Green Line Extension Lechmere to Medford

Ugh, why can't they extend out to West Medford, that would make a lot of sense due to the population/popularity... Too bad they can't extend the line up Mystic Valley Park Way to Arlington Center... All us Arlington people could take Greenline to the Ball Game, only changing trains once, if at all, and not have to take some Bus-Red Line-Greenline Combination...

Guilford Guy wrote:Ugh, why can't they extend out to West Medford, that would make a lot of sense due to the population/popularity... Too bad they can't extend the line up Mystic Valley Park Way to Arlington Center... All us Arlington people could take Greenline to the Ball Game, only changing trains once, if at all, and not have to take some Bus-Red Line-Greenline Combination...

Why can't they extend the line up Mystic Valley Park Way?

As for space, there's a few stations that are built over the tracks. JFK, Ruggles, Back Bay, Forest Hills, Quincy (forgot which Quincy stop)... Or what about an elevated Green Line, with parking right under the elevated line?

As I recall, there was talk of extending the Red Line from Alewife up to Arlington in the 80s. It didn't happen because there was concern that it would make it easier for "undesirables" to get to Arlington; (you know how snotty NIMBYs are) they wanted a sort of "transit barrier" against them. Anyhow, it didn't happen, and now
it probably won't any time soon; although I have to say running the Green Line up the Mystic Valley parkway over to (next to ) the Minuteman bike trail would certainly make a lot of sense.

Veristek wrote:As for space, there's a few stations that are built over the tracks. JFK, Ruggles, Back Bay, Forest Hills, Quincy (forgot which Quincy stop)... Or what about an elevated Green Line, with parking right under the elevated line?

NIMBYs would go positively apoplectic at the first utterance of the words "elevated rail". To them, the word suggests something the likes of which BERy would have built 90 years ago - and they would be unlikely to believe that construction technology has progressed since.

Sadly, the MBTA's "Screw you guys! We're doing it anyway!" card is only played when it is going to do something really, really dumb. (Silver Line Phase III, illegal Arborway abandonment, etc). Other projects get delayed, and compromised into oblivion - usually at great cost. ("We don't want Greenbush stations in our downtown areas!...Wait! those new commuter rail stations aren't anywhere near our downtown shopping districts! DAMN YOU MBTA!!!!")

trainhq wrote:As I recall, there was talk of extending the Red Line from Alewife up to Arlington in the 80s. It didn't happen because there was concern that it would make it easier for "undesirables" to get to Arlington; (you know how snotty NIMBYs are) they wanted a sort of "transit barrier" against them. Anyhow, it didn't happen, and now
it probably won't any time soon; although I have to say running the Green Line up the Mystic Valley parkway over to (next to ) the Minuteman bike trail would certainly make a lot of sense.

Yeah, There would be far more traffic from Arlington then the current Route 16 station, and the trains are relatively slow, which might sit better with the NIMBY's than heavy rail.

I wouldn't get your hopes up, Arlington. The way the political wind is blowing, there is a much greater chance that the tracks don't even reach Medford than there is that it crosses Rt. 16. Everyone please review the Current Materials section at www.greenlineextension.org for an idea of the planning process.

Hopefully, the rise in gas prices will have the effect of making people rethink their NIMBYism, and consider that $60 a month is better than $60 2x a week with all of the other hidden costs of driving.

Oh, who am I kidding.

Arborway wrote:Hopefully, the rise in gas prices will have the effect of making people rethink their NIMBYism, and consider that $60 a month is better than $60 2x a week with all of the other hidden costs of driving.

Oh, who am I kidding.

I'm gonna have the last laugh when people whine and moan when gas prices hit $5 or even $10 per gallon, especially at the rate China + India are industrializing and sucking up more gas year by year... Then watch as people demand "More MBTA, please!!!!" and I can go "You should have asked for MBTA years ago. Construction does not happen overnight." By the time all these MBTA extensions are built, gas will hit $20 per gallon or something.

Public Transit does seem to be the transportation of the future, at least for now... Seriously though, Arlington needs a bit more than buses and a Subway terminal on the Cambridge border...

Love that Brickbottom's getting a station. That's where Grand Junction is, and also the track junctions on the Lowell line that connect to BET. This station will be your junction point for the Union branch, the Urban Ring if that ever gets built from Sullivan along the Grand Junction, and it could offer multiple-routing options from the subway if the T does the 'DUH'-obvious thing and keep the existing rail lines on rails. Also facilitates massive amounts of TOD for the shopping center and converting the scuzzy industrial area. They obviously saw $$$ with a stop located there, and rightfully so. I don't think it's a problem at all that it's close to Lechmere...without it station spacing would've been a little over-long to Washington St. and Union.

Like the yard placement along the Innerbelt. Lots of space there to give the northside and E a more robust car fleet, and that facilitates an easy, easy future Urban Ring extension to Sullivan or Assembly Square using the old freight yard ROW...entirely on already-owned no-man's-land around BET. As soon as that thing's operational I hope there's some lobbying for a subway-Sullivan connector. I used to live in that area, and it's a big enough commuter corridor that paralleling the Orange Line to downtown isn't an issue because it'll distribute transfers better. I used to have to change at Haymarket during the GL North Station shutdown, and would've killed for a GL-only commute to work especially given the emptier northside GL vs. the sardine-can inbound OL after Wellington. Remember, until the 1950's there were TWO GL branches off North Station terminating at Sullivan in addition to the El.

Bad on eliminating College Ave. You want some sort of straight shot to Davis given how hot a destination that is. I don't care if stops are closely-spaced there...the boardings at College Ave. would be one of the largest on the line.

In case you haven't seen...

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaki ... green.html

Ron Newman wrote:I could see a station at Central Street or at Lowell Street, but not both. Lowell Street would be my preference, since the Community Path extension would meet the Green Line there. A Lowell Street station would also result in more evenly spaced stops.

Central Street is where the Somerville Junction station historically was.

The Ball Square station (actually called North Somerville) historically was just on the Medford side of the square, near the (defunct?) bowling alley.

The land around the old Junction is perfect for a station, closer towards Central Street, though....

Does anybody have pics of the Somerville Junction/Somerville Center or Ball Square stations from back in the day?

Some notes:

• Medford was dead-set against a West Medford station, and refused to support the project at all if it was included. I'm annoyed but not surprised at this; it's in keeping with the general attitude of Medford residents that they like their old, decaying neighborhoods just the way they are, thank you. (I used to live in West Medford.) Also, crossing the Mystic River was going to add a lot of expense and environmental headache to the project.
• There's been some pushback on the location of the maintenance facility from some people who'd rather see that parcel developed. I don't think there's really anywhere else reasonable to put it, though.
• The "Brickbottom" station is actually between Brickbottom and the Washington Street overpass, and as far as I can tell serves neither location all that well. I'd be happier if they put a Brickbottom station on the Union Square branch, at the Pat's Tow yard.
• Likewise, the Medford Hillside station is between College Ave and Winthrop St. The Medford folks don't like this, because they think it serves Tufts at the expense of Medford.
• The stations are all going to be center-platform, so as to fit within the ROW. I had been wondering how they would handle fare collection, but I was told by one of the project planners that the stations will probably be staffed stations with Charlie gates.
• I don't know what the plan would be for parking at the Mystic Valley station. They'll have to do something, or people will park in the Wild Oats (soon to be a Whole Foods) lot.

Does anyone know the satus? Going to get built? etc?

I feel now that gas prices are so high the people and Somerville should tell the T build this thing now, not by 2020 or whenever it says.

My post is here due to little man power

Does anyone know the satus? Going to get built? etc?

I feel now that gas prices are so high the people and Somerville should tell the T build this thing now, not by 2020 or whenever it says.