Somerville Planning Department

Is it really worth building a T stop that is only convenient to the few people who will live in that development? They should put one between Wellington and Malden Center, like where the orange line crosses Medford st.
 
Yes, as this will also be a major commercial and office district. Would you remove the Kendall Square T stop just because few people live near it?
 
I remember hearing Kraft was considering moving the stadium to this location. I think Boston should have made a move for a new stadium in the Seaport District back in the day. Would have been awesome to have a new Fenway and Pats in the same area.

Massachusetts hates changes.
 
I think having a T stop there is a great thing. The best part is that it's right next to the shopping area.

The Red Line is convenient for the South Bay Center, but only after you take a short shuttle bus. This is quite popular, from Andrew Square.
 
If there is to be a Somerville soccer stadium it will not be here, it will be in the Brickbottom-Inner Belt area.
 
Will the new stop go in before or after all 18 buildings are completed?
I?m certainly not an expert on the subject as some of you are, but I've taken the Orange line in town for at least fifteen years and I have some concerns. In my experience (during rush hours) the Orange line currently operates primarily as a commuter service for park & ride users or bus linkers from the suburbs and beyond. The preponderance of inbound riders that board the Orange line prior to North Station, do so at Malden Center or Wellington. The riders at Community College and Sullivan Station combined could not equal one third of those at Wellington or MC. While the busiest stops for getting off are State St. and DDC, it is not as absolutely unmistakable that the overwhelming majority of riders board at one of these two stops.
If there are going to be other stations added beyond North Station, especially at Assembly Square (and I think that it could be a great place for a stop) the project first needs to be completed. More importantly, the Sullivan Sq. stop (which is essentially an island under 93 set back behind a large parking lot separated from residential Charlestown serving the pedestrian poorly) should either be replaced by the assembly stop, or the difference between Sullivan and the proposed Assembly stop should be split.
My concern is that as more TOD (and just development in general) goes up around from Oak Grove, on in to North Station, (without the elimination of commuter parking) overcrowding is going to become an increasing concern. As it is, rush hour trains are packed to the brim and malfunctions and delays can make the trip unbearable for many. If Ron?s assertion is correct and that in addition to a residential area ?this will also be a major commercial and office district? how are we going to fit the numbers of people required for this area to be considered major, onto the already overcrowded trains? In order for the additional load to not be an issue, we must not expect to take on that many additional passengers at this proposed stop (b/c as I said earlier?the trains run at or over capacity.) Adding stops by itself does not appear to be a problem, but I think it?s time we invest in another RT line, and at the very minimum, invest heavily in newer, more reliable equipment.
Is this a non-issue?
 
No, the Sullivan stop needs to remain. It is a major bus transfer point and serves both East Somerville and northern Charlestown. The pedestrian environment around it needs to be drastically improved. I'd love to see a bridge built from the platform to the end of Perkins Street.

If the trains are overcrowded, increase their frequency.
 
Sullivan Station is pathetic. Two stops from North Station and serving two urban areas (Charlestown and East Somerville) - and yet it has all the urban qualities of a park and ride. Direct access to Perkins is a must, and it's an embarassment that it hasn't been done already. I'm not even sure what to suggest about the connection to Charlestown, which virtually doesn't exist - more a fault of the location than on-site architecture, although it's true that pedestrian access in that direction stinks as wel. Same with Community College in that respect - only once did I use that station to go into Charlestown. Walking along a highway and crossing New Rutherford was bad enough, but by the time I was exposed to the indignity of the 99 Restautrant I wanted to die. I've found North Station the most convenient for southern Charlestown and the Navy Yard, which is a travesty.
 
Ron Newman said:
If the trains are overcrowded, increase their frequency.
Click to expand...

^ A nutshell solution.

You won't get the MBTA behind it because it will increase costs without much increase in revenue. Overcrowding those trains in the T's eyes is precisely what subsidizes that pesky off-peak service.
 
Sullivan station doesn't serve East Cambridge, it serves East Somerville. Unfortunately, the end of Perkins Street is in Boston, which limits Somerville's ability to improve access to the station.

Broadway in East Somerville is a fine street for pedestrians, but its condition deteriorates immediately beyond the Boston city line, after the Mount Vernon restaurant.
 
^ Fixed, that's what I meant.

Re: perkins street - If that's the reason, that's a horrible reason.
 
http://www.cityofboston.gov/Images_Documents/Public_Meeting_7_presentation.pdf

A good document showing potential improvements to the entire Sullivan area to create better pedestrian connections. Two options for Rutherford: make it into a surface boulevard or maintain the underpass. The surface option definitely comes off looking better in this presentation, especially in terms of allowing new TOD on resulting parcels.
 
I think the real problem here is running the OL under I-93 instead of under Rutherford. When it was elevated it was the same thing, except it was overhead.

The Green Line extension would keep Somerville from being short changed once it's converted to heavy rail 2 or 3 centuries from now.
 
nico said:
If Ron?s assertion is correct and that in addition to a residential area ?this will also be a major commercial and office district? how are we going to fit the numbers of people required for this area to be considered major, onto the already overcrowded trains?
Click to expand...

I'd be less concerned about fitting the additional ridership from Assembly Square onto the trains (I'd be surprised if it surpassed Suffolk Downs for lowest rapid transit ridership within the next decade). What's more of a concern is that the thousands of riders boarding at OG, Malden and Wellington will have an extra minute or two added to their trip to stop at a station that will be, for the forseeable future, very lightly used.
 
Ron,
I?d like to try to sway your opinion with regards to Sullivan Station.
?It is a major bus transfer point?-Ron
Buses aren?t tied into tracks. Have them drive to the new stop.
?and serves both East Somerville and northern Charlestown?-Ron
It?s situated near (in) them, but I?d argue that it doesn?t serve them. I lived on the north end of Main St. in Charlestown for a summer (right across from the middle school) and never found Sullivan to be worthwhile (and apparently not many others did either.) There are buses on Main St. and if I were to walk, I?d much prefer to walk to CC for numerous reasons. As you said:
?The pedestrian environment around it needs to be drastically improved.?
Walking across Rutherford Ave. or through the rotary at 99 isn?t worth it when there?s a bridge at CC.
So with the buses and North Charlestown not being an issue, all that remains is East Somerville. Does the population or the kinds of businesses there justify a stop? Keep in mind that the volume at Sullivan is very low (as further evidence, express trains skip only two outbound stops going north, CC and Sullivan) even with the existing bus transfers (which can be diverted) so the remaining volume would be?
?If the trains are overcrowded, increase their frequency.?-Ron
I just don?t see this as being possible. Not that I need to confirm this, but I'm no expert. Still, ass I see it, the stops aren?t even close to equidistant, and there are all too frequent delays due to ?disabled trains ahead.? More trains on the tracks means more trains not going anywhere and/or overflowing trains immediately trailed by a ? empty trains. The equipment needs to be improved, but even if it is, it seems to me as if we?re busing a lot of people to not enough RT lines.

belmont sq - to your point, that is why I'd like to know if the stop will happen before or after the entire 18 building development is complete.
 
If you look at the bus routes that come into Sullivan Square (many of them from Everett and Malden), it makes no sense to move them. This is one of the biggest bus hubs in the whole T system.

There is nothing wrong with the station itself, only with the pedestrian approaches to it.
 
Shepard said:
http://www.cityofboston.gov/Images_Documents/Public_Meeting_7_presentation.pdf

A good document showing potential improvements to the entire Sullivan area to create better pedestrian connections. Two options for Rutherford: make it into a surface boulevard or maintain the underpass. The surface option definitely comes off looking better in this presentation, especially in terms of allowing new TOD on resulting parcels.
Click to expand...

Yup, this project has been going for aaaaaaaages. It might happen one day.

What the orange line needs is:

New cars, and more of them. Right now there is NO excess capacity. If a train were to derail and have to be scrapped, there is no substitute waiting to replace it.

Cars with higher capacity - less wasted cab space + articulation = more room.

Extensions in both directions.
 
"This is one of the biggest bus hubs in the whole T system." - Ron

Do the buses have passengers on them? I certainly see a lot of buses at the station. Buses pull into Sullivan just as sure as the orange line does?but, there are no crowds on the Sullivan platform. (In your experience, do you think that orange line ridership at Sullivan is in anyway comparable to ridership at the previous two stops?)
The good news is that whether or not Sullivan is one of the biggest bus hubs is irrelevant because if buses have one advantage, it?s that they can go anywhere.
Now is a great time to develop a station that will accommodate pedestrians and buses far better than Sullivan does (it?s not that great for buses either. Pulling out is a nightmare.) The area is way underdeveloped and the T owns a lot of it. With all the dead underused space (a lot of owners waiting to be bought out) a far more functional station could be built.
As for the buses from Malden and Everett, I didn?t even think of them, but a new station would be so much more convenient for those buses as they would be coming down 99. The T owns all that land at the right of the rotary as 99 approaches Sullivan Sq. where the old elevated Sullivan stop was. It would be far more convenient for those buses to turn right just before the rotary, and avoid all that mess. They?d roll up to the new station where the Assembly stop is planned or somewhere in-between. If they wanted to spend any kind of money, they could put a simple bridge on top of the old supports in the Mystic and the buses would run in their own row avoiding traffic on 99 altogether.
 
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I had just left the Som. planning dept
 
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