Malden Rivers Edge Orange Line infill station and transit-oriented development

[-anarresti-]

I've seen the idea of a new Orange Line infill station near the intersection of Rivers Edge Dr/Commercial St and Medford St in Malden floated a few times on this forum, though not quite at the level of seriousness that I think such an idea may warrant, so here's my offering in that direction.

Arguments in favor:

• An infill station would close the largest gap between stations on the entire Orange Line. The new stop spacing would nearly match that found between Ruggles, Roxbury Crossing and Jackson Square.
• The immediate station area is predominantly for light industrial and municipal use today, making it conducive for redevelopment.
• The station area is next to the Malden River and close to the Northern Strand Community Trail. A new development and station here can help better activate the riverside and bring it fully into the public realm.

Challenges/points against:

• No real bus connections; no real opportunity to tie into an Urban Ring.
• The Malden River splits the station walkshed between the cities of Malden and Everett, which may lead to institutional challenges in developing a plan good enough pencil out.
• The prime developable land is in a smaller and narrower zone than Assembly. Developing both sides of the river would help, but the Everett side is even narrower, and has poor road access.
• I think there is a vestigial CSX rail siding where tracks would have to be realigned for a station to be constructed.
• Other priorities are more important.

In my mind, if the city of Malden were to get serious about this, and find a way for it to be financially viable (along with a whole host of other considerations), then a new station at this location should be rated pretty highly among projects to pursue in the medium term. What are people here's thoughts?

I will say, that while I really like the idea of this station, it would be a better use of limited resources to redevelop the area around Wellington station first, if only for the reason that it already exists, is closer to Encore, and has better bus connections.

Also, I decided to doodle a concept while eating lunch, so please forgive the slapdash quality:

 

[themissinglink]

I'd love to see an infill station at Rivers Edge someday, but it would be costly to construct (estimated to cost between $85M and $95M in 2016). My guess is it's too prohibitively expensive without a considerable amount of redevelopment in the area to boost potential ridership.

 

[TheRatmeister]

I'd love to see an infill station at Rivers Edge someday, but it would be costly to construct (estimated to cost between $85M and $95M in 2016). My guess is it's too prohibitively expensive without a considerable amount of redevelopment in the area to boost potential ridership.

This seems way too high. Assembly only cost $56M. Does this number include a giant parking garage or something else really silly? Even with the higher number, given the price of land and homes per square foot, some quick naplin math gives potential revenue from buying the land and then selling homes would be somewhere in the range of $500 million. I'm not sure how construction costs would figure into that, but I feel like there should be enough profit somewhere to make that work.

no real opportunity to tie into an Urban Ring.

I wouldn't consider this a drawback. There can be TOD without an urban ring, and also any urban ring service would require most of a new station anyways, wherever it gets built. Any savings from splitting a new station between two projects would be minimal.

No real bus connections;

Of course there aren't, it's not somewhere people generally want to go. Change that by creating new development and bus connections will then make sense.

I will say, that while I really like the idea of this station, it would be a better use of limited resources to redevelop the area around Wellington station first, if only for the reason that it already exists, is closer to Encore, and has better bus connections.

Where would this development be? Aside from air rights over the OL yard which would be insanely expensive and probably not worth it, there's really only the parking area that's able to be redeveloped. It's definitely worth doing, but I don't think that makes Rivers Edge not worth doing, especially mostly as a Malden/Everett city project. Wellington is also in Medford, and so it's probably not taking from the same pool if this is pursued on the local level (Which I think it should be).

 

[themissinglink]

This seems way too high. Assembly only cost $56M. Does this number include a giant parking garage or something else really silly? Even with the higher number, given the price of land and homes per square foot, some quick naplin math gives potential revenue from buying the land and then selling homes would be somewhere in the range of $500 million. I'm not sure how construction costs would figure into that, but I feel like there should be enough profit somewhere to make that work.

I'm pretty sure a lot of the expense at Rivers Edge/Edgeworth is because of pricey retaining wall work. Assembly was built at ground level, Rivers Edge would be atop an embankment.

 

[TheRatmeister]

I'm pretty sure a lot of the expense at Rivers Edge/Edgeworth is because of pricey retaining wall work. Assembly was built at ground level, Rivers Edge would be atop an embankment.

Fair enough. Although as I said, I'm not sure that changes the conclusion.

 

[Smuttynose]

I think this has a lot of promise. A huge area along the subway line north and south of Medford Street is just a sea of parking lots and one-story industrial buildings and shopping centers, so it's as primed for redevelopment as anything else. This would also give Everett a subway stop within a reasonable distance of redevelopment areas and parts of Medford I think would fall within a reasonable walkshed as well. Wellington is not really designed as a walkable station - much more oriented to park-and-ride, so I think its walkshed is much more limited. The concerning issue it's not really clear that Malden is pushing this. I think it was originally broached by the State when Encore was being planned and I think Everett has been more on record in support.

 

[Delvin4519]

No real bus connections;

The 97 bus and the 108 are not too far from the historical station area. The 97 in particular services Commercial St. and Medford St., which is bloody right there outside the station right at the intersection. The 108, on the other hand, could potentially be culled and the remaining slack picked up by the 100 and the 134.

This part of Malden and Medford is the last remaining hole that will be left uncovered by BNRD. Quite frustrating since Malden (and Medford) is (are) not really into vision zero or protected bike lanes for that matter, unlike Somervlle and Cambridge. (Station highlighted in a red X)

It becomes the biggest hole in BNRD, look at that giant hole in the network. There is a HUGE gap in coverage between the T101 on Main St. in South Medford, and the 99/106/104 in Everett. It'd be the most logical area to fill in for redevelopment. Travel times to downtown by car is already quite short (~20 minutes during off peak hours), but transit service is horrendous. Giant parking lots along Mystic Ave, Fellsway, Town Line Plaza, Wellington, and the Gateway Center, prime for redevelopment. Only issue is that everything south of Salem St. of the T96/101 is one giant floodplain in danger of flooding.)

The part of Main St. in western Everett near the Saugus branch RR is particular lacking, since the 99/97 bus will not run 30 minute headways like the 106 for 15 minute service that the Salem St. corridor in Malden will get with the 106 and the 108. It's also the nearest to the historical Edgeworth RR station.

The same gap in the present day looks like this. A large area in between the 89 in Somerville and the 104 in Everett with not even hourly service at all on Sundays today (I had to manually overwrite the OL in this image to properly display the gap in coverage).