Green Line Extension to Medford & Union Sq

awood91 said:
What kind of ‘transit agency’ announces a major project has been finished and opening the next day. Like two days notice at least guys, what the fuck
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Agreed, but what I bet happened is that the contractor finally finished the punchlist ADA items and the T probably wanted to just get it open asap given the political pressure.
 
took the family for a bike ride along the new path yesterday!
It's great. Obviously it was very busy but still, seemed like an excellent facility.
I feared it would be too narrow but it seemed fine.
The re route around the back of the high school seemed a bit messy but not the worst.
I think I'm more excited about this than the GLX.
 
lainpimicaja said:
Agreed, but what I bet happened is that the contractor finally finished the punchlist ADA items and the T probably wanted to just get it open asap given the political pressure.
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I'm guessing it was more the reverse: the Governor saw the Globe article, called the T, and suddenly the punchlist could be finished in a day.
 
Only the MBTA could build a much-desired community asset and so badly bungle the final delivery of it that everyone ends up hating them even more. Just f*****g phenomenal work all around!!!
 
I took a spin down to the Cambridge Crossing REI yesterday. I'd poached nearly all of the path between Lowell St and Gilman Square at one point or another, but it was great to finally ride the whole thing. A few notes:
  • I'm used to bike paths being flat, since they're usually repurposed railroad grades. The CPX is definitely not flat. The bridge over the Fitchburg line etc. is kind of a beast, or maybe I just need to get in better shape. A lot of people were walking their bikes up it.
  • They should have put a scenic overlook at the top of the bridge. :)
  • The curb cut on the west side of School St is not aligned with the path. I know there's not a raised crossing there because it's right on top of the expansion joint for the bridge, but right now you have to either hop the curb or jog several feet up to the misplaced crosswalk.
  • The Gilman Square detour was well marked and protected, but it wasn't clear that there are two marked bike lanes on the Medford St bridge as you get on it heading westbound.
 
The roller coaster effect is due to the Design Build contractor economizing. A nearly flat path between Lowell and Medford Street would be doable, but would necessitate taller retaining walls. Those walls are most of the path cost.
 
RandomWalk said:
The roller coaster effect is due to the Design Build contractor economizing. A nearly flat path between Lowell and Medford Street would be doable, but would necessitate taller retaining walls. Those walls are most of the path cost.
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I'm wondering if we'll get the details of the lease agreement with the T. I'm wondering if Somerville could do things like raising the retaining walls or widening the path itself. Somerville could also eminent domain three feet of the person's backyard at School St. to fix that crossing since moving the curb cut apparently can't be done.
 
ceo said:
I'm used to bike paths being flat, since they're usually repurposed railroad grades. The CPX is definitely not flat. The bridge over the Fitchburg line etc. is kind of a beast, or maybe I just need to get in better shape. A lot of people were walking their bikes up it.
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How does the bridge over Fitchburg tracks compare to the North Bank bridge? It strikes me as conceptually similar, but I don't know whether the grades are actually alike. It may be a few weeks before I get a chance to ride the GLX path, but that's the main thing I'll be trying to figure out or understand about it when I do get the chance.
 
GLX stations are running at 25 minute headways on a WEEKDAY. Just as bad as the Red Line branches. Normal schedule calls for service every 6 - 8 minutes.

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ceo said:
I took a spin down to the Cambridge Crossing REI yesterday. I'd poached nearly all of the path between Lowell St and Gilman Square at one point or another, but it was great to finally ride the whole thing. A few notes:
  • I'm used to bike paths being flat, since they're usually repurposed railroad grades. The CPX is definitely not flat. The bridge over the Fitchburg line etc. is kind of a beast, or maybe I just need to get in better shape. A lot of people were walking their bikes up it.
  • They should have put a scenic overlook at the top of the bridge. :)
  • The curb cut on the west side of School St is not aligned with the path. I know there's not a raised crossing there because it's right on top of the expansion joint for the bridge, but right now you have to either hop the curb or jog several feet up to the misplaced crosswalk.
  • The Gilman Square detour was well marked and protected, but it wasn't clear that there are two marked bike lanes on the Medford St bridge as you get on it heading westbound.
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Yea, I biked down to REI on Saturday.
There were two cars parked in the bike lane, some traffic cones randomly standing around.
Wasn't a big deal but it does seem like they were caught off guard re. the opening. Understandable given the short notice.
The medford street detour is confusing at the top. Again, short term problem.
When I came up to the school street crosswalk, there was a Somerville fire truck just sitting on the crosswalk. There were people with kids peering round it to see if there was traffic coming on one side of the cross walk then bikes trying to negotiate the funky curb cut on the other side.
Again, with the exception of the curb cut, hopefully all these are just teething problems.
I don't mind the undulating nature of the path, I reckon it probably slows bikes down.
(It was fun coming down off the high bridge with a great view of Somerville)
 
RandomWalk said:
The roller coaster effect is due to the Design Build contractor economizing. A nearly flat path between Lowell and Medford Street would be doable, but would necessitate taller retaining walls. Those walls are most of the path cost.
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Don't know if it was intentional but the dips are kind of economical in that they help you build up speed after crossing the street, and then slow down without braking as you approach the next crosswalk.
 
Anyone else encounter that godawful corrugated sidewalk by the pedal-n-park cage under Lechmere? It's located right on the shortest path from East St to McGrath. I've already stumbled on it a couple times passing through there, and have noticed others getting surprised by it as well.

What possible reason was there for placing that anti-pedestrian stuff there?
 
ceo said:
The curb cut on the west side of School St is not aligned with the path.
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They screwed this up in a number of locations - not sure why road crossing locations were so hard to figure out. The brand new generator next to the Somerville High School is probably the most egregious "why didn't you move it 20 feet over?"
 
Delvin4519 said:
GLX stations are running at 25 minute headways on a WEEKDAY. Just as bad as the Red Line branches. Normal schedule calls for service every 6 - 8 minutes.
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I notice headways and speed turn into trash every time they have to shut down the green line between the GC and North Station. It caught me off-guard several times. I'm not making this mistake again today.

I don't know why this happens. If I am to speculate then my guess it's because they can't efficiently dispatch the trains. But that's just my guess.

Regardless, this essentially makes it unusable - and this will be the situation until the 25th of June. While I can't fault the MBTA for the debacle of the teardown, the MBTA should be able to do better on these headways. I'm going to dinner with some friends. This might be dumb, but I'm taking the Red Line then Green Line like pre-GLX. I hope I don't come to regret this move.
 
Yea, and it also eliminates 50% of the capacity between Government Center and Park Street, which makes it almost a 30 minute affair to transfer to and from the GLX branches, or any of the 3 Haymarket buses, (especially the infrequent ones, which takes wayy longer).

25 minute headways on the GLX is essentially a "paper schedule service", since anything with 10 minute headways or longer generally requires consulting a schedule (10-15 minutes is a bit long for connections). Only way to know is to consult the MBTA realtime map of the GLX and estimate when did the previous train depart, then a timed arrival for the next train.

It's just as bad as usability as the Red Line branches.
 
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ant8904 said:
I don't know why this happens. If I am to speculate then my guess it's because they can't efficiently dispatch the trains. But that's just my guess.
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It’s because they run single track operations between Science Park and North Station during the diversions. The system (last time I checked) involves passing a flag between the train exiting North Station and the next one to enter which has to wait at Science Park. I don’t know what the track geometry is but I feel like there has to be a better way.
 
Badusername said:
It’s because they run single track operations between Science Park and North Station during the diversions. The system (last time I checked) involves passing a flag between the train exiting North Station and the next one to enter which has to wait at Science Park. I don’t know what the track geometry is but I feel like there has to be a better way.
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There is a switch west of North Station but it can’t be used because of the Government Center Garage.
 
Badusername said:
It’s because they run single track operations between Science Park and North Station during the diversions. The system (last time I checked) involves passing a flag between the train exiting North Station and the next one to enter which has to wait at Science Park. I don’t know what the track geometry is but I feel like there has to be a better way.
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This is how it was operating as of last year, at least.
 
When will the Government Center Garage demolition be completed? Or at least complete enough to no longer cause these Green/Orange Line service disruptions?
 
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