Green Line Extension to Medford & Union Sq

[Stlin]

Is there a detailed timeline of when the highway paralleling the viaduct will finish being rebuilt? It feels like they are working on the bike lanes once a month, and the other days they pour a bit of concrete and then find another existing area to jackhammer up and leave so I can't bike through it.

The other thing is I thought the intention was to have some kind of public space under the viaduct? it's been fenced off for months. They paved one portion of it with a decent ped path, but it doesn't connect to anything. I assume because MassDOT is doing it and not Cambridge? Hate to say it but if Cambridge was doing it it'd be done.

McGrath? I wouldn't expect a lot from that for a while - the current road diet / resurfacing project is expected to wrap up this fall/winter, but starting in 2027 it's expected to begin reconstruction as a surface road. No telling how messy that process will be yet, but in between then from 25-26 it should be fine!

 

[Longfellow]

McGrath? I wouldn't expect a lot from that for a while - the current road diet / resurfacing project is expected to wrap up this fall/winter, but starting in 2027 it's expected to begin reconstruction as a surface road. No telling how messy that process will be yet, but in between then from 25-26 it should be fine!

Referring to Monsignor O'Brien highway

 

[pfd12]

Not a timeline, but from Cambridge's weekly construction update seems like it's nearing completion? From the 5/20 update, page 6:

O’BRIEN HIGHWAY/CAMBRIDGE STREET/FIRST STREET
CONTRACTOR: MCCOURT

O’Brien Hwy (First- Land Blvd) – prep for pave, scheduled for week of 6/2
O’Brien Hwy (Land - Museum Way) – pave remaining lanes tonight; layout & stripe remainder of week
Cambridge St (Second – O’Brien) – prep for pave, scheduled for 5/30
Sitewide – Misc punch list including traffic signals, landscaping, etc.

Though these don't really mention the cycle tracks. For more details, you could try asking the CX people (since this is being done by them, not MassDOT) - there's some contact info on the (possibly discontinued?) construction updates website.

 

[RandomWalk]

Contractors are rebuilding at least on of the curb ramps for the bike path at Sycamore. It’s still not going to be a raised crossing, though.

 

[Equilibria]

Obviously this is in the can for the next 30 years at least, but I don't remember us ever discussing it and it only just occurred to me: why did GLX come down to grade before East Somerville? If it had remained elevated for even a little bit farther, an access road from McGrath to Inner Belt could have been punched underneath it, providing a second access point. If they'd come down to grade before Cross Street, they could have really had the chance to blend Brickbottom and Inner Belt together.

Clearly we're decades of redevelopment in Brickbottom away from this mattering, but it seems like a blown opportunity that no one even thought of (myself included). Related point: Why did no one before GLX ever propose just running a Poplar Street extension over the prior industrial track at-grade (given the low volume), putting redundancy on the absurd Inner Belt Road underpass?

 

[Delvin4519]

Unreliability is a drag on value of the green line finally coming to Somerville, leaders tell MBTA​

Friday, July 26, 2024

Unreliability is a drag on value of the green line finally coming to Somerville, leaders tell MBTA - Cambridge Day

Just two years after the opening of the MBTA light rail green line extension into Somerville and Medford, leaders and advocates are still frustrated by frequent delays, a lack of publicly available data and overall unreliability.

www.cambridgeday.com

15 minute headways during off peak, trains bunched and expressed like crazy, the lack of departure time info at the terminal stations, etc.

TransitMatters analyzed departure data on the green line extension, finding that trains leave from the Medford/Tufts origin station on time just 51 percent of the time. By the time trains get to East Somerville station, just four stops later, the number of on-time departures drops to 35 percent. For trains headed north from East Somerville, only 19 percent leave on time and 23 percent are “bunched,” meaning the trains leave very shortly after each other, leaving a long wait time in their wake.

The headways are about four to five times what they should be, Johnson said. Additionally, the MBTA does not provide real-time updates on when trains will leave origin points, such as Union Square and Medford/Tufts, which creates more unpredictability for riders.

 

[themissinglink]

Unreliability is a drag on value of the green line finally coming to Somerville, leaders tell MBTA​

Friday, July 26, 2024

Unreliability is a drag on value of the green line finally coming to Somerville, leaders tell MBTA - Cambridge Day

Just two years after the opening of the MBTA light rail green line extension into Somerville and Medford, leaders and advocates are still frustrated by frequent delays, a lack of publicly available data and overall unreliability.

www.cambridgeday.com

15 minute headways during off peak, trains bunched and expressed like crazy, the lack of departure time info at the terminal stations, etc.

The MBTA needs to implement a Medford/Tufts <-> Government Center service pattern that turns at Brattle loop. That would help bolster the Medford branch.

 

[kdmc]

The MBTA needs to implement a Medford/Tufts <-> Government Center service pattern that turns at Brattle loop. That would help bolster the Medford branch.

Because Medford/Tufts has higher demand than Heath, or because the GL trunk couldn't support more Heath<->Medford/Tufts trains?

 

[themissinglink]

Because Medford/Tufts has higher demand than Heath, or because the GL trunk couldn't support more Heath<->Medford/Tufts trains?

Adding a new service pattern that's decoupled from the rest of the E branch would provide additional frequencies with better schedule reliability compared to Medford/Tufts <-> Heath Street trains. The street-running portion on Huntington and South Huntington is a drag on the rest of the E branch. This new service pattern would backfill large headway gaps and reduce the amount of unexpected express trains on the Medford branch, as Medford/Tufts <-> Government Center trains would probably never (or rarely) run express, unlike some of the existing Medford/Tufts <-> Heath Street trains.

Adding more Medford/Tufts <-> Heath Street trains to boost frequencies would be a step in the right direction, but a Medford/Tufts <-> Government Center service pattern would better address the needs of Somerville and Medford commuters compared to additional Medford/Tufts <-> Heath Street trains, IMO.

 

[thepianoperson]

Adding a new service pattern that's decoupled from the rest of the E branch would provide additional frequencies with better schedule reliability compared to Medford/Tufts <-> Heath Street trains. The street-running portion on Huntington and South Huntington is a drag on the rest of the E branch. This new service pattern would backfill large headway gaps and reduce the amount of unexpected express trains on the Medford branch, as Medford/Tufts <-> Government Center trains would probably never (or rarely) run express, unlike some of the existing Medford/Tufts <-> Heath Street trains.

Adding more Medford/Tufts <-> Heath Street trains to boost frequencies would be a step in the right direction, but a Medford/Tufts <-> Government Center service pattern would better address the needs of Somerville and Medford commuters compared to additional Medford/Tufts <-> Heath Street trains, IMO.

I like this idea - anecdotally at least headways always seemed better and more consistent when they were turning trains at North during shutdowns than they are currently during normal service. I’d also add that the current GLX service is quite solid in my opinion (except for all the baked in slow zones at turnouts between east Somerville and north station), but I would always advocate for more service if there’s a way to do it, and the crowding during rush hour shows that that service would certainly be used.

 

[JeffDowntown]

Adding a new service pattern that's decoupled from the rest of the E branch would provide additional frequencies with better schedule reliability compared to Medford/Tufts <-> Heath Street trains. The street-running portion on Huntington and South Huntington is a drag on the rest of the E branch. This new service pattern would backfill large headway gaps and reduce the amount of unexpected express trains on the Medford branch, as Medford/Tufts <-> Government Center trains would probably never (or rarely) run express, unlike some of the existing Medford/Tufts <-> Heath Street trains.

Adding more Medford/Tufts <-> Heath Street trains to boost frequencies would be a step in the right direction, but a Medford/Tufts <-> Government Center service pattern would better address the needs of Somerville and Medford commuters compared to additional Medford/Tufts <-> Heath Street trains, IMO.

Don't you really need to get to Park Street in your Medford/Tufts <-> Downtown service pattern? Otherwise you are really shortchanging Medford and Somerville commuters.

 

[TheRatmeister]

Don't you really need to get to Park Street in your Medford/Tufts <-> Downtown service pattern? Otherwise you are really shortchanging Medford and Somerville commuters.

That's a definite weakness of the proposal, but if it's a choice between extra Gov Center trains and no extra trains then having the extra trains is obviously preferable.

Side question: would a Chicago style long-platform between Gov Center and Park St work? Based on a quick look at the track map it seems like it would.

 

[Teban54]

The MBTA needs to implement a Medford/Tufts <-> Government Center service pattern that turns at Brattle loop. That would help bolster the Medford branch.

The biggest problem with this proposal may be that Medford/Tufts has limited terminal capacity, thanks to bumper blocks at the end of the station. IIRC, someone mentioned that during a past temporary construction schedule when they tried to terminate both the D and E trains at Medford/Tufts (or maybe it was Union Square?), there was chaos.

So while irregular short-turns from Medford/Tufts may be plausible, I think there may be no way you can increase capacity on the Medford branch by 100% (another lettered bullet) or even 50%.

(This is also why an extension to Route 16 would be really helpful. You may even be able to permanently extend the C to Medford branch with that extension built.)

 

[737900er]

The MBTA needs to implement a Medford/Tufts <-> Government Center service pattern that turns at Brattle loop. That would help bolster the Medford branch.

Do they have trippers/RAD anymore? Just having a train (single probably) with the primary responsibility of Brattle Loop - Union Square or Medford/Tufts as needed seems like it could help a lot. Filling in gaps to the northern terminii and giving more flexibility to short-turn D/E at North Station.

 

[TheRatmeister]

The biggest problem with this proposal may be that Medford/Tufts has limited terminal capacity, thanks to bumper blocks at the end of the station. IIRC, someone mentioned that during a past temporary construction schedule when they tried to terminate both the D and E trains at Medford/Tufts (or maybe it was Union Square?), there was was chaos.

Two points:

1. I suspect it's a lot less bad if you have an actual process for doing it and don't just try winging it for a weekend.
2. I also suspect that since one of the two services doesn't need to deal with the mess of the central subway, the total chaos that happens when two branches with super irregular service patterns meet can be avoided.
3. We don't really need two branches worth of frequency for this, that would work out to something like every 3.5 minutes at peak times, I think just having every 5-7 minutes all day would make a big difference.

(This is also why an extension to Route 16 would be really helpful. You may even be able to permanently extend the C to Medford branch with that extension built.)

Could you explain how, exactly? I don't think the site at Mystic Valley Pkwy is really large enough to have either a turning loop or more than two stub-end platforms.

 

[Longfellow]

My fellow Lechmere heads will be interested in this story.

This fence gate is brand new! For the past year there has been no fence gate, and people cut through the gap in the fence to walk from the sidewalk to the bus loop and thus to the train. Clearly the gate was planned for, but forgotten, maybe, except as a punch list item, I guess? Over the course of the last year several random finishes like this have gone in at Lechmere.

The irony is that the gate is about 4 feet away from the end of the fence. It doesn’t actually serve any purpose. I assume it’s some kind of code thing.

 

[reno]

A fire code thing. That is so the fire department has direct access to the standpipe on that column.

 

[as02143]

So --- does anyone have a pulse on where Medford (or maybe Arlington and Winchester?) are at with the Mystic Valley Extension? It still boggles my mind that we just didn't finish the job by getting the GLX to Route 16.

 

[TheRatmeister]

So --- does anyone have a pulse on where Medford (or maybe Arlington and Winchester?) are at with the Mystic Valley Extension? It still boggles my mind that we just didn't finish the job by getting the GLX to Route 16.

There's a lot of projects not based on speculative development (And ones based on more promising speculative development) that should probably get the money first, and if we want to better serve Winchester or Arlington there are better ways to do that, Regional Rail and RLX respectively.

 

[Charlie_mta]

So --- does anyone have a pulse on where Medford (or maybe Arlington and Winchester?) are at with the Mystic Valley Extension? It still boggles my mind that we just didn't finish the job by getting the GLX to Route 16.

For prioritizing rail transit extensions, I'd put the Red-Blue BLX Connector and the BLX to Lynn as way ahead of GLX to Mystic Valley Pkwy.