Green Line Extension to Medford & Union Sq

[BostonUrbEx]

Re: Green Line to Medford to start in 2011

There was a lot of writing on the four car platform length is part of the GLX plan to start using four car train sets?

The plan is to keep the platforms long enough that a rapid transit high-level platform could fit in the same footprint, should there be conversion to heavy rail.

 

[F-Line to Dudley]

Re: Green Line to Medford to start in 2011

The plan is to keep the platforms long enough that a rapid transit high-level platform could fit in the same footprint, should there be conversion to heavy rail.

400 ft. rapid transit platforms is the current build standard they more or less hold to in non-constrained spaces. That fits 6 cars from any of the 4 lines. Easier to contract out when the concrete pour is always one-size-fits-all. Much like it is for universal 800 ft. commuter rail platforms. For more practical safety reasons they want all GL stations that don't have direct street/reservation access to be able to let one 3-car train push another disabled 3-car train onto the same platform for emergency unloading of both consists. Nearly all Central Subway stations can already do this. The ones that can't (ancient Park St., for instance)...close enough to straddle every car on the whole length of the platform and open at least one set of doors in the leading and trailing cars.

So, yeah, they can convert any of these in the future by dropping digging the trackbed a couple feet lower or raising the platforms. But there are more mundane expediency reasons for doing it like this.

 

[datadyne007]

Re: Green Line to Medford to start in 2011

The plan is to keep the platforms long enough that a rapid transit high-level platform could fit in the same footprint, should there be conversion to heavy rail.

They are actually planning AHEAD? My heart be still!

 

[ant8904]

Re: Green Line to Medford to start in 2011

They are actually planning AHEAD? My heart be still!

I thought it was common knowledge of the way they are building GLX. Part of the increasing costs is to future-proof for heavy-line conversion (for better or worse, but if it gets built rather than scuttled by price shock, then it is for the better). Or so I heard at least.

 

[BostonUrbEx]

Re: Green Line to Medford to start in 2011

I thought it was common knowledge of the way they are building GLX. Part of the increasing costs is to future-proof for heavy-line conversion (for better or worse, but if it gets built rather than scuttled by price shock, then it is for the better). Or so I heard at least.

It was supposed to have been heavy rail convertable since the beginning, so the rising costs would seemingly be unrelated.

 

[found5dollar]

Re: Green Line to Medford to start in 2011

college ave presentation is now up.

http://greenlineextension.eot.state.ma.us/documents/PubMtgs/staDesign/CollegeAve_062013.pdf

 

[F-Line to Dudley]

Re: Green Line to Medford to start in 2011

college ave presentation is now up.

http://greenlineextension.eot.state.ma.us/documents/PubMtgs/staDesign/CollegeAve_062013.pdf

Nice. Like the pedestrian plaza in front and extra access to the Tufts campus and Medford sides. Does a lot to improve the appearance of the intersection, which today just looks like nothing but asphalt with the narrow sidewalks. Love the spacious bike cage, which will get huge utilization around here (please put one up at Davis too).

Headhouse is kind of yucky in a 70's-dated glass house kind of way. I don't get the superfluous faux- second story at all. Platform area should be interesting people watching with the Medford-side path perched up on the retaining wall and people going back and forth all day.


Exterior headhouse aesthetics aside, this one looks like a winner for how much it highlights and enhances ped/bike access at a yucky intersection.

 

[vanshnookenraggen]

Re: Green Line to Medford to start in 2011

I've liked everything I've seen so far. Very pedestrian/bike oriented. The designs are subtle and work well in the environment.

Unrelated to the design: because I haven't been following this that closely, what's up with extending this past College Ave? I know they weren't going to cross the Mystic River but I thought there was another station at Rt 16?

 

[Arborway]

Re: Green Line to Medford to start in 2011

Headhouse is kind of yucky in a 70's-dated glass house kind of way.

I actually love it. It's a cute example of neomodern design that is a huge step up from any surface construction the T has done in decades.

 

[F-Line to Dudley]

Re: Green Line to Medford to start in 2011

I've liked everything I've seen so far. Very pedestrian/bike oriented. The designs are subtle and work well in the environment.

Unrelated to the design: because I haven't been following this that closely, what's up with extending this past College Ave? I know they weren't going to cross the Mystic River but I thought there was another station at Rt 16?

Phase II, unfunded. The state did formally commit to building it though, so it's not as fuzzy a proposition or as easy to back out of as it was before. They are going to have a storage problem in time if College Ave. is the permanent terminus. All it has for tail tracks are a stub of the two mainline tracks, which are inadequate. 16 is being designed with a small layover yard. If they try to back out of it they're going to have to build extra layover tracks at College Ave. There is almost no room to do so there without having to eminent domain land from the most vocal NIMBY neighborhood on the whole project.

It'll get done as path of least resistance. We just might be waiting till 2022 before the first trolley pulls into 16.

 

[ant8904]

Re: Green Line to Medford to start in 2011

Phase II, unfunded. The state did formally commit to building it though, so it's not as fuzzy a proposition or as easy to back out of as it was before. They are going to have a storage problem in time if College Ave. is the permanent terminus. All it has for tail tracks are a stub of the two mainline tracks, which are inadequate. 16 is being designed with a small layover yard. If they try to back out of it they're going to have to build extra layover tracks at College Ave. There is almost no room to do so there without having to eminent domain land from the most vocal NIMBY neighborhood on the whole project.

It'll get done as path of least resistance. We just might be waiting till 2022 before the first trolley pulls into 16.

I'm still not confident that we'll see the first trolley pull to Tufts by 2022.

 

[DominusNovus]

Re: Green Line to Medford to start in 2011

Out of curiosity, how would you fund DOT without raising taxes?

Presumably either by cutting expenses somewhere else in the budget and redirecting the money into DOT, user fees on new construction (especially new road projects, most of which should be tolled going forward), or some combination of the two.

Of course, cutting expenses elsewhere pisses off whoever you just cut, and redirecting the money instead of lowering taxes just pisses off the less taxes/spending crowd anyway, so it's not a realistic proposition. The public perception of roads is still largely that they're free as beer, so legislation requiring a toll/revenue component attached to all new road projects above $X price going forward (and retroactive to include the Big Dig) isn't liable to get anywhere either.

A measured, balanced approach that combines new revenues with cuts and rebalanced spending priorities is the best approach, but pisses off mostly everyone as opposed to only certain groups.

Sorry to reply to something a month out of date, but that right there actually is pretty much what I would do if it were up to me.

I'd trim the budget, which needs it badly (as the DTA fiascos are showing). If I were to try to raise revenue in any fashion, it would be through implementing tolls on I-93&95, and rtes 2, 3, and 24, while simultaneously mitigating tolls somewhat on I-90. I'd largely stick to 'cross highway toll plazas' (or whatever the proper term for plazas like at the 95/90 intersection are, that cut across the entire highway) at strategic locations, such as (not necessarily *all* of these):

I-90 @ NY Border (already there)
I-90 @ I-495 Westborough
I-90 @ I-95 Weston (already there)
tear down I-90 @ Brighton/Allston (too much congestion in too tight a space)

I-93 @ NH Border or I-93 @ I-495 Andover
I-93 @ I-95 Reading
I-93 @ Rte 3 Braintree
I-93 @ I-95 Canton

I-95 @ NH Border or I-95 @ I-495 Salisbury
I-95 @ RI Border or I-95 @ I-295 Attleboro

Rte 2 @ I-95 Lexington

Rte 3 @ I-95 Burlington

Rte 24 @ I-95 Randolph

I'm no fan of tolls, but if the transportation money's gotta come from some new revenue, thats where I'd get it from.

 

[Equilibria]

Re: Green Line to Medford to start in 2011

I actually love it. It's a cute example of neomodern design that is a huge step up from any surface construction the T has done in decades.

The "View Across Boston Ave." sells it for me. It might have been nice to work with the architects at Tufts to fully integrate the station into the campus, though. Or, you know, actually name it after the institution which is its whole reason to exist. BC, BU, Harvard and MIT get stations named for them, so what gives?

 

[Arborway]

Re: Green Line to Medford to start in 2011

The "View Across Boston Ave." sells it for me. It might have been nice to work with the architects at Tufts to fully integrate the station into the campus, though. Or, you know, actually name it after the institution which is its whole reason to exist. BC, BU, Harvard and MIT get stations named for them, so what gives?

They probably don't want to confuse people with two Tufts stations on opposite ends of the city.

I know we have Harvard / Harvard Ave, but I'm sure they'd like to avoid that whenever possible.

 

[Matthew]

Re: Green Line to Medford to start in 2011

I know we have Harvard / Harvard Ave, but I'm sure they'd like to avoid that whenever possible.

There are two separate stations named St Paul Street.

tear down I-90 @ Brighton/Allston (too much congestion in too tight a space)

No: all-electronic tolls instead. And now there's room to straighten out the Pike there too. I'm pretty confident this is exactly what DePaola wants to do.

 

[Equilibria]

Re: Green Line to Medford to start in 2011

No: all-electronic tolls instead. And now there's room to straighten out the Pike there too. I'm pretty confident this is exactly what DePaola wants to do.

I'm pretty confident this is what Harvard wants, since their land is worthless to them without it. One of the most important projects on the immediate horizon in Boston, IMO.

BTW, Federal law pretty strongly discourages tolls on interstates, and I doubt exceptions would be made for a state that simply wanted to tax all incoming/outgoing traffic. That would be seen as hostile to interstate commerce and would probably be laughed out of DC.

 

[DominusNovus]

Re: Green Line to Medford to start in 2011

BTW, Federal law pretty strongly discourages tolls on interstates, and I doubt exceptions would be made for a state that simply wanted to tax all incoming/outgoing traffic. That would be seen as hostile to interstate commerce and would probably be laughed out of DC.

Funny, there's a toll on I-90 on the NY/MA border, there's tolls on 95 on the NH/MA border, and the ME/NH border...

 

[F-Line to Dudley]

Re: Green Line to Medford to start in 2011

Funny, there's a toll on I-90 on the NY/MA border, there's tolls on 95 on the NH/MA border, and the ME/NH border...

All grandfathered from when the roads were first built and the tolls installed to pay off the bonds.

You can't put up new ones unless it's all-new miles of asphalt where there ain't any, but there was no provision in the original Interstate Highway legislation that said the tolls had to dissapear when the bonds were paid off. Hence, they never do. But none of those roads ever began their lives as toll-free.

 

[Equilibria]

Re: Green Line to Medford to start in 2011

Funny, there's a toll on I-90 on the NY/MA border, there's tolls on 95 on the NH/MA border, and the ME/NH border...

Those are on highways which are fully tolled on both sides of the border (though I-95 is not tolled in MA). Placing a toll booth on a continuous turnpike where it enters your state is different from placing one-off toll booths on otherwise free highways to tax incoming through-traffic.

 

[DominusNovus]

Re: Green Line to Medford to start in 2011

Well, drat. Guess I'm not all that good at finding new ways to raise money. Think we could still get away with introducing new tolls at the 128 intersections?