Potential Green Line stops announced in Somerville, Medford
(Executive Office of Transportation)
By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff
State transportation officials unveiled the potential locations of up to seven new MBTA trolley stops in Somerville and Medford this week as a more definitive picture emerged of the long awaited extension of the Green Line.
 Globe file photograph |
The seven sites, which were announced at a meeting Monday, came eight months into a yearlong environmental review by the Executive Office of Transportation. The plan would lay new trolley tracks along the existing commuter rail line and extend the Green Line from Lechmere Station in East Cambridge to Mystic Valley Parkway in Somerville by Dec. 31, 2014.
The locations of potential stations include Brickbottom at Washington Street, Gilman Square at Medford Street, and Lowell Street, all of which are in Somerville. The trolley would then roll into Medford and stop twice on Boston Avenue at Ball Square and Hillside, which is near Tufts University. The Green Line would then cross back into Somerville, where the final station is under consideration at Route 16 and Mystic Valley Parkway.
The plan also proposes an offshoot from the main trolley line after Lechmere that would service a station at Union Square in Somerville and a 10- to 12-acre rail maintenance yard near Brickbottom.
A plan to extend the Green Line beyond East Cambridge has been percolating since at least the 1940s. The state committed to the project in 1990, when it pledged to make multiple transit improvements to avoid a lawsuit from the Conservation Law Foundation threatening to block construction of the Big Dig.
The environmental study has taken into account noise, air quality, the effect on private homes, and a host of other potential impacts of extending the trolley line. The study has included more than two dozen public meetings, and at least a dozen more will be scheduled before it is completed in September. The next meeting will be held at 4 p.m. on June 2 in Medford at a location that has not yet been determined.
Once the study is complete, transportation officials will submit their report to the state office of environmental affairs.
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