Green Line Extension to Medford & Union Sq

Ruairi said:
Wait, did Cataldo always own the site south of Washington st?
And just because herb chambers owned the land doesn't mean the city shouldn't have negotiated for something more than a new commercial van warehouse. I do think that's new development that doesn't suit the location.
The new Cataldo building and Commercial van building were empty sites two years ago.
I find it odd that they would green light a new ambulance base right at the pedestrian entrance to a T station.
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Yes. Do the Street View timetable that goes back to 2007...exactly the same pair of buildings across the street from each other. No change, no reno whatsoever. They were there when I moved into the neighborhood in '02. Historic Aerials show no changes whatsoever to either Cataldo building since at least '95.

HC's also unchanged since at least '95.


The MIS for GLX was in 2005. They pre-date any modern concept of the station there by AT LEAST 1 full decade.
 
F-Line to Dudley said:
Yes. Do the Street View timetable that goes back to 2007...exactly the same pair of buildings across the street from each other. No change, no reno whatsoever. They were there when I moved into the neighborhood in '02. Historic Aerials show no changes whatsoever to either Cataldo building since at least '95.

HC's also unchanged since at least '95.


The MIS for GLX was in 2005. They pre-date any modern concept of the station there by AT LEAST 1 full decade.
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ah yes, my apologies, not sure what I was thinking of but I am mistaken.
 
The Medford st bridge is coming along. Are they removing the long column or are the tracks going around it?

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I am going to write my reps about the MVP station planning. That's Sean Garballey of Arlington-West Medford where I live, and Christine Barber of "Greater Tufts" (Hillside, etc) where the station will be, and maybe Pat Jehlen, though unlike the reps she rarely writes back.

The last things in the record were the 2017/18 change to a ground level station. But this is also when they were going to reprogram the 2022 ~ 2024 (ish) CMAQ funds to pay for a lot of the cost.

Any tips on how I should ask them to move things forward?

Has anyone worked with (now high seniority) Rep Paul Donato, who I think of as representing car-centric Medford?
 
Arlington said:
I am going to write my reps about the MVP station planning. That's Sean Garballey of Arlington-West Medford where I live, and Christine Barber of "Greater Tufts" (Hillside, etc) where the station will be, and maybe Pat Jehlen, though unlike the reps she rarely writes back.

The last things in the record were the 2017/18 change to a ground level station. But this is also when they were going to reprogram the 2022 ~ 2024 (ish) CMAQ funds to pay for a lot of the cost.

Any tips on how I should ask them to move things forward?

Has anyone worked with (now high seniority) Rep Paul Donato, who I think of as representing car-centric Medford?
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No, but I can confirm that Sean Garbally, in addition to being an all-around good guy and very pro-transit, has great constituent services. He might be able to put you in touch with Rep. Donato.
 
Rode by Gilman and Magoun Squares today.

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Also, in grand Boston tradition, there will probably be streetcar rails embedded in the ground here for some time. It's genuinely creepy how ancient these tracks already look.
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Wash said:
Also, in grand Boston tradition, there will probably be streetcar rails embedded in the ground here for some time. It's genuinely creepy how ancient these tracks already look.
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Is this the old lechmere loop? I struggled so hard to identify where this was. It would be nice if whatever development goes up on this site keeps some embedded in floor or landscaping, just as a nod to the sites history
 
Also: unfortunately, the old elevated bents near Lechemere appear to no longer be "in-situ", which is disappointing.
 
Wash said:
Also: unfortunately, the old elevated bents near Lechemere appear to no longer be "in-situ", which is disappointing.
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That was to be expected. Can't exactly fill in the last gaps of the new one with the old one blocking it. Doesn't need to be forever placemarked by location of its original function to be a historic marker. Look at Rolling Bridge Park in Southie...the preserved rolling mechanism from the former Bass River commuter rail bridge is purposefully in the park where you can get a close look and marvel on it...not shivved between Old Colony tracks on the 2001 replacement span because Thou Shalt Nevar Move Thine Historical Accuracy. The preservation wouldn't have been useful enough to build a park around if you kept it where it originally was.

Same deal here. Active infrastructure with a 100-year lifespan needs unimpeded underside access as common sense. And makes for a crappy obstructed-view showcase exhibit to begin with.
 
Wash said:
Rode by Gilman and Magoun Squares today.

Also, in grand Boston tradition, there will probably be streetcar rails embedded in the ground here for some time. It's genuinely creepy how ancient these tracks already look.
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I lived in Newton for years, and the A-Line tracks to Watertown Square down Galen Street survived for a long time! I also remember the E-Line tracks all the way to Forest Hills. (I think that street repaving was fairly recent.)

Speaking of Lechmere, the BSRA RollSign magazine dedicated the whole recent issue to Lechmere Station. Did you know Lechmere was a British sympathizing slave owner? I'm surprised there aren't objections to the name, but maybe it's been Lechmere for so long...........PLUS there was the whole department store! :)

The issue was a fascinating read on why the station was created. Prior to Lechmere, streetcars ran through from Arlington, Medford, Somerville, and Cambridge over the newly created viaduct across the Charles River dam, elevated structure to North Station, and then dipped down to the subway at Haymarket. The automobile started messing with running times and schedules, making scheduling streetcars through the subway problematic. The answer was to create Lechmere as a transfer point from the hard-to-predict-schedule of the street running trains to the more predictable schedule of the tunnel & elevated sections. As everyone probably knows, the structure was meant to be temporary......but lasted almost 100 years!

If you love Boston transit, I would encourage anyone to become a member of the BSRA. I have a whole bookcase full of RollSign magazines! https://thebsra.org/bsra/
 
Java King said:
I lived in Newton for years, and the A-Line tracks to Watertown Square down Galen Street survived for a long time! I also remember the E-Line tracks all the way to Forest Hills. (I think that street repaving was fairly recent.)
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Well...the A was full-on active for non-revenue traffic until Summer 1994. Newton cut down the wires and paved over Tremont almost the literal second the court threw out the last restoration lawsuit. So when you saw it you were probably looking at 100% active tracks and an any-given-night real possibility of seeing a nocturnal work move trawl slowly over the A to/from Packards. Those (end-to-end 1980-rebuilt tracks) even hosted Type 7's in dead-tow pulled by work PCC's and pole-equipped Boeings to Watertown Carhouse for body work. Post-abandonment the overhead + tracks remained fully intact but derelict Packards-Oak Sq. until '99 when they were physically ripped out from under the road (special orders of Menino as his way of making sure head was firmly separated from vampire's torso). Tracks are probably still there under the pavement on Tremont, while they most definitely are gone-gone in Boston. Probably also still extant on Galen if in last 20 years it's only been re-topped instead of milled down to the substrate. The 600V DC power draw under the street is still active to this day as an important spanning interconnect between the 71 TT and the B Line for load-balancing the T's DC substation network. That under-road trunk line was recently given a full top-down rehab for reliability and future-proofing for Type 10 power draw increases.

The E tracks to Forest Hills remained as long as they did because all that trackage was full-on replaced by the T in 1989. When service resumed in '86 after reconstruction of the portal incline for Type 7 weight service only went as far as Brigham and everything to Heath was lumped in the same "temporary" suspension politics. Past-Brigham the street-running track hadn't been touched at all and the overhead was still trolley-pole only, and thus weren't good for running any of the brand new Kinkis. The track rebuild project very belatedly got started in '88, and they refreshed the overhead to Heath so that could reopen by Thanksgiving '89. FH got completely never-used new Type 7-rated track 100% finished by decade's end but the overhead replacement never advanced beyond Heath for the typical bulshitty reasons. The tracks lasted as long as they did in the road before next blacktopping about a decade ago simply because the road surface was new enough from the '89 track replacement to not be anywhere near end-of-rated-life. See...that wasn't just a passive tankapalooza. They spent real in-the-ground dough and backbreaking labor ruining JP transit!

Speaking of Lechmere, the BSRA RollSign magazine dedicated the whole recent issue to Lechmere Station. Did you know Lechmere was a British sympathizing slave owner? I'm surprised there aren't objections to the name, but maybe it's been Lechmore for so long...........PLUS there was the whole department store! :)
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Heh. The department store had its own Lowell Line "Lechmere" stop at their distribution warehouse in Woburn a little south of Mishawum (which didn't exist at the time). A low-concept attempt at templating the Riverworks motif around other employers to stimulate transit shares. Opened 1979, lasted to early-90's when the Lechmere furniture chain shit the bed in the '90-91 recession. As you can see from Google they gave 'em pretty decent 2-car platform accommodations in both directions.
 
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