Photo of the Day, November 6, 2009: Newburyport Night 1
Heroic MBTA Operator and Inspector Honored: Saved Woman's Life
Week Around the Ists, November 1–7
Sunday Happenings
Book It: Book Events November 8–14
...And one very small step for waiting Somerville & Medford residents.
The Cambridge Chronicle reported the results of yesterday's Green Line Extension Project Advisory Group meeting. After listening to public comment, they recommend moving Lechmere Station to the other side of Monsignor O'Brien Highway and adding the following stations:
• Brickbottom at Washington Street• Gilman Square at Medford Street (near the Homans Building)
• Lowell Street across from the Maxpak property
• Ball Square at Boston Avenue (over the Medford Line)
• Hillside at Boston Avenue (near Tufts)
• Route 16/ Mystic Valley, inside Somerville but just south of Medford's Auburn Street.
And
• Union Square at Webster Street
The Union Square Station is being called a "spur" to confuse people, and because the track will split to go there a la the E Line.
The Bottom Line
Along with Gov. Patrick's recent signing of a transportation bill (that included a multi-million dollar chunk promised to the Green Line Extension Project), yesterday's meeting provides critics with more to gripe about and gives advocates something to fondly recall while driving their flying cars. The original target to reach Ball Square by trolley was 2011, and that goal has been pushed back twice to 2016.
As reported in The Globe prior to the meeting, Monday's announcement is one of many to follow. Expect more reports (an environmental impact report is due in September), more periods of public comment, and more announcements.
Image of Union Square watching a movie while waiting for the Green Line by sandcastlematt from photos tagged "Bostonist" on Flickr.
Rob Vassegh looks for cheap fun and shares some of it on his Cheap Thrills - Boston blog.
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man, i could be dead by 2016. and somerville ave will still be all ripped up... sigh. what are we going to do with you, union square?
Someone from the MA Office of Transportation called me back after I posted this item.
The basic gist of our conversation:
-- Monday's announcement was just an announcement of what the Advisory Group thinks. (I get the feeling these will be 90% accurate.)
-- The real station locations should be known by the time the environmental impact report is released (hopefully September).
-- I asked why there was no specific Green Line Extension funds in the the recent $3.5 billion transportation bond bill. The reason is that the bill doesn't specific allocates funds to it, but the State is "promising" to pay for it if Federal funds don't come through.
-- I didn't even bother asking whether they believe the T will be operating by 2016...
For those who don't know about it, there's a website that is occasionally updated:
http://www.greenlineextension.org/
The story in the Chronicle (and various sister pubs like the Somerville Journal) had some sloppy reporting by S.H. Bagley.
The preliminary station locations were presented to, not by, the Advisory Group by the consultant firm (VHB) that is writing the Draft Environmental Impact Report for the Green Line Extension.
In fact they have not decided where the Medford branch will end. It may not go as far as the Mystic Valley Parkway, in which case the Hillside station might be the terminus. The location of this stop
The Union Square spur was not discussed and there was/is no proposal for a stop at Webster Ave.
In fact the state Transportation Bond Bill explicitly contains $600M for the extension, although it widely expected that Federal money will pay a good portion of its cost. But most money in bond bills is never actually spent, and in any case Mass can't issue bonds that it doesn't have the revenue to pay back
The project web site you mentioned posted a map with proposed station locations the day after the public meeting: http://tinyurl.com/5zjuvy
If anyone cares to learn more about this project, they should also check out this website:
http://www.SomevilleSTEP.org