Riverway Island/Kent Square/Aspinwall/Francis St/Netherlands: a new infill for Longwood
I've referenced this idea sporadically over the last couple of years, and in fact it isn't even originally mine. @davem quietly included it on his crayon map over ten years ago! But in any case, this is a proposal for a Green Line infill station between Longwood and Brookline Village, near the Brookline Water & Sewer building, just off of Netherlands Road, about 750 feet (as the crow flies) from the intersection of Brookline Ave & Francis St:
An infill here would significantly improve access to the southern half of Longwood Medical Area from the D Line. It may also relieve some congestion from the E Line, as the hospitals along Francis St would now be accessible from both the D and E, rather than being largely covered by the E today.
That's the idea in a nutshell. Let's talk details.
First, what's wrong with the status quo?
The D's Longwood station sits just north of Longwood Ave, which bisects LMA down the middle. If it's centrally located, then shouldn't that be enough?
However, when we layer in data from OnTheMap, we see that jobs are asymmetrically concentrated in Longwood's southwestern half:
In particular, Brigham & Women's -- Longwood's single largest employer -- is as far as possible from Longwood station. This becomes clearer when we layer on the 10 minute walksheds:
Brigham, Children's, and Harvard Medical School all sit more than 10 minutes away from Longwood station.
An infill closes that gap significantly:
I went through and measured Google's estimated walking time to the main entrances of various Longwood hospitals, from the extant Longwood, Longwood Medical Area, and Brigham Circle stations. As we can see, Brigham and Children's are much easier to access from the E, and the western campus of Beth Israel, plus the nearby Yawkey and Joslin Centers, aren't particularly easily accessed from any line.
Adding in an infill at Netherlands Road fills that gap:
The D and E would both have stops at Longwood Ave and Francis St under this proposal. If we choose the best stop from each line for each hospital, we see that Netherlands Road beats Longwood station across the board, even if only slightly for Children's and HMS:
The main question here is feasibility. The ROW itself is almost but not quite tangent. Both parcels to the east are owned by the City of Brookline. To the west, the Kent Street Apartments get a bit close to the tracks, but the northern western parcel has large parking lots separating the buildings and ROWs. The proximity to the Muddy River (and the Emerald Necklace) is a bit of a wild card, but, all in all, it shouldn't be the most challenging site for an infill.
One interesting wrinkle is that Riverway has no crosswalk at this location. (Something to be aware of if you are looking to check my math.) I can't imagine it would be an enormous challenge to add a crosswalk, but I suppose there's always room for surprises.
Finally: what's in a name? DaveM called this station "Riverway Island", which seems to be a name that realtors have suggested to create a distinct "neighborhood" here. "Aspinwall" is a nearby cross-street (though some distance away). "Kent Square" is just on the other side of Kent Street in Brookline, though would sound quite similar to the nearby Kent Street station on the C Line. "Francis St" actually exists on both sides of the station: Brookline has one just to the north, and Longwood's is less than 400 feet away; given Francis St's prominence within Longwood Medical Area, this would probably be the best name in terms of being readily identifiable.
But I find "Netherlands" (or "Netherlands Road") to be a delightfully absurd name, all the moreso because its titular street is a minor one, less than 1,000 feet long. On the other hand, that still beats out the street for which one of our most famous and most prominent stations is named.
I've referenced this idea sporadically over the last couple of years, and in fact it isn't even originally mine. @davem quietly included it on his crayon map over ten years ago! But in any case, this is a proposal for a Green Line infill station between Longwood and Brookline Village, near the Brookline Water & Sewer building, just off of Netherlands Road, about 750 feet (as the crow flies) from the intersection of Brookline Ave & Francis St:
An infill here would significantly improve access to the southern half of Longwood Medical Area from the D Line. It may also relieve some congestion from the E Line, as the hospitals along Francis St would now be accessible from both the D and E, rather than being largely covered by the E today.
That's the idea in a nutshell. Let's talk details.
First, what's wrong with the status quo?
The D's Longwood station sits just north of Longwood Ave, which bisects LMA down the middle. If it's centrally located, then shouldn't that be enough?
However, when we layer in data from OnTheMap, we see that jobs are asymmetrically concentrated in Longwood's southwestern half:
In particular, Brigham & Women's -- Longwood's single largest employer -- is as far as possible from Longwood station. This becomes clearer when we layer on the 10 minute walksheds:
Brigham, Children's, and Harvard Medical School all sit more than 10 minutes away from Longwood station.
An infill closes that gap significantly:
I went through and measured Google's estimated walking time to the main entrances of various Longwood hospitals, from the extant Longwood, Longwood Medical Area, and Brigham Circle stations. As we can see, Brigham and Children's are much easier to access from the E, and the western campus of Beth Israel, plus the nearby Yawkey and Joslin Centers, aren't particularly easily accessed from any line.
Adding in an infill at Netherlands Road fills that gap:
The D and E would both have stops at Longwood Ave and Francis St under this proposal. If we choose the best stop from each line for each hospital, we see that Netherlands Road beats Longwood station across the board, even if only slightly for Children's and HMS:
The main question here is feasibility. The ROW itself is almost but not quite tangent. Both parcels to the east are owned by the City of Brookline. To the west, the Kent Street Apartments get a bit close to the tracks, but the northern western parcel has large parking lots separating the buildings and ROWs. The proximity to the Muddy River (and the Emerald Necklace) is a bit of a wild card, but, all in all, it shouldn't be the most challenging site for an infill.
One interesting wrinkle is that Riverway has no crosswalk at this location. (Something to be aware of if you are looking to check my math.) I can't imagine it would be an enormous challenge to add a crosswalk, but I suppose there's always room for surprises.
Finally: what's in a name? DaveM called this station "Riverway Island", which seems to be a name that realtors have suggested to create a distinct "neighborhood" here. "Aspinwall" is a nearby cross-street (though some distance away). "Kent Square" is just on the other side of Kent Street in Brookline, though would sound quite similar to the nearby Kent Street station on the C Line. "Francis St" actually exists on both sides of the station: Brookline has one just to the north, and Longwood's is less than 400 feet away; given Francis St's prominence within Longwood Medical Area, this would probably be the best name in terms of being readily identifiable.
But I find "Netherlands" (or "Netherlands Road") to be a delightfully absurd name, all the moreso because its titular street is a minor one, less than 1,000 feet long. On the other hand, that still beats out the street for which one of our most famous and most prominent stations is named.
Last edited:
