Green Line Extension to Medford & Union Sq

[ceo]

If your kids like the trains, there's a cool viewing platform at the Hoyt Sullivan playground on Central st. The catenary guys were working there last week. Dad may have been more interested than kid!

And there's a handy sign with the times the commuter rail goes by.

 

[greenlinetobrooklyn]

If your kids like the trains, there's a cool viewing platform at the Hoyt Sullivan playground on Central st. The catenary guys were working there last week. Dad may have been more interested than kid!

We live in Magoun, so we're frequent Hoyt-Sullivan visitors. That platform is going to be a HUGE hit once the trolleys are going by every couple of minutes.

And there's a handy sign with the times the commuter rail goes by.

I never pay attention to that because it has to be _way_ out of date by now, right? I always just look up the next arrival/departure from West Medford.

 

[WestMedford]

“We’ll be ready for [Union Square] service in March,” MBTA general manager Steve Poftak said Wednesday as he rode on a test train with media members.

And now . . . the Green Line Extension. For real, this time, the T promises. - The Boston Globe

More than three decades after the state first promised to extend the Green Line as environmental mitigation for the Big Dig, test trains are running and the opening of the project’s first branch is planned for next month.

www.bostonglobe.com

 

[Equilibria]

 

[BeyondRevenue]

Thanks for posting.
Right now it looks like the last third of "Train to Busan" (slow moving, unpeopled, possible zombies), but I can't wait to ride it! Union Square has much goodness to be devoured!

 

[RandomWalk]

Looking at that video, I’m assuming that Union Square is in line for a bustitution when they have to rebuild the McGrath bridge over the line.

 

[Charlie_mta]

Looking at that video, I’m assuming that Union Square is in line for a bustitution when they have to rebuild the McGrath bridge over the line.

I would think the McGrath Bridge could be rebuilt without shutting down GLX to Union Sq. Replacing the girders could be done at night after GLX operating hours. Once the girders are set, the rest would be fairly doable with ongoing GLX traffic.

 

[bakgwailo]

Didn't hear any screeching from the rails taking turns (especially on the crossover), which is pretty nice.

 

[BostonTrainGuy]

Brand new modern track and switches and the T still requires operators to slow down to 10 mph when crossing over a switch? Even a trailing point switch? Seems a bit ridiculous.

BTW - the "approach" speed limit sign (10 mph ahead) is something new for the T which I have never seen before.

 

[RandomWalk]

I would think the McGrath Bridge could be rebuilt without shutting down GLX to Union Sq. Replacing the girders could be done at night after GLX operating hours. Once the girders are set, the rest would be fairly doable with ongoing GLX traffic.

The OCS and power is hung from the bridge. I don’t think they could quite manage to do that replacement without any impact to operating hours.

 

[stick n move]

Awesome! Thanks for sharing this, this looks great. Awesome to see the heated switches, and how high quality the overhead catenary and general infrastructure looks. Definitely looks built to last. Great to see the forward thinking here with the placement of the poles for the future CR electrification. Awesome to see the grade separation… So excited for this to open, its not everyday we get a new rail transit line. Definitely soaking this in.

 

[Jahvon09]

Awesome! Thanks for sharing this, this looks great. Awesome to see the heated switches, and how high quality the overhead catenary and general infrastructure looks. Definitely looks built to last. Great to see the forward thinking here with the placement of the poles for the future CR electrification. Awesome to see the grade separation… So excited for this to open, its not everyday we get a new rail transit line. Definitely soaking this in.

Nothing is there. The link is either not working, or it might've been moved to a new address.

 

[Charlie_mta]

The OCS and power is hung from the bridge. I don’t think they could quite manage to do that replacement without any impact to operating hours.

I think they could temporarily restring the catenary on separate supports. It wouldn't be all easy, but I've worked as an engineer on squeezing traffic in very tight staged construction scenarios, and it's amazing what innovations contractors can come up with for the right incentive $$$s.

 

[HelloBostonHi]

Seen on Facebook, installed in a Green Line vehicle. Award for the stubbiest branch goes to Union Square

 

[Charlie_mta]

View attachment 21067View attachment 21068

Seen on Facebook, installed in a Green Line vehicle. Award for the stubbiest branch goes to Union Square

They should show it a little bit less stubby. It's easy to miss with the way it looks on the maps.

 

[Brattle Loop]

They should show it a little bit less stubby. It's easy to miss with the way it looks on the maps.

I don't mind it on the spider map, though it's mildly amusing that they attempted even a semblance of geographical accuracy for the GLX given the lack of it on the other end of the Green Line.

On the strip map on the car, it's quite bad. Not only is it easy to miss, it's way too easy to confuse it for a stop along the line rather than its own branch. All they'd have had to do was make it branch off down instead of up and it would have been visible and not in a sea of identically-angled stop names, too.

 

[Charlie_mta]

Here's how I would change the two maps:

 

[RandomWalk]

They make it look like West Medford is practically next door to College Ave.

 

[Vagabond]

Didn't exactly future proof for the almost-guaranteed Rt 16 or sortof-likely GLX-to-Porter. Off-topic will they just zigzag BLX-to-MGH unless Bowdoin is on its last days?

 

[Equilibria]

Didn't exactly future proof for the almost-guaranteed Rt 16 or sortof-likely GLX-to-Porter. Off-topic will they just zigzag BLX-to-MGH unless Bowdoin is on its last days?

They can do Route 16 by tightening up the spacing on the other stops, probably. GLX-to-Porter is not sort-of likely, IMO.

RBX is eliminating Bowdoin, but frankly they should consider redoing the map entirely at that point. It will be more than a decade old.

My question on this map: why didn't they put the USQ branch alongside the Fitchburg Line and put the label below? It would have been easy to just flip the label (they do for BC, so it's not a rule).