Green Line Extension to Medford & Union Sq

fattony said:
On GLX presently. Train is running … fast. I clocked us at 40mph with a phone app. The GLX has never run this fast since opening. Something has changed.
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GLX did have 40mph running sections when it opened (I clocked it a few times on my phone back then too :D), but, when the global slow zones hit earlier this month, it was down to a max of ~25mph. Great to hear it's back up to 40mph again!
 
How are speeds on the Lechmere viaduct? Got that OCS fixed (or whatever the excuse was)?
 
Arlington said:
How are speeds on the Lechmere viaduct? Got that OCS fixed (or whatever the excuse was)?
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The new excuse is that they need custom ties, estimated to be fixed “Spring 2023”

mass.streetsblog.org

'Temporary' Green Line Slow Zone Approaches 1-Year Anniversary - Streetsblog Massachusetts

But in spite of all the work that’s been done on the Lechmere Viaduct, a “temporary” slow zone that has forced trains to run at a walking-pace crawl is now approaching its one-year anniversary.
mass.streetsblog.org mass.streetsblog.org
 
kjdonovan said:
I just want to mock myself for this previous post by noting that I am about to take the GLX to Lechmere where I plan to visit this REI and buy some running shoes. That's synergy right there.
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Great. You and about 40-50 people per day. There should be 100's or 1,000's. Some of us want a bigger, more dynamic city.

For the very same reason that the new AG is going after the slow-walk T station communities fighting against the dense housing Smart Growth plans of the Commonwealth. T stations should be ENLIVENED - - these places should be beehives.

I love REI being there - - the key is that there should be the REI ........AND SEVERAL OTHER businesses/consumer offices, etc. there. As is, it's a half-assed swinging bunt and anti-Smart Growth.
 
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shmessy said:
Great. You and about 40-50 people per day. There should be 100's or 1,000's. Some of us want a bigger, more dynamic city.

For the very same reason that the new AG is going after the slow-walk T station communities fighting against the dense housing Smart Growth plans of the Commonwealth. T stations should be ENLIVENED - - these places should be behives.

I love REI being there - - the key is that there should be the REI ........AND SEVERAL OTHER businesses/consumer offices, etc. right there. As is, it's a half-assed swinging bunt and anti-Smart Growth.
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On that note, why didn't the MBTA design retail space into the new Lechmere? If the the MBTA owns the parking lot there, too, probably enough room for housing, on top the station. Could have paid for fare gates on the GLX
 
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Badusername said:
The new excuse is that they need custom ties, estimated to be fixed “Spring 2023”

mass.streetsblog.org

'Temporary' Green Line Slow Zone Approaches 1-Year Anniversary - Streetsblog Massachusetts

But in spite of all the work that’s been done on the Lechmere Viaduct, a “temporary” slow zone that has forced trains to run at a walking-pace crawl is now approaching its one-year anniversary.
mass.streetsblog.org mass.streetsblog.org
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The saddest part is that this literally only applies to the teeny-tiny (formerly) movable drawbridge span of the viaduct (< 40 feet??). What a breathtaking embodiment of "a chain is only as strong as its weakest link."

I get that "custom" = difficult, but, hey, it's not like they had 110 years of advanced notice that this unique span existed at this spot...
 
bakgwailo said:
On that note, why didn't the MBTA design in retail space into the new Lechmere? If the the MBTA owns the parking lot there, too, probably enough room for housing, on top the station. Could have paid for fare gates on the GLX
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I would imagine anything remotely like this at Lechmere, if it was there at all, was VE’d out
 
How about this 2006 plan?

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This was a

www.newspapers.com

Article clipped from The Boston Globe

Clipping found in The Boston Globe published in Boston, Massachusetts on 10/23/2006.
www.newspapers.com www.newspapers.com
www.newspapers.com

Article clipped from The Boston Globe

Clipping found in The Boston Globe published in Boston, Massachusetts on 10/23/2006.
www.newspapers.com www.newspapers.com
 
BosMaineiac said:
I would imagine anything remotely like this at Lechmere, if it was there at all, was VE’d out
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I don't think there ever was anything to begin with. I also was more meaning design the entire station essentially in a mixed use building (maybe 5-10 stories) which then gives the MBTA a new long term sustainable source of revenue that isn't fares. It also, depending on the retail, potentially drivers up ridership, although maybe not in the case of Lechmere given the existing retail draw and the relatively small plot of the station to build on.
 
bakgwailo said:
I don't think there ever was anything to begin with. I also was more meaning design the entire station essentially in a mixed use building (maybe 5-10 stories) which then gives the MBTA a new long term sustainable source of revenue that isn't fares. It also, depending on the retail, potentially drivers up ridership, although maybe not in the case of Lechmere given the existing retail draw and the relatively small plot of the station to build on.
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I'd be all for a local version of that station everyone knows on the Chongqing metro.
 

Correct me if I'm wrong from my reading of those, but we're talking about very early initial design proposals for a 7 story residential (R) and a 5 story laboratory (Q2)?
 
shmessy said:
Correct me if I'm wrong from my reading of those, but we're talking about very early initial design proposals for a 7 story residential (R) and a 5 story laboratory (Q2)?
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I believe there is ground level to both of them, and I believe both sites are currently under construction.
 
lol, two stunners. Parcel R is covered in so many colors of dollar store fiber cement panels that they take up SEVEN PAGES of the document. And what do we have here…..
 

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The state of the flooring at the bottom of the stairs at Magoun bothers me.

It appears that they had to switch which side of the door they wanted the hinges on. They welded the new hinges, rehung the door, and removed old hinges. However, they never bothered to paint the frame. As a result, the salt and moisture and salt this winter led to rust, which has stained the concrete.

This is a brand new station, and they don’t appear to give a damn.
 
RandomWalk said:
View attachment 35823
The state of the flooring at the bottom of the stairs at Magoun bothers me.

It appears that they had to switch which side of the door they wanted the hinges on. They welded the new hinges, rehung the door, and removed old hinges. However, they never bothered to paint the frame. As a result, the salt and moisture and salt this winter led to rust, which has stained the concrete.

This is a brand new station, and they don’t appear to give a damn.
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MBTA grade workmanship. Giving the former Soviet Union a run for the low quality prize.
 
RandomWalk said:
The state of the flooring at the bottom of the stairs at Magoun bothers me.

It appears that they had to switch which side of the door they wanted the hinges on. They welded the new hinges, rehung the door, and removed old hinges. However, they never bothered to paint the frame. As a result, the salt and moisture and salt this winter led to rust, which has stained the concrete.

This is a brand new station, and they don’t appear to give a damn.
Click to expand...

I wrote a mini-rant elsewhere on an aB transit thread a while ago specifically framing corrosion control as a broader symbol for poor MBTA performance. This is another great example. The issue is by no means discipline-specific about corrosion control; rather, it's emblematic of how the present way of doing things at the MBTA is that someone shows up solely to do their exact job (weld a hinge) and neither that person nor whomever commissioned them to do this has either a) any care/concern about how that work integrates with other necessary work, and/or b) has no system/information infrastructure through which to communicate or coordinate about the other work. It's probably both. I get that a welder might not also paint. But when is a repair job ever that of a sole trade/discipline? (rarely if ever). Any good maintenance task or project management system will allow participants at any level to flag necessary complementary/follow-on work, without fear of being chided for scope creep or shirking responsibility -- and this needs to be coupled with a culture of "we all have the best interests of MBTA service at heart, and so we trust and empower each other to raise issues about follow-on work without fear of repercussion" -- this is similar to how Japanese methods for high quality manufacturing allow any employee at any rank to stop production without fear of repercussion if they detect an issue. In my mini-rant, I pointed to other jobs where paint was stripped, some (seemingly ad hoc) weld repair was done, and then the whole thing was left to rot in the rain until someone else, years later, has to re-do the whole thing (meanwhile it looks like garbage for years until then).

This requires a sweeping change of leadership prioritization and the commensurate implementation of support systems and culture to enable serious modification of methods/behaviors.
 
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