Underground station layouts

[The EGE]

I'll do my best to get Haymarket done this weekend. It's a tricky one - Google Maps only has the OL lobby and misaligned OL platforms - so I might not be able to get it as precise as the others.

 

[BeyondRevenue]

I've always wondered how much of this image is being used:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/925332167382663170

 

[The EGE]

From my current understanding: The OL platforms are more or less unmodified, except for the addition of elevators. (The Washington Street Tunnel was built for 8-car trains of 46-foot cars, and platforms required only minor lengthening for 6-car trains of the modern 65-foot cars). The OL lobby has had stair reconfigurations but is largely the same shape. The OL headhouse is completely changed, having been rebuilt in 1971-76 during urban renewal, and modified again with the Parcel 7 construction around it in the 90s.

The GL side, on the other hand, is completely different. The island platform opened in 1971 occupies the center track spaces, and is parallel to the OL platforms. Approximately the western third of the old platforms are taken up by the modern fare lobby (which was constructed without closing the GL platforms, though the surface entrance was closed for four years), while the rest is abandoned.

I'm doubtful that you could provide direct access to the GL platform from the OL lobby. Both lines are fairly shallow - the OL platforms just 19.5 feet below street level - and that lobby is compressed into a short basement story. The GL is even shallower; the GL and OL platforms are about level with each other.

 

[whighlander]

From my current understanding: The OL platforms are more or less unmodified, except for the addition of elevators. (The Washington Street Tunnel was built for 8-car trains of 46-foot cars, and platforms required only minor lengthening for 6-car trains of the modern 65-foot cars). The OL lobby has had stair reconfigurations but is largely the same shape. The OL headhouse is completely changed, having been rebuilt in 1971-76 during urban renewal, and modified again with the Parcel 7 construction around it in the 90s.

The GL side, on the other hand, is completely different. The island platform opened in 1971 occupies the center track spaces, and is parallel to the OL platforms. Approximately the western third of the old platforms are taken up by the modern fare lobby (which was constructed without closing the GL platforms, though the surface entrance was closed for four years), while the rest is abandoned.

I'm doubtful that you could provide direct access to the GL platform from the OL lobby. Both lines are fairly shallow - the OL platforms just 19.5 feet below street level - and that lobby is compressed into a short basement story. The GL is even shallower; the GL and OL platforms are about level with each other.

View attachment 4247

EGE -- fantastic find!!

That's a drawing from the era when people knew how to draw and write on drawings -- we shan't see that kind of craft again barring a complete collapse of modern technology

 

[Charlie_mta]

EGE -- fantastic find!!

That's a drawing from the era when people knew how to draw and write on drawings -- we shan't see that kind of craft again barring a complete collapse of modern technology

Yes, those drawings from the Boston Elevated Railway (BERY) engineers and drafters are true works of art.

 

[BeyondRevenue]

So I'm thinking the green line isn't sharing that wall anymore and I'm wondering which island from that first drawing the MBTA ended up using. Also, Washington Street is further west comparing the 1937 map to today. https://www.mapjunction.com/. If only somebody had a modern siteplan. Oh, and I totally agree with the praise of those older drafting efforts. So human and approachable. Art indeed.

 

[Charlie_mta]

So I'm thinking the green line isn't sharing that wall anymore and I'm wondering which island from that first drawing the MBTA ended up using. Also, Washington Street is further west comparing the 1937 map to today. https://www.mapjunction.com/. If only somebody had a modern siteplan. Oh, and I totally agree with the praise of those older drafting efforts. So human and approachable. Art indeed.

As I recall (and I could be wrong), the current station is not using one of the original islands, and it is not in the same location as the original station. The following is from Wikipedia: "On May 10, 1971, the MBTA opened a new Green Line platform at Haymarket, located south (inbound) of the 1898-built station. The new island platform occupies the space of the former center tracks, which were reconnected to the through tracks just south of the new platform.[3] The original 1898 platforms are still visible in the tunnel from Green Line cars traveling just north of the new platforms. The empty space is now used for electrical equipment and occasional storage. "

That is what I recall seeing when I was a teenager at the time.

 

[F-Line to Dudley]

As I recall (and I could be wrong), the current station is not using one of the original islands, and it is not in the same location as the original station. The following is from Wikipedia: "On May 10, 1971, the MBTA opened a new Green Line platform at Haymarket, located south (inbound) of the 1898-built station. The new island platform occupies the space of the former center tracks, which were reconnected to the through tracks just south of the new platform.[3] The original 1898 platforms are still visible in the tunnel from Green Line cars traveling just north of the new platforms. The empty space is now used for electrical equipment and occasional storage. "

That is what I recall seeing when I was a teenager at the time.

The new alignment to the North Station superstation cuts across the old 1897-1971 station, so the old remnant isn't what it used to be 20 years ago. But you can still see it on the other side of the wall. As the diagram shows, quad-track used to continue through Haymarket instead of stopping at the foot of it. This was back when lots more service from the north was going into Brattle Loop for turnbacks, and when former North Station Surface @ Canal St. distributed multiple branches to Charlestown instead of being a stub-end. The platforms were very narrow and claustrophobic, and dangerously pinched at the ends because of the curve it resided on. That's why they sought to relocate the station 50 years ago on the much fatter current 2-track island platform located on fully tangent track. The old Haymarket, had it remained to this day, would've turned into a nasty little dwell clog under post-GLX loading because of how constrained the platforms were.

 

[estyle]

Thank you all for the compliments and recommendations! I may mess around with the color scheme at some point. In the meantime, here are today's stations:

View attachment 4112View attachment 4113View attachment 4114

Jumping on the bandwagon of admiration. As someone who had to use elevators for a while it was so frustrating that there is no way to know where any station's elevators are from outside. Such a simple piece of information that is totally missing from the MBTA. It is also so interesting to see how these fit/relate to the context of the city.

I can dream of a day where we have Japan style numbered exits so you could know exactly where you would come out above ground. But accessibility info seems so critical.

 

[The EGE]

As requested, Haymarket. Probably not quite as accurate as the previous ones.

 

[BeyondRevenue]

As requested, Haymarket. Probably not quite as accurate as the previous ones.

View attachment 4331

That's closer than I would have got! And it shows where the opportunities are. Great work, EGE!

 

[whighlander]

As requested, Haymarket. Probably not quite as accurate as the previous ones.

View attachment 4331

EGE -- I know its not part of your usual Modus or perhaps your usual Operandi -- But where is the footprint of the State Street Tower with respect to the platforms and lobbies?

 

[BeyondRevenue]

EGE -- I know its not part of your usual Modus or perhaps your usual Operandi -- But where is the footprint of the State Street Tower with respect to the platforms and lobbies?

About a quarter mile down Congress Street? /snark
Though to be honest, State Street is equally as confusing as Haymarket.

 

[The EGE]

From my shelter-in-place for your Sunday morning viewing pleasure: Harvard.

Thanks here to an AB member (feel free to identify yourself) for some drawings of the layout, because Harvard is quite wacky. No straight lines, and lots of ramps. What really amazed me here is the amount of non-public space in the station complex. In addition to the well-known Eliot Shops lead tunnel (the light pink box at bottom left), there are two levels of rooms at the north end of the Red Line platforms, and east of the lobby. I'm quite curious if these are offices, or storage areas, or largely unused.

Yellow and red are the upper (NB) platforms; orange and magenta are lower. At bottom right, three former platforms are visible. These are (N to S) part of the original upper (outbound), part of the original lower (inbound) and 1981-83 Harvard-Holyoke platform.

 

[F-Line to Dudley]

The tix windows were in-use until the early-2000's before the Charlie gates as a main branch for selling/distributing monthly passes. Though I can never remember more than a few of the windows being open at once, in the 'analog' era it must have been busy enough to keep the whole storefront occupied. I'm guessing the large tix office presence meant that there was also a large contingent of misc.-function desk jockeys in the offices behind them who have probably since been consolidated to downtown. Sort of like how all the occupants of the makeshift office/storage row behind the false wall in the Winter St. Concourse were consolidated out of those spaces a minimum full decade before they tore down the divider and got rid of it all for a wider concourse. There really isn't a need anymore for permanent satellite office space when field workers can digitally communicate with HQ without need for stopovers at outlying offices. Unless a station qualifies for a small Transit Police office these are all pretty much just relics. Here and also at Alewife, which has a lot of similar unoccupied office nooks-and-crannies.

While that tix window would be prime space for a retailer, the depth of the space makes it a rough fit for finding one. The usual suspects for subway stations like food kiosks just don't require anywhere close to the depth of all this back-office space, and if you're just doing a food court row at the tix windows the crowding can conflict with flow up and down the main stairs. Maybe a Cumbys or CVS or something which can stock rows upon rows of stuff to fill the square footage and house its lines entirely inside, but there's no shortage of that kind of retail in Harvard Sq. and their operating costs would be shitty when it comes to loading inventory down into the station because there's no loading dock big enough for anything larger than the current Dunkies, etc. kiosks. It's a rough fit any which way, so I don't hold out much hope of them finding anything internally useful or more than trace revenue-generating for all that space.


Service entrance to the Eliot Shops tunnel comes from the offices behind the tix windows, as it runs on the other side of the big curving wall at the bottom of the main stairs. If Urban Ring LRT's Harvard Branch were to re-use the tunnel for a stub-end terminal (practically speaking injection there is Alt. 1 and injection into bus tunnel is Alt. 2 for any detailed scoping study), it would probably end up demolishing the tix windows and vacant back offices to hollow out that space for a concourse expansion. Then the existing array of Charlie gates would be rearranged in a sort of ring pattern sweeping across the whole station incorporating passage behind fare control to the expansion concourse area. May have to duck around a corner to access the LRT stub-end platforms depending on what walls are load-bearing back there, but most of the separation between old and new infrastructure on that side is in the form of false walls so they can definitely knock out a large enough concourse connector for access. Furthest the LRT trains could feasibly travel is the end of the tangent tri-track section before the tunnel splits into bores and goes bi-level. Center track serves up the space for a GLT-length island stub platform, and there is probably enough tri-track space leftover to the old portal for a center pocket track of 1-2 trains' storage past the platform...whereas there is no room to pass into the single-track divided bores and fit platforms. The only practical demerit with that platform siting is a somewhat large number of total footsteps to make a behind- fare control transfer between Green and Red/bus. If the busted-out egress behind the tix windows hits the repurposed tunnel inside the end of the ex-outbound divided bore (which I think it does), it would take up to a few dozen feet of additional walking to reach the end of the new LRT platform in the ex- tri-track area from the concourse. Not that that's anything we'd complain about given what exponential transit access Harvard would be gaining, but if you thought the station was a bit too sprawly today on bus vs. Red walking distance this new LRT wing will leave you catching your breath a bit more as you sprint between transfers.

 

[stefal]

The lower level rooms you're referring to, EGE, are mostly staff bathrooms, storage, or are unused and likely flooding to some degree. A good amount of the rooms you are referring to are also gigantic ventilation shafts and their associated electrical and mechanical rooms. A small number are pump rooms, and a few, I believe, were penned in 1985 to be future retail locations, but they never came to fruition. There have been minor changes to the back rooms too since the elevator project, so some of the uses and layouts of the rooms could have changed since then as well.

 

[The EGE]

Aquarium and Davis. Not quite sure about the headhouse stair positions for Davis.

 

[The EGE]

Boylston. I didn't realize till now just how much platform area is behind the 1980s-installed fences.

 

[The EGE]

Mass Ave isn't very exciting...

But Symphony is pretty weird. Because of the Huntington Ave underpass separating the platforms, it's as wide as it is long. The long-closed ped underpass is definitely intact, as is at least one of the former stairs on the inbound side. (Anyone have any details when they were replaced with the current ones? Part of the Symphony Plaza Towers construction?)

 

[F-Line to Dudley]

1978-79 was the Symphony stairs realignment...and yes, it was for the Symphony Plaza Towers construction. Former stairs, uncovered by street construction in 2015:

Ped underpass was closed 1962 during a budget crisis when the station went temporarily unstaffed, and then was simply never was reopened because Symphony was always the first station to get service or amenities chopped back in any sort of financial instability (closing outright during the big budget shock of '81-82).

This was the last station besides Boylston to stay totally unrenovated for Cambridge Seven design motifs...BERy-era white glossy wall tile and 1940's-generic incandescent bowl lighting lasting until around 1987-88 long after E service had been restored from its "temporary" shutdown back to Brigham Circle.