F-Line to Dudley
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This stretch was traditionally heavy industrial up until that literal last 2 residential blocks before Medford St., so there were no prior E-W street connections between Wellington and Medford St. The Wellington-Malden Ctr. ROW was grade separated sometime in the 19th century before all that residential density along Pearl St. and Middlesex Ave. was ever infilled from farmland. So the only missing interconnection here compelled by demand is that ped connection on the Medford side of the city line from Middlesex and the numbered streets to de-isolate Fellsway & Middlesex from the brick wall imposed by Wellington Circle. It's just a matter of sitting in wait for the Medford Branch abandonment, then building a very simple footbridge from trail's end over the lone RR track (i.e. the to-be-upgraded CR passing track) that sits atop the Wellington tunnel cover-over, dropping down at River's Edge Dr. with a new sidewalk added the full length of the southbound side of the road.
Pan Am isn't in any great hurry to abandon the freight spur, because they've had on-again/off-again negotiations the last 4 years with the Budweiser distributorship on Riverside Ave. for new freight business at their siding. Negotiations at an impasse because Bud wants large-size boxcars and the Western Route doesn't have clearances to send those north from Somerville, requiring a money-losing separate southbound freight job out of Lawrence for just a couple measly cars at a time. Parties have re-hit that impasse so many times that's likely as far as it'll ever go, but until Bud officially throws in the towel on further negotiation Pan Am isn't going to file the abandonment paperwork just yet. The cold storage warehouse next door to Bud still advertises rail service, but they're the ones who haven't ordered any cars in 6 years and are well past any expiration date where they can have their contract terminated for disuse. In all likelihood the spur will be there for the town to take in 3-5 years.
West-side embankment's always been there by Medford St. ever since the 19th c. grade separation, so the 1940's plan for an Edgeworth station at that location would've done exactly the same construction work on exactly the same side. Thankfully the industrial abutters on Pearl south of the Medford St. overpass are easier to negotiate with than the residential abutters who start north of the overpass. But it is what it is: a lot of retaining wall work to serve up the space, and no such options to widen out on the more constrained Commercial St. side because that CR passing track is a non-optional upgrade for Haverhill/Reading frequencies. Final verdict on viability of this infill is going to come down to itemizing the embankment costs vs. station costs, ballparking the tolerable minimums for the station cost vs. the set costs for the embankment, and seeing if that can fit inside a $60M-or-less threshold for the whole package. I'm sort of doubtful because that much embankment work does carry a pretty stiff set cost. But this bid for an infill sooner rather than later ain't totally over if they can drill further into the numbers, produce that detailed itemization of embankment vs. station, and wring any meaningful savings on the station portion to pare down the total cost. We'll see. Depends on if this study firm has the qualifications to dig that deep into exacting numbers.
I do think it is going to need some additional supervision and monitoring during the week, as well as closer coordination with the T personnel. And perhaps some work on our traffic cone placement. I would also appreciate any feedback that you may have to offer, so that we can get the best possible picture of how this test is working out. Thank you, and have a great day!
