Green Line Extension to Medford & Union Sq

jass said:
Ay.

I remember when I thought I might get to ride it before graduating from undergrad.

in 2009.
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Same, even for the year. I had an urban development class in ‘08-‘09 or thereabouts, and we were still thinking the Urban Ring might get built in the relatively near future, like before 2020. GLX was just certainly going to be built super soon!
 
I bought a house West Medford in 2005 premised that GLX was coming (to the CR stop)in 2009 ~ 2011 (sold a condo in E. Arlington that was a .7mi walk / easy bike to Alewife )
 
I believe this is crossing the "Red Bridge' area, i.e., where the Fitchburg and Lowell lines split. A historic "crossing the Rubicon" for this project! That and seeing the Homans Building come down at Gilman Square do cement how real this all is.
 
The former connected academic+train station building at the College Ave stop has been redesigned to be standalone.
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now.tufts.edu

A New Center for Multidisciplinary Studies

Tufts has started construction on a new academic building that’s being heralded as a new gateway to the university. Joyce Cummings Center will meet academic priorities as it also leverages a new public transit station, just a footbridge away.
now.tufts.edu now.tufts.edu



(Not quite as grand as some of the original concepts...)

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I think they made the right choice, and have clearly positioned the building to capture the lucrative "night school by T" market.
 
All this reminds me that College Ave station is terribly set up for bus connections given that Boston Ave has three right there. At least with the decking you could maybe accommodate it somehow.
 
jbray said:
All this reminds me that College Ave station is terribly set up for bus connections given that Boston Ave has three right there. At least with the decking you could maybe accommodate it somehow.
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Yes: the inbound 80 & 94 & 96 will drop off on the wrong side of Boston Ave in the Morning--about as bad as the way the 94 & 96 currently drop off at Davis at the AM Inbound.

I don't think the walking across the street is as bad as the bus getting stuck station congestion (I'd push harder for a buslane than I'd push for an underpass/overpass)

Hopefully the proposed Phase II terminus at UHaul@BostonAve@MysticValleyParkway will work better (although it also will involve an awkward left turn into that station area at the AM Inbound). And it'd be nice to see routes like the 134 from Woburn terminate at the Green instead of Wellington
 
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Has the T or any related authority released any estimates for what travel times will look like to Government Center? Union Sq to GC in 10 minutes and College Ave to GC in 20 mins would be absolute gamechangers for mitigating north side auto traffic.
 
sneijder said:
Has the T or any related authority released any estimates for what travel times will look like to Government Center? Union Sq to GC in 10 minutes and College Ave to GC in 20 mins would be absolute gamechangers for mitigating north side auto traffic.
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Travel times were worked up during the DEIR with all the other traffic modeling...but only from Lechmere to the endpoints as all else inbound would've been based on existing ranges. Lechmere to College Ave. went 9.5 minutes, Lechmere to Route 16 in 12 minutes. Lechmere to Washington St. takes the longest of any station pair because of passing through that very complicated junction. Everything else is pretty much arrow-straight and running on an uncomplicated track layout, so there doesn't need to be much schedule-padding to begin with.

The reason they haven't trotted out those figures much lately is that the GLT initiative makes them obsolete, as everything would have to be re-factored for the longer and faster-boarding cars + new signal system. The precise modeling on that is still yet to come.
 
The "Red Bridge" was a six track bridge over the Fitchburg mainline for B&M freight trains. These were called the R-Tracks (R-1 being on the Brickbottom side) and connected the former Hump yard - Yard 8 and Yard 7 (East Cambridge). The line split for the Lowell and Fitchburg mainlines is down at Prison Point/Tower A. The area of the Red Bridge included Tower H, The Grand Junction Branch , mainline connections to/from the north/west end of old Boston Engine Terminal, connecting tracks towards Tower C/FX Interlocking/Sullivan Square, connecting tracks to Yard 7 and old Yard 14 (basically some of the area where the relocation Fitchburg mainline and current layover yard is). Spent a few years working at Tower H and the first interlocking job I qualified at, so forgive me if I don't share the euthiasim for crossing the "Rubicon"!
 
^ The first 4 of Beeline's photos, above, appear to me to be work on the aerial supports for the future Lechmere station--which would make these the most "station-structure" photos I've seen so far (most of the other stations are in the "still working weekends on the retaining walls" stage)
 
Arlington said:
^ The first 4 of Beeline's photos, above, appear to me to be work on the aerial supports for the future Lechmere station--which would make these the most "station-structure" photos I've seen so far (most of the other stations are in the "still working weekends on the retaining walls" stage)
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If the new Lechmere station is located parallel to the Glassworks building then the 4th photo is of the future stations foundation structure. The first 3 photos are south of the Glassworks building and are of the foundation suports for the elevated portion merging with the old elevated/viaduct. The last two photos are of the bridge over the CR tracks to the new GLX maintanice facility. Hope this helps.
 
BeeLine said:
If the new Lechmere station is located parallel to the Glassworks building then the 4th photo is of the future stations foundation structure. The first 3 photos are south of the Glassworks building and are of the foundation suports for the elevated portion merging with the old elevated/viaduct. The last two photos are of the bridge over the CR tracks to the new GLX maintanice facility. Hope this helps.
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The new [aerial/Elevated] Lechmere station will be between the Glassworks building and the old elevated viaduct, located on a slight S-curve. it is a center platform design, so any place where it looks like the tracks have split apart and are being spanned by cross-beams is pretty much station-related. That's how I read it, anyway.
 
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