[Bother. This reply sat nearly finished in an overlooked tab for over a day.]
The cynic in me always gets a pleasant little surprise when I see the flying junction north of Lechmere. Given how it seems like all transit projects go through a ruthless cost-cutting process these days, I would've figured that someone would say, "Hmm, it's only supposed to be two branches, they can make do with a flat junction." But the better decision ultimately won out.
Our grandchildren will be applauding that decision a century from now.
You know, I somehow always thought that D-Union/E-Medford was the plan all along. And for exactly this reason, too. (
Back in January I walked through some of my thinking about branch assignment. Though I didn't spell out explicitly that the D should go to Union and E to Medford, I think it's the logical conclusion from the points I laid out.) In any case, I'm glad this is what we're landing on. It's not without its drawbacks, but it's the least bad alternative. And I think we are likely to see more than a few underadvertised run-as-directed's that come in from Lechmere and loop at Government Center.
This isn't a problem limited to GLX. Sometimes the inconsistency even crops up between maps and station signs -- consider
Green Street, which nevertheless is
signed simply as "Green". Or
"Park St" on maps but
"Park Street" spelled out on station signs, which obviously is a bit more understandable as a space-saving measure on maps, but still inconsistent. And then the station announcements on the train itself are often another layer of inconsistency altogether.
In general, I believe stations should be named consistently with local nomenclature; a station name should not feel "unnatural" to neighborhood residents.
I will admit that I personally prefer shorter, punchier station names, lacking suffixes like "Street" or "Square" -- it should be "Harvard station", not "Harvard Square station". Frankly this is in part because the "Square" ≠ the station. Beyond the occasional physical distance (Magoun, I'm looking at you), there's also the matter that the station is underground usually -- even if the lat/long is identical to the square above, it's still a distinct place.
