Green Line Extension to Medford & Union Sq

Jahvon09 said:
I think that the Type 9's will be taken off
the existing branches of the GL & moved over to the GLX. Those are the newest vehicles on the GL to date. :)
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Yeah in the community working group notes you see that they said all of the types of GL vehicles will run on the new line and that it won't be possible to only have the new ones on the glx.
 
ra84970 said:
Yeah in the community working group notes you see that they said all of the types of GL vehicles will run on the new line and that it won't be possible to only have the new ones on the glx.
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There are not that many of the newer ones (Type 9's). Supposed to be 24 in all.
 
So, assuming that all vehicles are pre-qualified to run on GLX, what does 6 months of track, power, & signal testing look like? Do we need to see vehicles running from Science park to USq by March for USq to open by September? Do we need vehicles running Lechmere to Medford/Tufts by June to open by December?
 
A replacement station is being rebuilt for the Lechmere stopp, along with several other stops. The tracks are not completely laid yet & the signals
Jahvon09 said:
There are not that many of the newer ones (Type 9's). Supposed to be 24 in all.
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I don't think they were all delivered yet.
 
Jahvon09 said:
A replacement station is being rebuilt for the Lechmere stop, along with several other stops. The tracks are not completely laid yet & the signals still have yet to be put in.

I don't think they were all delivered yet. The Type 9's, that is.
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Jahvon09 said:
A replacement station is being rebuilt for the Lechmere stopp, along with several other stops. The tracks are not completely laid yet & the signals



I don't think they were all delivered yet.
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All 24 are delivered as of October. 6 units are still in acceptance testing and haven't entered revenue service yet, but they are out on the road daily for testing and pop up on the New Train Tracker. They probably will make the end of this month/calendar year for graduating them all.
 
Supposedly there was a GLX virtual public meeting last night with progress report, but state has been tardy putting up any of the meeting materials or link to the Zoom replay online so not clear what the covered agenda was.
 
F-Line to Dudley said:
Supposedly there was a GLX virtual public meeting last night with progress report, but state has been tardy putting up any of the meeting materials or link to the Zoom replay online so not clear what the covered agenda was.
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Limited new technical content that would interest this board. Lots of pictures from the last few months demonstrating progress - this meeting was geared to show people who track this stuff on a 6-month window, not daily. The track ridealong gave some good visuals, so definitely fast forward to the hour mark when it goes up.

Biggest "new" info was some detailing of optional components that have been added back on, like duplicating elevators at College Ave and others, and an elevator at Ball Square with the bridge entrance re-added. There were a few repeated warnings that the track wear-in is not a short process, so seeing trains on the track is a "months" indicator not a "days."

Best new vantage point I saw was the Red Bridge photo (below) really showing the complexity of the site. Note the community path appearing to go from ground level to 5 stories, with a straight ramp on both sides. Good luck to the skateboarding kids.
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The community path bridge is one of those things you can't believe actually exists. I've never seen anything like it.
 
Watch them ban e-bike from the path because they go too fast, but you need a 500hp motor to get up that
 
I attended as well and it was a small spot of joy in 2020. Competence, efficiency, and hard work from the team to keep things on schedule, with thoughtful comments and helpful questions from elected officials and residents. A few things I was looking for (some quirky) that the meeting answered:
  • Still on schedule for 12/2021 completion of the whole project.
  • Still planning to open stations in phases to help with training operators, etc. Almost assured but not required that Union and Lechmere be the first stations to go live some time in mid-2021. Not committed to a specific date.
  • Gilman Square's two bridges (Medford St and School St) will remain closed until May. These are the last bridges to be finished, excluding the Lechmere viaduct. This is the thing that has perhaps slipped the most in the project. In the end, Medford St will have been under construction for 2 years once this thing wraps (see screenshot of the original schedule below). And now Somerville plans to permanently leave it closed to all non-emergency vehicle traffic.
  • Community path will NOT open before full completion of the rail project. In fact, my read of the answer to that question was that some sections of the path not tied to station entrances may actually lag behind the branches opening to passenger service--a close-out item they handle after delivering the big must-haves.
  • A graffiti clean-up program will commence in the spring/summer after major construction is completed. There's already tagging on the new retaining walls. Best question of the night (I thought) was if they could employ an art program on the walls to end-run around crappy taggers. Hire local street artists to do it right. "Interesting idea" was the PM's answer. So "no."
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It will undoubtedly afford spectacular views. Some in city government might want to transform the path into a revenue-generating attraction. 🤑
 
I wonder if a small tunnel would have made more sense for the path? Youd only have to go 9 feet down
 
jass said:
I wonder if a small tunnel would have made more sense for the path? Youd only have to go 9 feet down
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Pedestrian/bike tunnels are not in favor because of derelict people using them as placing to hang out. It seems a more ground level/small bridge design could have been possible.
 
kjdonovan said:
In the end, Medford St will have been under construction for 2 years once this thing wraps (see screenshot of the original schedule below). And now Somerville plans to permanently leave it closed to all non-emergency vehicle traffic.
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Then why spend all the money building it? Related question, WTF? Medford St. is a major road, people who live on it are used to traffic, the traffic will simply divert into the neighborhood, and we're spending millions to build a dedicated Community Path explicitly to parallel it. Maybe they modeled this and it makes sense, but it stinks of "f_ck cars, that's why".

Thanks for the info, btw!
 
OK, I'm taking bets on the over/under for how long will it be before that ramp is closed to the public for safety concerns after the first several "I lost the grip on my baby's stroller" accidents.
 
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