Green Line Extension to Medford & Union Sq

Don't know if anyone has already asked this, but are the station platforms going to be made long enough to accommodate the new longer trolleys when they begin testing & putting them into revenue service? They are already doing it for the newly remade platforms on Comm. Ave. :)
new longer trolleys for the green line..png
 
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Ruairi said:
Maybe they can pick a few weekends before the GLX opens and have supervised graffiti artists paint the walls for free. That way at least the inevitable graffiti won't be terrible.
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Before any kind of wall paintings are undertaken, there must be a public meeting of the local community. Also, I doubt if anything like organized graffiti or paintings on the walls was addressed in the NEPA document for the project. There will have to be public involvement and an addendum to the EIS before any major visual modifications to the walls are made. Retaining wall paintings would have a significant impact on the community and thus require significant public input and environmental documentation..
 
A few isolated panels in a station are far different than miles of graffiti painted on retaining walls.
 
Finding a local artist or even local schoolkids to make murals along the retaining walls would be the best approach, because
1. it gives local buy-in to the neighborhood ("we made these walls, and so we'll put value on them" kind of thing)
2. an already-painted surface is less likely to be tagged, and more risky/dangerous to the tagger should they be caught
 
Isn't it going to be challenging to do anything to the retaining walls (other than perhaps a few examples in station areas) because this is an active rail corridor?
 
The issue with murals painted on walls is that you need to have funds to keep them up. When I was in grad school we looked into doing our final scenic painting project on a retaining wall just like this one, but the city said no becasue we would need to not just supply the art but also thousands of dollars to build an endowment for the murals up keep. Graffiti artists dont care about any of this bureaucracy and just make what they want. Good for them. Have at it.
 
Jahvon09 said:
Don't know if anyone has already asked this, but are the station platforms going to be made long enough to accommodate the new longer trolleys when they begin testing & putting them into revenue service? They are already doing it for the newly remade platforms on Comm. Ave. :)
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Not even the MBTA is that incompetent. IIRC they're designed to be long enough for two Type 10s.
 
I think the reason for that is to allow 2 2-car long trolleys to safely stop there. I once knew what the length of those new cars would be, but I lost track on that. But I think that they are twice the length of all of their predecessors before them. :giggle:
 
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ceo said:
Not even the MBTA is that incompetent. IIRC they're designed to be long enough for two Type 10s.
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Actually call me crazy but I think they aren't, I think they are designed to fit future platform extensions to increase the platform length but aren't going to be built that long.
 
The best art doesn't come from a community meeting or a commission. (EDIT: The best art doesn't HAVE to come from... initial version was too strong. Art by consensus can be good too.) Murals aren't graffiti. I'm hoping for some actual free-for-all space, not just planned murals. But it won't fuss me either way, this is strongly just a nice-to-have.

I loved what came out of the free for all at Sullivan though. That was a nice surprise. I don't know how much that "just happened" or how much someone at the MBTA made that happen. Whatever made that happen though, that's what I kind of hope happens again.
 
Jahvon09 said:
I think the reason for that is to allow 2 2-car long trolleys to safely stop there. I once knew what the length of those new cars would be, but I lost track on that. But I think that they are twice the length of all of their predecessors before them. :giggle:
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I believe they are twice the passenger capacity, but only 50% longer. So a two car type10 train would fit anywhere that can fit three current cars. The GLX platforms are long enough as are most others, but some will need lengthening.
 
HelloBostonHi said:
If you look at the more detailed roll plan designs you'll see that a fair chunk of that is labelled as "Future Platform Extension"

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Why would they say the platform is 20'x225' if a portion of that isn't included in the current scope of work? I've got no sense of scale from the roll-plan... to my eye nothing indicates that the platform couldn't be 225' long with the extension... well... extending beyond that.
 
Texasian said:
Why would they say the platform is 20'x225' if a portion of that isn't included in the current scope of work? I've got no sense of scale from the roll-plan... to my eye nothing indicates that the platform couldn't be 225' long with the extension... well... extending beyond that.
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The Union platform extension includes provision for second up-and-over station egress to the Boynton Yards side of the neighborhood. That got VE'd out during the budget audit. Eventually the BY redev unto itself is going to force its completion, so it's at most a very short-term punt.
 
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