Red Line Construction

Spatch said:
I commute on the Red Line and enjoy watching the Charles station's progress as I go by every day. I think the hybrid look is fascinating.

My one worry is the large wooden panels they've placed up on either side of the elevated tracks between the Charles platform and the portal to Park Street. I surely hope these are temporary panels, either to block construction noise or welding sparks or otherwise, because they completely ruin a lovely view. I feel like we're driving down a highway surrounded by the 50-foot NIMBY walls. Does anyone have any knowledge of these panels and whether or not they'll be removed once construction is finished?
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The panels are copper-green on the outside and they're noise barriers, so yes, they're there to stay. The glass headhouse is a hack job, but the access to the station is very easy and they did a fine job renovating the old platform, which now has casement windows and mottled red tile. I'll post some pics soon.

justin
 
As promised:

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Comparison with the original:

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Notice that the same kind of tile (if that's what it is) is used for the sound barrier and the station piers:

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The metal panels covering the entrance awning are really ugly, and they're used all over the station. The diagonal pole is all that is left of the original bold design.

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The interior is quite spacious, though it's not clear to me why they didn't move the platform a bit toward the inbound end, where the useless left wall with windows is; the curve is not too bad. You can't see it in the picture, but the row of windows on the left varies in size to accomodate various changes in geometry, for an exceedingly clunky effect,

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The old platform itself is nicely redone, with red tiles and new windows. For once they covered up all the piping on the ceiling.

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Comparison with before:

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All in all, an improvement, but not architecture.

justin
 
Disappointment

Really disappointed that the extended section of the platform was not covered in any fashion

And for that matter what is the reason for not covering the track with a lightweight glass canopy -- then standing on the platform in February in a snow / rain event wouldn't be so unpleasant

westy
 
I was pretty shocked that the new station didnt even include an enclosed area where passengers could stay warm while awaiting the train during winter.

MBTA stations possess some of the most inhospitable climates in Boston. In the summer their underground stations are stiflingly hot and dank; and in the winter their aboveground stations offer absolutely no shelter from the freezing temperatures outside. It's pretty clear that passenger comfort is not very high on the MBTA's list of priorities.
 
briv said:
...In the summer their underground stations are stiflingly hot and dank...
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MBTA installs fans, misters for passenger comfort

June 1, 2007

BOSTON --Waiting for the bus or subway is about to become a little more bearable.

The MBTA plans on installing fans and misters at some particularly hot and sweaty subway and bus stations starting Friday to lower the air temperature, by 15 to 25 degrees in some cases, and to reduce humidity.

The goal is better customer service, said Daniel Grabauskas, general manager of the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. Passengers in the past have complained about oppressive temperatures that in some cases have reached 100 degrees. Crowds and train exhaust exacerbate the problem.

"There's no way we're going to make the stations chilly on an oppressively hot day," he said. "But when you get off the bus or the subway, it will certainly be more comfortable."

The station cooling program is part of a push to place reliable air conditioning throughout the T system, including buses and trains.

Most of the evaporative coolers will be placed at Winter Street and at the Chauncy Street concourse by next Thursday. Stations getting the units include Chinatown, Downtown Crossing, State, North, Government Center, Bowdoin, Haymarket, Park, Boylston, Hynes, Alewife, Central, South, and Harvard.

Passengers welcomed the news.

"There are some stations that are particularly hot, like Government Center," said, Alex Sprung, 22, of Boston, who takes the Green Line to the New England Conservatory of Music. "That's good in the winter, but not when it's really hot outside."
 
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The Globe said:
New T station dresses up MGH area
Riders say stop safer, smoother

By April Simpson, Globe Staff | September 11, 2007

For years it was an eyesore at the edge of one of Boston's most prestigious and historic neighborhoods, an intersection with Jersey barriers and traffic jams in the shadow of an outdated mass transit station.

But now after a long wait, neighbors and hospital employees are marveling at the changes to the Charles-MGH stop on the MBTA Red Line, which has been significantly spruced up with an infusion of public dollars.

"It's just much more attractive," said Rosemary Tambouret, a 58-year-old pathologist at Mass. General, admiring the newly constructed station's glass exterior. "The other one looked like it was going to fall apart."

The $48.6 million project took months longer than expected, forcing the more than 8,000 commuters who use it on a typical weekday to rely on crossing guards to help them traverse busy intersections.

While it is still flooded with traffic, the gateway area to Beacon Hill seems safer to Laura Regan, a 25-year-old nanny from Cambridge. Regan previously avoided the Charles-MGH stop altogether. She used to board the T at Central Square, and get off at Park Street to walk to Mass. General, to avoid pushing a stroller through what she considered a danger zone.

"I didn't come here," she said. "It would be a 40-minute commute, just to get two train stops."

The old Charles Street-MGH stop was constructed in the early 1930s and was barely changed for 70 years, until the MBTA began modernizing stations several years ago, said T General Manager Daniel A. Grabauskas. The station, which is right outside Massachusetts General Hospital, lacked entrances and exits to accommodate people with disabilities, forcing the hospital to encourage some patients and employees to find some other way to travel.

"It had no access," said Grabauskas. "It had a long steep staircase that people had to traverse. There were no elevators, no escalators, nothing."

To Stephen S. Young of the Beacon Hill Civic Association, having an inaccessible station in front of Mass. General did not make any sense. The old station, he said, "lived up to its age."

Residents, commuters, and city officials say the entire area needed an upgrade. New construction projects, such as the Yawkey Center for Outpatient Care at Mass. General, and The Liberty Hotel, formerly the Charles Street Jail, are making the neighborhood more of a destination for commuters and tourists, said Councilor Michael Ross.

Massachusetts General Hospital invested more than $2.5 million into the new station, which is used by roughly 5,000 employees daily.

Ross said the new station is a success. The lengthening of a traffic island has made it easier for pedestrians to avoid heavy traffic aroundthe station. However, some traffic lights may be out of synch, Ross said. He said he has requested additional work at a pedestrian crossing where cars speed onto the westbound lanes of Storrow Drive.

Some people have griped about delays. Begun in 2003, the project was not completed until February of this year, months past the scheduled 2006 completion date. Some Commuters said they wished the T had built a bridge between the station and Mass. General.

But for the most part, users of the station are pleased that construction is done.

"It definitely looks a lot better," said Jarrod Boland, a 29-year-old graduate student at MIT who lives on Beacon Hill. "Hopefully, they'll start to clean up all of Cambridge Street."

April Simpson can be reached at asimpson@globe.com.
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Link
 
The station looks nice but it really is not finished yet. Some small areas near the glass walls are still roped off, as are the exit doors that face east.
 
It is a great station for sure. Last time I was there I was very pleased when I got off there. A great improvement.
 
It's still absurd and annoying to be a pedestrian crossing on the Beacon Hill side near the CVS.
 
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I think the material on the right side of this photo looks terrible in person.
 
Yeah, it cuts off a nice view, but I'm sure the neighborhood required it in order to reduce noise.
 
Real Problem is lack of Protection

As posted earlier -- I can't imagine why the T didn't put some sort of canopy over the end of the platform that extends over the Longfellow Bridge

That end was a tack-on job when the T lengthened Red Line platforms to deal with 6 car trains -- at the time the argument was that:
1) It was inconsistent with the original architecture to cover the new platform
2) The old station was scheduled for revamp anyway so why worry about something that would only be in use for a few years {turned out to be nearly two decades ? but who?s counting}

So of course when we got a new station -- we got the usual stupid T hybrid

restored and very nice old platform, brand new and very modern headhouse and entrance lobby + uncovered "new platform"

The T even with Grabauskas doesn't seem to learn from past mistakes

Westy

PS: of course there was the further typical T-amnesia/dementia of not digging the sublevel station for the Blue Line extension when the project was underway on the surface -- even if it was decades to utilize it as a station
 
Re: Real Problem is lack of Protection

whighlander said:
PS: of course there was the further typical T-amnesia/dementia of not digging the sublevel station for the Blue Line extension when the project was underway on the surface -- even if it was decades to utilize it as a station
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I don't know of any prep work done at the station for an eventual Blue Line connector. Compare this to the Tufts Medical Center station which got built 19 years before it opened. The T knew it was better to get it over with while things were torn up for the hospital being built on the site.
 
First, wow his post is 3 years old...

Second, so Boston had a full-fledge underground station that was not serviced till 1987? With the station fully set up and locked? I'm just imagining the station but the tunnel goes to nowhere, it's kinda cool.
 
As I recall from that time period, the South Cove Orange Line tunnel and station were built with the expectation that the Southwest Expressway would be built immediately after, with the Orange Line rerouted down its median. However, that highway was unexpectedly cancelled by Gov. Sargeant around 1970, resulting in a long delay in building the Orange Line in the SW corridor, due to lack of funding and uncertainty about what to build in the SW corridor (a smaller highway, no highway at all, etc.)

So really, the Tufts Medical Center station and tunnel weren't built early due to MBTA foresight and vision, but rather due to the political accident of an expressway being cancelled.
 
ant8904 said:
First, wow his post is 3 years old...
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Haha there was something wrong with the forum for a little bit and the thread was somehow at the top of page 1 along with the rest of the current threads. I'm not making this up...
 
some new posts about Science Park station (on the Green Line) were briefly in this thread before being moved to a more appropriate one.
 
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