Charliemta wrote:"East Somerville" is the only name that makes sense for the new station, now that "Brickbottom" is out. To name it Washington Street would confuse a lot of people.
Maybe it was on ArchBoston.org that this was explained, but Brickbottom isn't out.
It went like this:
1) Early on, as they were exploring whether the line would branch (or be a single line tunneled from Union Sq under Prospect Hill), there were a lot of closely-spaced alternative stations depending on whether the line was Lowell-only, Union-Sq+Tunnel-to-Gilman, or branched between Fitchburg & Lowell (as was eventually chosen), and also the stations got nudged here and there depending on where the storage/maintenance yard would go.
2) There was originally a Brickbottom proposed that was too close to the Brickbottom lofts (closer to Lechmere) (and the storage yard was at Washington St back then) while in other scenarios, there was a Washington St that might have been as as close to Union as a Lowell-only alternative route would permit.
3) About the same time they settled on a branched configuration (with a terminus "in" Union Sq), Brickbottom "Lofts" location was rejected, it got combined/moved to Washington St and was called Washington/Brickbottom. This was then shortened to Washington as much to say "it serves Brickbottom, but it is at Washington St so the artists in their lofts can chill out" and as much just to save 50% on keystrokes.
So you can do all the engineering for a stop called "Washington" and (being engineers) not care what it is named (but do care that it has to deal directly with the Washington St bridges). They're fully capable of calling it anything they like, and Brickbottom hasn't been ruled out, and I think will be the people's choice some time (any time) before the new signs and maps go to the sign-makers.