]

The MBTA, fortunately, has moved away from the ugly stacked ramps that litter Canton and the outer Worcester Line. The rebuilt and new Fairmount stations have ramps, but other than Fairmount itself (also accessible without the ramps) they're less steep and not as ugly. Littleton has a fairly flat ramp, South Acton has elevators, and Boston Landing appears to have elevators on at least one end too.

[NH2060]

Somerville's density and car-free or car-lite households meant that when they crunched the numbers, they got Heavy/strong ridership projections favored 3-car ops and all-door boarding, and a future of 4 car ops.

Heck during some travel periods 3-4 cars are already warranted when even 2 are not enough. And there are only a handful of 3 car trains on the GL as it is.

[BandA]

Somerville's density and car-free or car-lite households meant that when they crunched the numbers, they got Heavy/strong ridership projections favored 3-car ops and all-door boarding, and a future of 4 car ops.

Heck during some travel periods 3-4 cars are already warranted when even 2 are not enough. And there are only a handful of 3 car trains on the GL as it is.

Should have been an Orange Line branch instead of Green Line. Then you could run many car trains.

[Arlington]

And there are only a handful of 3 car trains on the GL as it is.

..and given that all the other GL yards are beyond full, the need for a big yard to hold all the additional cars to support 3- and 4-car ops SYSTEMWIDE was, of course, the other big expense item. (swag it at another $200m easy).

[Bramdeisroberts]

Somerville's density and car-free or car-lite households meant that when they crunched the numbers, they got Heavy/strong ridership projections favored 3-car ops and all-door boarding, and a future of 4 car ops.

Heck during some travel periods 3-4 cars are already warranted when even 2 are not enough. And there are only a handful of 3 car trains on the GL as it is.

Should have been an Orange Line branch instead of Green Line. Then you could run many car trains.

The Orange line unfortunately carries some demographic implications (think the idiotic anxiety over the Red Line bringing crime to Arlington that killed the extension in the 70's) that the Green Line doesn't.

Look at all the furor that the GLX drummed up in West Medford, and imagine how much worse it would have been with anxiety over all those "scary people" from Ruggles and Jackson Square coming to Route 16.

One major advantage of these Taj Mahal stations with big platforms and prepay, at least to me, is that they'll make a transition to Rapid transit that much earlier in the future.

[ceo]

I'd not have been nearly as happy about the extension if it was the Orange Line. I live a block from the corridor and the Orange Line trains are hellishly loud. I think they're louder than the commuter rail and they're definitely louder than the Downeaster.

[Disney Guy]

I don't foresee any need to make the GLX part of the Orange Line. There are plenty of GL trains coming from the various branches to the west, and additional trains can be run as directed from Brattle Loop (Government Center).

[rethcir]

MassDOT posted some pretty good pics of the current construction here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/massdot/s ... 388240699/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Arlington]

Please write a personal email to the Boston MPO in support of their having budgeted $158m to further extend the Green Line to Route 16. This is fairly politically daring, as that money represents 17% of a "Highway" funds account. Full details of the 2016 - 2020 plan.

Submit an email comment to: [email protected]
The deadline for comments is July 24, so write today.

Suggested text is roughly:

Boston Region Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO)
c/o Central Transportation Planning Staff (CTPS)
State Transportation Building
10 Park Plaza, Suite 2150
Boston, MA 02116-3968

Dear Boston Region MPO:

I am writing to comment on the Draft Transportation Improvement Program and Air Quality Conformity Determination: Federal Fiscal Years 2016-20. I strongly support extending the Green Line all the way to Route 16, so I am grateful to see that the Boston Region MPO has continued to program funding for Green Line Extension Project (Phase II), Medford Hillside (College Avenue) to Mystic Valley Parkway/Route 16 as TIP ID # 1569

The Route 16 Station will serve Medford Hillside, West Medford, West Somerville, and East Arlington. The Route 16 Station will provide thousands of residents with better access to jobs, to education, and to health care. Thank you for your continued support. You certainly have mine.

[Arlington]

Thanks to all who wrote the MPO (you all wrote them, didn't you? )

The MPO has "programmed" the Green Line to go all the way to Route 16/MVP, using discretionary federal dollars

The facebook page call it all "Federal Funds," but folks should be clear that the 1.4b for GLX to College Ave and Union Square is coming as a "real" Federal Transit Administration Full Funding Grant Agreement, but, by contrast, going to Route 16/MVP is $126m from other federal funds that local MPOs can allocate (listed in the above-linked docs as CMAQ (the same fund that Maine uses to fund the Downeaster) and the STP (Surface Transportation Program))to pay for what had been slotted in the TIP database as a $190m project. (I can imagine that they either snuck some costs into the College Ave terminus funding, or that they've saved $32m by not having to take 196 and/or 200 Boston Ave)

For those in the know, how "real" does this make the GLX to Route 16? It obviously is better than being left out of the MPO's programs but does it mean it will actually advance? If the money is there, can it get done by 2020? Does allocating $126m of fed $ (and $32m local) mean the price has "come down" to $158 since it was estimated in the TIP database at $190m?

When we last left the GLX to Route 16/MVP in June 2010, it was at 30% design, and they'd figured out how to gently arc the tracks so as both to support a center platform (which ended up wedge-shaped) and at the same time to not have to take Tuft's Cummings-managed admin/office/biotech buildings at 196 and 200 Boston Ave (but it still assumed taking the U-Haul site).

[BandA]

GLX has a 50% cost overrun. But if they cancel they might have to give back $1B in federal financing. This is the first test for Baker's financial control board.
Green Line extension $1B over budget, in danger of cancellation
http://www.bostonherald.com/news_opinio ... ncellation

Other cost hikes are tied to the procurement process the state took, which allowed it to pick a contractor before the company priced the project. The approach, which DePaola said the feds encouraged the state to take, allows the project to do design and construction at the same time, saving time.

But it also exposed the state to potential cost increases. In this case the contractor of the project, WSK, submitted its cost estimate at roughly $890 million — or $500 million above the initial estimate for that phase. The sides are now at the negotiating table, state officials said.

Can't trust the State of Massachusetts to build anything!!!!