Gov't Center Station Rebuild

F-Line to Dudley said:
...they're now every goddamn streetlight in the town of Lexington.
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Having grown up in a town adjacent to Eagleton, er, um, I mean Lexington, I clearly remember that town having "ye olde quainte" incandescent streetlights well into the Nineties (if not later).
 
F-Line to Dudley said:
They probably are not standard fluorescents, but induction lamps like this:

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The tube is filled with similar inert gases and phosphor coating that give off fluorescent glow, but there are no wires or starter mechanisms whatsoever inside the tube. Those metal or plastic rings around the tube excite the gas wirelessly with radio waves. They last 10 years, same as LEDs' rated lifespan, and can come in long-tube form as well as circular. Electrodes are what cause standard fluorescent tubes and CFL's to buzz and flicker, cause them to go dim or glitchy when they fail, and eventually crap out altogether. Eliminate the electrode, eliminate the limit on lifespan and all the unreliabilities that cause them to malfunction.

The T uses these all over the system for retrofits of existing fixtures and some types of new installations. They're preferable to LED's in some situations where very high-intensity light has to be spread in uniform direction from a single source (like those standard bell-shaped fixtures in lots of stations), something LED's are not always ideal at doing because they're dot matrix arrays on a silicon wafer shining strictly unidirectionally instead of all over. And unlike LED's they use standard replaceable bulbs; on an LED fixture the custom wafers may be hard-wired into the fixture and non-replaceable, or only replaceable for as long as the fixture manufacturer cares to keep that particular custom wafer in-stock. So when they do fail, induction is just a 2-minute bulb swap while some LED fixtures have to be wholesale-replaced for lack of any repair options.

It's not so simplistic like "if it isn't LED it's wasting energy". LED's aren't perfect for every type of light profile; induction lamps are sort of the default #2 choice now for the LEED-certification lighting toolbox. The T uses them as significant minority of its lighting retrofits. Porter headhouse, for example, first got them on its bell-shaped fixtures almost 6 years ago.

,,,, Maybe you should save the WHARRGARBL about the great Light Bulb Union conspiracy stealing your tax dollars for your own Board of Selectmen who let it happen right under your nose. :rolleyes:
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F-Line -- a very informative and good post!! -- up to the point that you channelled daDonald

We'll have to have a definitive look to see what is really there when the place opens for business -- I was assuming that the person who made the post saw something like the long tubes in a standard Shoplight

You were spot-on about the electrodes in a standard fluorescent except for the key point that the reason that you have 4 pins on the standard long tube is that across the pins at each end is a filament which provides the start-up electrons

The reason that I made the mention about the "Repair Union" was that one of the guys with max-overtime in the past couple of years was a bulb replacer

PS -- There are actually a couple of old Tungsten Filament bulbs on some street lamps within an easy walk of my house, as well as quite a number of various vintage gas discharge lamps with their associated strange spectral effects -- Lexington doesn't replace lamp systems until the pole needs to be replaced or some major catastrophic event occurs
 
I went on a tour of the station two weeks ago. Like I said originally, they are all fluorescents. I'm no expert, but I know lighting fixtures enough to be able to tell.
 
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Opening today at 12:30, right? I'm embarrassed to be as excited as I am...
 
I will be there at 11:45.

My BL driver this morning didn't even announce that it was reopening today, just the normal "GC is closed" message. I tweeted at the T encouraging them to tell their drivers to promote it. They responded that they'll "look into it."
 
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There was an announcement on the OL this morning.
 
The station agent at Newton Highlands was reminding inbound Green Line drivers as they arrived (at NH) that Govt Center would be opened today, but not for the morning commute. The driver did then announce it that way when we approached our end of trip at Park. He seemed uncertain about exact time, so he said "still closed for the morning commute but open for the evening commute" which works fine.
 
It officially re-opened!

Grand Re-Opening For Government Center T Station

Hooray for much improved travel between Logan/Eastie/Revere/Winthrop/Chelsea and Fenway/Allston/Brighton/Brookline/Newton!

New, let's get that elusive Red Line-Blue Line Connector built, so one can reasonably travel between Logan/Eastie/Revere/Winthrop/Chelsea and Cambridge/Somerville/Arlington/Belmont/Watertown
 
Just walked by a few minutes ago and BFD had a couple of trucks there and they were walking out? Don't know if it was part of the opening ceremony or if they had a call.
 
nice set of pics, datadyne, thanks for posting.

The station looks good online. Going out of my way this evening (OK, only by about five minutes) to check it out.
 
Nice pics.. love the last two and the intersecting planes of metal, glass, with City Hall.

How long until the first broken ticket gate, or spilled Dunkin Donuts on that nice shiny floor. :D
 
Just transferred from the Blue on my way in from the airport.
Certainly, the nice terrazzo floor and the 1000% improvement in lighting are highpoints and the headhouse and surface station are very nice. But I have to say I am underwhelmed with the space--still feels very '70s, very cramped, and the finishes are still builder grade. Not sure what I was expecting--I was hoping two years would permit a more thorough gutting, but I guess there just aren't many options.
In any case, it was super nice to have the Blue-Green transfer back!
 
Tombstoner said:
Just transferred from the Blue on my way in from the airport.
Certainly, the nice terrazzo floor and the 1000% improvement in lighting are highpoints and the headhouse and surface station are very nice. But I have to say I am underwhelmed with the space--still feels very '70s, very cramped, and the finishes are still builder grade. Not sure what I was expecting--I was hoping two years would permit a more thorough gutting, but I guess there just aren't many options.
In any case, it was super nice to have the Blue-Green transfer back!
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The terrazzo with the metallic pieces is really beautiful. My only criticism is that it is SO WHITE. I have no idea why they didn't paint the columns on the GL level green and the BL level blue. Very odd.

Also, I'm glad you guys are enjoying the pix!
 
datadyne007 said:
The terrazzo with the metallic pieces is really beautiful. My only criticism is that it is SO WHITE. I have no idea why they didn't paint the columns on the GL level green and the BL level blue. Very odd.

Also, I'm glad you guys are enjoying the pix!
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Eh, I've always found that unprofessional in the stations where they have it (Hynes, Arlington, etc). The white columns are a (probably unintentional) throwback to the 19th Century, when even the tunnel between stations was painted white.

Edit: Thanks for the pictures :)
 
I've posted this on twitter and FB and got a ton of replies. I thought you guys would like to see this also (and probably have comments for it too!)

In case anyone didn't notice, there's little misting devices along the inbound Green Line Track near the end of the platform toward park street. This helps with the squealing that used to occur on this track.

They turn on just before the train enters and turn off shortly after the train leaves. It greatly helps with the noise in the station. No more deafening squealing sound.

Of course, as cool as they are (and they are very cool), I hope for the best and hope they are well maintained....o O (but this is the T we're talking about, sadly) O o . ...

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