I bought my house in Gilman Square 12 years ago for the very reason that the neighborhood would improve when the train came in. I've been waiting a long time for this issue of Duh Magazine to land on my doormat. I'm reminded of a headline from the now-shuttered Curbed Boston site: "Somerville is Doomed to Be a More Desirable Place to Live"
I bought my house in Gilman Square 12 years ago for the very reason that the neighborhood would improve when the train came in. I've been waiting a long time for this issue of Duh Magazine to land on my doormat. I'm reminded of a headline from the now-shuttered Curbed Boston site: "Somerville is Doomed to Be a More Desirable Place to Live"
RandomWalk
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Progress on the access bridge to Magoun Square station. A substantial portion of the steel for the entry adjacent to the Lowell Street bridge. I believe the catwalk from the entry to the elevators is a prefabricated piece that will be placed in one lift.
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Mod note: Moved the "not GLX" discussion of BLX to Lynn and OLX to the General MBTA Topics thread
Forgive my ignorance, but was there a pdf documenting all the station-to-street entrances/egresses? Seems like most of the pics have been centered around the ramps coming from the bridges. I can't help but think that this constantly adds 2-3 mins of extra walking both ways from the square center to the train platform for able-bodied folks and making travel times less competitive..somebody please prove me wrong.
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You are sadly spot on. Lots of trip times are extended by
1) Circuitous routes to the station area (e.g. Boynton Yards to USq, anyone to East Somerville)
2) "Compromise" entrances within the station area
3) Long ramps from the entrance to the platform
I apologize for flogging this already mostly-dead horse, but I drove by Lechemere today and couldn't help but notice that there didn't seem to be space for fare control before the elevators/stairs. Is there something I'm missing here? I hope so, because this would be a major fuck up for the MBTA considering it would be a downgrade from the old Lechmere fare system and especially now that this will be a transfer station.
HelloBostonHi
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The initial plans for the stations have no fare gates, the system will be proof of payment
RandomWalk
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I think MAAB access requirements also mean that emergency egress paths cannot be dependent on electricity being available. That means that some of the stations in the cut have switchback ramps.
I imagine there will be a solid decade of "Reasonable Transit Pitches" category improvements to these stations improving access to the surrounding areas.
Hopefully some development projects will include funds for some of these entrance improvements. For example, I've heard a rumor of an additional entrance to the community path much further along Joy St. Combined with McGrath Grounding, and some pedestrian infrastructure on Joy St, that might substantially increase the walkshed of the East Somerville station, though still not into the East Somerville neighborhood.
The best station layouts that I'm aware of were presented in a public meeting and are online here: https://www.mass.gov/lists/glx-publ...-open-house-presentations,-january-30th-2019-
Hopefully some development projects will include funds for some of these entrance improvements. For example, I've heard a rumor of an additional entrance to the community path much further along Joy St. Combined with McGrath Grounding, and some pedestrian infrastructure on Joy St, that might substantially increase the walkshed of the East Somerville station, though still not into the East Somerville neighborhood.
The best station layouts that I'm aware of were presented in a public meeting and are online here: https://www.mass.gov/lists/glx-publ...-open-house-presentations,-january-30th-2019-
millerm277
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Look one meeting later (scroll up) - the GLX Public Meeting Station Boards (11/19/19) PDF has all the station layouts in one document, and they look to be higher resolution and of a later revision with some further changes.
Or for a direct link: https://www.mass.gov/doc/glx-pubilc-meeting-station-boards-november-19-2019/download
Note that it is a 54MB PDF and may load slow.
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From before Noon today, here is the first of 3 posts covering the outermost GLX:
Magoun Sq viewed from the end of Nashua St (the Magoun side of the tracks), with Maxwell's Green behind.
Focusing on the inbound side, we see the vertical and horizontal elements that will support the entry ramp:
Looking more "straight across" the right of way, we see both elevator towers:
Magoun Sq viewed from the end of Nashua St (the Magoun side of the tracks), with Maxwell's Green behind.
Focusing on the inbound side, we see the vertical and horizontal elements that will support the entry ramp:
Looking more "straight across" the right of way, we see both elevator towers:
^ There's surely no shortage of construction work around. There are a few projects I know of recently bringing on more and more workers per day, 10 hour work days, and 6 days a week, no matter the conditions. Some of these firms are feeling pressure to still hit deadlines regardless of how COVID's impacted their schedule, especially on public projects.
Any further info on this? Sounds like potential delays but not details. https://www.boston.com/news/local-n...ne-extension-schedule-update/?p1=hp_secondary
F-Line to Dudley
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The Globe is pathetic: that's the gist of it.
They manage to wring 500 words of maximum concern-trolling out of a handful of "Crunch Time: Why it be so crunch?!?!" matter-of-fact quotes that foretold nothing wrong. In a sprint to the finish, no shit there's a possibility of delays if something unforeseen were to happen to any of the simultaneous sprints being artfully choreographed. The officials state they don't have any specific concerns, nor are they truly worried if any come along. Great...a non-story none of us need to worry about.
But Globe gotta Globe and try to milk it for any controversy they can, so here you go.
JumboBuc
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To give "The Globe" some credit here, this is a Boston.com piece and not a proper Globe piece. Yes, they're all part of the same organization, but The Boston Globe and Boston.com have different writers, editors, standards, and target audiences. For example, the guy with the byline on that piece does not write for The Boston Globe; his title is "staff writer for Boston.com." The online version of The Boston Globe newspaper is (behind a paywall) at BostonGlobe.com, while Boston.com is a free, ad-supported local content website.
If you read free Boston.com content, you gotta expect free Boston.com quality.
Equilibria
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Well, sort of. The original tweet thread this was based on was RT'd by Adam Vaccaro, who has left the Globe. Seems this might be his successor.