Green Line Extension to Medford & Union Sq

[jass]

What’s the maintenance budget in Pittsburgh? The MBTA likes to defer the maintenance into the capital budget.

Not good!

Due to access steps in poor condition and low ridership, Port Authority will permanently close Pennant Station on the light rail system’s Red Line in Pittsburgh’s Beechview neighborhood Feb. 15.

Port Authority will close little-used Beechview T station

Steps to Pennant Station in Beechview have deteriorated and fixes would cost $4 million to $6 million for few riders.

www.post-gazette.com

 

[whighlander]

One size doesn't fit all in this matter -- its highly circumstantially determined

Specifically -- outside of how big is the budget -- how many people are typically waiting and for how long

If it is a few people typically boarding at the stop and it is severed by typical Heavy Rail or Greenline Central Subway frequency -- then there needn't be much of a shelter at all - - the people have just walked through the weather to get to the platform and they only are probably waiting a few minutes for the next vehicle to arrive

On the extreme other hand if there is a station which is filled with a lot of people waiting for the next CR train -- with enough uncertainty in the schedule for them sometimes to be waiting for the better part of an hour even at peak times -- then the platform should at least have a roof that covers all of the people to keep the most unpleasant direct precipitation off them

Beyond that -- essentially the proverbial covered gas pumps -- additional cover should be in the form of smaller semi-enclosed "rooms" for smaller numbers of people who might be waiting for a CR train in the middle of the day -- or even complete rooms for example the bus waiting area at Alewife or the bus waiting area soon to be demolished at Lechmere

 

[F-Line to Dudley]

If it is a few people typically boarding at the stop and it is severed by typical Heavy Rail or Greenline Central Subway frequency -- then there needn't be much of a shelter at all - - the people have just walked through the weather to get to the platform and they only are probably waiting a few minutes for the next vehicle to arrive

ADA stands for what again?

 

[whighlander]

ADA stands for what again?

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 with minor amendments and re-enablement's and then came a major reworking:
The ADA Amendments Act of 2008 [ADAAA] under which all Federal programs are now required to operate

As long as everyone is treated the same in shelter or lack there-of there no violation of the ADA or the ADAAA

excerpt from the wikipedia article on ADAAA

The ADA Amendments Act of 2008 (Public Law 110-325, ADAAA) is an Act of Congress, effective January 1, 2009, that amended the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) and other disability nondiscrimination laws at the Federal level of the United States.

the ADAAA effectively reversed those [restrictive court] decisions by changing the law. It also rejected portions of the regulations published by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) that interpret Title I (the employment-related title) of the ADA.

The ADAAA makes changes to the definition of the term "disability," clarifying and broadening that definition—and therefore the number and types of persons who are protected under the ADA and other Federal disability nondiscrimination laws.....

The ADAAA requires that courts interpreting the ADA and other Federal disability nondiscrimination laws focus on whether the covered entity has discriminated, rather than whether the individual seeking the law's protection has an impairment that fits within the technical definition of the term "disability."

The Act retains the ADA's basic definition of "disability" as an impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities; a record of such an impairment; or being regarded as having such an impairment. However, it changes the way that the statutory terms should be interpreted.

 

[F-Line to Dudley]

...or sorry, MAAB, if we're going to be pedantic about whose Accessibility laws are holier-than-thou.

There are required minimums for transit shelters in Massachusetts you can't shuck your way out of. They're on the Design Guideline docs on the T website.


BONUS: They're scanned docs, so copypasta'ing nonsense filler onto the post screen isn't a trivial time-waster here.

 

[Javier]

Here are some pictures from Today

 

[Javier]

 

[RandomWalk]

Today they’re pouring the platform for Magoun Square Station. They built a nice temporary climate controlled tent over the whole platform to facilitate the pour.

 

[Jahvon09]

I thought that most of the station platforms were on their way to being made already.Guess that Rome wasn't built in a day. Hah!! The dirt looks too soft. Do they have to put concrete footings there to support them & the tracks? Like they would do for a tall office building or something?

 

[Arlington]

Today they’re pouring the platform for Magoun Square Station. They built a nice temporary climate controlled tent over the whole platform to facilitate the pour.

That probably also explains what seemed (in the dark of night) like a white tent at Ball Sq last night

 

[Javier]

 

[Jahvon09]

Looks like some of the support poles for the overhead trolley wires are being installed.

 

[Javier]

 

[Vagabond]

Different kind of update - saw that the most recent GLX Community Workgroup meeting focused on the station art. These things normally blend into the background, but give character and charm to an otherwise industrial experience.

https://www.mass.gov/doc/glx-virtual-cwg-meeting-presentation-february-2-2021/download

LECHMERE: Randall Thurston

UNION: Matthew Trimble

East Somerville: Nader Tehrani

MAGOUN - Aaron Stephen leaning into the graffiti!

Ball Sq: Christine Vaillancourt

Medford/Tufts: Nancy Selvage

 

[Downburst]

These honestly look great. Also, if you zoom in you can get a little preview of what the expansion will look like on the system map.

 

[Equilibria]

These honestly look great. Also, if you zoom in you can get a little preview of what the expansion will look like on the system map.

I was going to point that out, too .

I feel like any art on the panels is going to ultimately be covered by ads, and I'm not sure if it's genius or silly to per-graffiti one of the stations.

One of these artists was my middle school art teacher...

 

[JeffDowntown]

Different kind of update - saw that the most recent GLX Community Workgroup meeting focused on the station art. These things normally blend into the background, but give character and charm to an otherwise industrial experience.

https://www.mass.gov/doc/glx-virtual-cwg-meeting-presentation-february-2-2021/download

LECHMERE: Randall Thurston
View attachment 10528
UNION: Matthew Trimble
View attachment 10529
East Somerville: Nader Tehrani
View attachment 10530View attachment 10531
MAGOUN - Aaron Stephen leaning into the graffiti!
View attachment 10532View attachment 10533
Ball Sq: Christine Vaillancourt
View attachment 10534View attachment 10535
Medford/Tufts: Nancy Selvage
View attachment 10536

I am intrigued by the choice of destination verbage for the inbound side "Copley and West".

Is that really the most logical wayfinding? Would it not make more sense to mention the major transfer stations like North Station, Government Center, Park...?

 

[Equilibria]

I am intrigued by the choice of destination verbage for the inbound side "Copley and West".

Is that really the most logical wayfinding? Would it not make more sense to mention the major transfer stations like North Station, Government Center, Park...?

They're using terminus instead of the Cambridge7 Inbound/Outbound and they don't know which branch this will be yet. Copley is the last station B-E serve together.

The thought may be to actually build it this way, in case they vary the branch designations and thus the destinations at some future point. This is not the way to do that, though, especially since the E branch that will actually serve these stations goes south from Copley, not west. It should just say "Downtown Boston".

 

[themissinglink]

If you zoom in enough on the Lechmere station signage you can see that it says "GREEN LINE (D) - UNION SQUARE" and "GREEN LINE (E) - MEDFORD/TUFTS". If I remember correctly it was originally going to be E branch service to Union Square and D branch service to Medford/Tufts but apparently that's been switched around.

 

[JumboBuc]

They're using terminus instead of the Cambridge7 Inbound/Outbound and they don't know which branch this will be yet. Copley is the last station B-E serve together.

The thought may be to actually build it this way, in case they vary the branch designations and thus the destinations at some future point. This is not the way to do that, though, especially since the E branch that will actually serve these stations goes south from Copley, not west. It should just say "Downtown Boston".

The Inbound vs. Outbound convention gets confusing the closer you are to the core, but out in Somerville it seems like the clearest way to explain the direction.

I've brought this up before, but it seems like there would be benefits of not keeping the B-E convention fixed from terminus to terminus. Why not do something like have B-E as the termini in the SW, then have 1-4 as the termini on the other end (e.g., 1=Medford/Tufts, 2=Union, 3=Government Center, 4=Park Street)? Then each train gets labeled with a letter and number showing its two termini, allowing trains from any terminus on one end to serve any terminus on the other. That way you could mix and match, for example, "D1" trains, "D4" trains, "E1" trains, "B3" trains, etc.

This would allow more operational flexibility (e.g., if there's a track issue at Fenway it won't shut down service at Ball Square) and also allow more flexibility for riders (e.g., someone who lives in Allston but works at Cambridge Crossing will only have to change GL trains about half of the time instead of all of the time).