Here's a brief write-up and photo gallery of the ribbon cutting ceremony today as well as a station tour. All descriptions are
ABOVE the photos.
Getting off the orange line at Assembly, I saw that MBTA GM Beverly Scott was also on the train, a few cars back. She got off with a bunch of MBTA management.
While they were upstairs greeting people, I decided to take a few photos of the station. The station doesn't appear anywhere near finished. I suspect that they rushed to open it because
someone may be up for reelection.
Here's one of the new station signs. These are in the middle of the platform. The entire station is a center platform.
The new orange line map. Only this station has this new map, last updated July 2014. None of the other stations or the orange line cars have Assembly as a stop on their maps.
Some background history on the area
I looked over and saw a train arriving, so I snapped this shot. This is a southbound train. I am looking northward here.
There are two buildings, one north, one south. The southern exit/entrance building is not open yet. I am looking southward here.
Looking at the exit into the building, there's some exposed sheetrock at the top. This exposed sheetrock is also seen at the bench shelters on the platform.
Looking southward down the length of the northbound platform, there's an eerie lack of station signs, just empty sign holders where the signs should be.
Looking northward at the end of the northbound platform. There is a railfan cupola that's part of the lobby. I will show you the view from that later.
A northbound train arrives at the signless station. There is still a speed restriction programmed in the ATO, so all trains arrive at a crawl.
Heading up the stairs, here's a view of the sleek new charlie gates.