Green Line Extension to Medford & Union Sq

Here the track alignment/grooming equipment waits at Medford/Tufts, waiting for the call to go in to the new/moved section and clean it up.
IMG_20200111_124823287_HDR.jpg
 
George_Apley said:
But it won't though, simply because Magoun Square already exists. The idea of where "the square" is won't move to be centered around the station. It will be where its always been and the station will be on the periphery. The area around the station is just housing. Lowell Street between Highland and Medford St is a currently a drag strip, though it will likely be traffic calmed by the city when the station opens. The station will much more be for residents going elsewhere and coming home than serving the square itself. The square itself sits between the Lowell Street station and the Ball Square station (which is actually adjacent to the square it's named for).

IMO a station shouldn't be named after a square unless it a) opens up into the commercial square itself, or b) has redevelopment opportunities to connect it to the existing square.
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George -- Basically the name of a station is just a convenience so that someone coming or going can use a map, ap or the T's website tool to route themselves to / from -- it need connote no specific historic reference -- as many things change over varying timescales.

I don't buy for more than a second the idea that the T Station imparts to some geographic name some cache which leads to successful or not development.

Certainly in today's world of GPS and geographic phone aps -- geographic coordinates for the Station would work, as would simple alphanumeric codes -- just as long as the identifier was unique. The descriptor / ID needn't even be in any simple way connected to anything other than the T Station map.

In a battlefield setting -- maps are often issued with scrambled coordinates to fool the enemy -- yet they can work well -- just as long as everyone is using the Thursday June 8 1944 Map for Normandy, or the Star Date 288879 Map for the Large Magellanic Cloud.

Note that the above needs to be qualified by the observation that there are names which are so "Massive" and Persistent that the nearby station has to be given a name consistent with the Local Landmark. For example Harvard, MIT, BU, Northeastern, MFA, Museum of Science, Airport, North, South, Backbay Stations, JFK/UMass Boston, Courthouse, Mass General, Tufts -- but there aren't too many more
 
In favor of calling it Magoun Sq: the somewhat optical-illusion view up Lowell St from the future station site is very clear, and makes Magoun look nearby. That Lowell ends at Medford St also makes a nicely-framed sense of "that must be the Square" (even if, very strictly speaking, the view is 1 block east of the 5-point intersection that is the historical square)
 
This is the first I've seen these stated [semi*] officially:
1) When Lechmere (re)opens in April 2021, Union Sq will open along with it.
2) It will be the E Branch

(note that that effectively says that Medford/Tufts is the thing whose opening is left to bounce around September to December 2021)

https://www.facebook.com/mbtaglx/posts/10156580265456681

* User HelloBostonHi warns (below) that the Facebook page is run by the CWG (Community Working Group) and so is less official than it appeared to me.
 
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Arlington said:
This is the first I've seen these stated officially:
1) When Lechmere (re)opens in April 2021, Union Sq will open along with it.
2) It will be the E Branch

(note that that effectively says that Medford/Tufts is the thing whose opening is left to bounce around September to December 2021)

https://www.facebook.com/mbtaglx/posts/10156580265456681
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Arlington -- that is actually very good

  • Union Sq. is a totally novel rapid transit experience waiting to happen -- and like Assembly -- Union Sq is a huge potential development area for both in(s) and out(s)
  • Tufts has been connected by the Red Line through Davis for a generation now
  • the rest of the stops along the GLX to Tufts are just stops to pick up riders not likely to see much major development anytime soon
 
Arlington said:
This is the first I've seen these stated officially:
1) When Lechmere (re)opens in April 2021, Union Sq will open along with it.
2) It will be the E Branch

(note that that effectively says that Medford/Tufts is the thing whose opening is left to bounce around September to December 2021)

https://www.facebook.com/mbtaglx/posts/10156580265456681
Click to expand...

I haven't been around long enough to witness the last Lechmere bustitution, but that seems like a brutal trip for anyone connecting from downtown to a lechmere-hub bus. Especially with all the street congestion in the west end area. I'd think going red-to-kendall or central then hopping on a bus makes for quite a bit more reasonable trip time.

Better yet, could they just run the 69/80/87 busses to stop at lechmere, then terminate at kendall square afterwards?
 
This is a case where a temporary bus lane between lechmere and North Station would be the appropriate way to replace the lost rail capacity.

My concern is that we are dealing with the same MassDOT that thought turning i-93 HOV lane into an express lane was the appropriate response to the Tobin Bridge work.
 
Arlington said:
This is the first I've seen these stated officially:
1) When Lechmere (re)opens in April 2021, Union Sq will open along with it.
2) It will be the E Branch

(note that that effectively says that Medford/Tufts is the thing whose opening is left to bounce around September to December 2021)

https://www.facebook.com/mbtaglx/posts/10156580265456681
Click to expand...
It's worth noting this Facebook page is community run, not by the GLX team, MBTA or MassDOT. It's a member of the CWG who posts on it so it's fairly reliable but taken with a grain of salt. A large one.
 
sneijder said:
I haven't been around long enough to witness the last Lechmere bustitution, but that seems like a brutal trip for anyone connecting from downtown to a lechmere-hub bus. Especially with all the street congestion in the west end area. I'd think going red-to-kendall or central then hopping on a bus makes for quite a bit more reasonable trip time.

Better yet, could they just run the 69/80/87 busses to stop at lechmere, then terminate at kendall square afterwards?
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Bus lane, or if that doesn't pan out, honestly walking to Science Park/North Station may be faster than a shuttle.
 
stefal said:
Bus lane, or if that doesn't pan out, honestly walking to Science Park/North Station may be faster than a shuttle.
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My understanding is that Science Park will be closed as well, and may not even have direct bustitution service.
 
Riverside said:
My understanding is that Science Park will be closed as well, and may not even have direct bustitution service.
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That would make sense. Turning around at North Station would be far easier
 
Science Park will close too (they are upgrading the viaduct for heavier trains during the closure)
 
Riverside said:
My understanding is that Science Park will be closed as well, and may not even have direct bustitution service.
Click to expand...
I'm willing to bet that there will be bus service to Science Park as in addition to the Museum of Science, the development on the other side of the McGrath Highway starts opposite to the MOS
 
whighlander said:
I'm willing to bet that there will be bus service to Science Park as in addition to the Museum of Science, the development on the other side of the McGrath Highway starts opposite to the MOS
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That's how it worked during the '04 shutdown for connecting the new North Station to the Lechmere Viaduct. It was done smoothly enough that the long-duration inconvenience wasn't too bad. Bustitution will probably follow very similar template from 16 years ago.
 
F-Line to Dudley said:
That's how it worked during the '04 shutdown for connecting the new North Station to the Lechmere Viaduct. It was done smoothly enough that the long-duration inconvenience wasn't too bad. Bustitution will probably follow very similar template from 16 years ago.
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F-Line --- I would agree that from the standpoint of the MOS it would seem to follow the template --

However, there has been one major change to the Street due to the new bicycle-lanes and reduction in auto/bus travel lanes -- so there will probably be some different locations for the actual Bus stops

Note that there has yet to be any official MOS statements to its Staff and Volunteers

There is an all-hands meeting scheduled when the new Pres. Tim takes over in early Feb which might address this as well as other MOS development-related topics
 
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