State wants to extend Green Line to Mystic River

NIMBY lawsuits in 5 ... 4 ... 3 ... 2 ... 1. Someone wake up the Mystic View Task Force so that any forward progress will be killed.

Is the planned stop near Ball Square still in?

Public transportation expansion is long overdue. It has been well documented that the Big Dig resulted in traffic bottlenecks being moved out of the city and ending up on the main thoroughfares heading in and out of the city. Now the bottlenecks choke traffic off in the suburbs surrounding Boston on all sides.

With more people taking public transportation in the wake of skyrocketing gas prices earlier last summer, it makes sense to build upon that for the future. I think we all can agree that gas won't stay at $1.75 a gallon forever. That kind of thinking is what got us in trouble in the first place.

While the MBTA hasn't exactly covered itself in glory in this time of increased ridership, extending the Green Line gives it a chance to make a good decision for the long term.

Granted, I do not live in the affected areas so it's easy for me to be for this, but if you can give thousands more in the arlington/somerville/medford triangle the ability to walk to a train to get into Boston, I think most would welcome the expansion.

There must be something the matter. Unlike the Silver Lie scam and the Greenbush boondoggle, this is actually a proposal that makes some sense. One can only hope that at some point in our lifetimes, the MBTA may decide to build the Red-Blue connector that would allow for just one change of trains between East Boston-Chelsea-Revere on the one hand and Dorchester-South Boston-Cambridge-Somerville-Arlington on the other.

One can hope, but because it makes sense and would also not be nearly as expensive as other projects with far less value, one cannot really expect.

I live in Medford, but I found my public transit options poor at best. I wasted a lot of time and money driving around in and around the city to get to work. Last month it came to the point where I decided that it was smarter to sell my home to move to Newton Centre. This proposal sounds great, but its too late for me and likely countless others.

Great, more expansion of an unreliable system. Just what we need to spend our money on now!

It's about time! And it should be done quickly with minimum public input. These things are planned and designed by professional and there is no reason for the man on the street to have significant imput!

Nice idea in theory, a clanking mess in practice. The problem is that transportation planners look at commuters as so much cattle; they can be stuffed into slippery child-sized seats or simply stand, and since their time is worthless the train can make frequent stops and travel at 19th century speeds. Slow moving lines have fewer seats/hour with the same number of train cars, so you'll have to stand. That turns the 9 hours at the office into an 11 hour door-to-door ordeal. Time at the gym? Time with your family? Not for you!
That's why the T chiefs have state provided cars and drive to work.

If they did want to do it right, there would be at least one (peak direction) express track laid and the express would be mandated to average, say, 40mph rather than the 18 or so the Green line clanks along at (including stops).
The seats need to be an inch or two wider and include padding, with occasional sting operations to catch punks slashing the seats (that happens only in Boston; punks must have learned it from their parents). Seat slashers get to do station and highway cleaning for 6 months (extended if the cleaning work is not done thouroghly) or jail if some leftist statute prohibts them from doing useful work.

The T as it is currently constituted is hopeless. Close it, sell it to, say, the South Korean army and require that no management or employees or union officials transfer to the new company.

Glad to see they scheduled a meeting as important as this one for 4pm when most people are in school or working, Most of the people who could possibly attend are RETIRED citizens from this area near West Medford, East Arlington and West Somerville. While their voice is important, attendance numbers that skew towards this demographic especially as this area is undergoing rapid change is not going to be representative of the community at large.

I think this is a great idea. Anyone who has been stuck in bumper to bumper traffic on Route 16 in Medford knows having public transportation extended to the area will help alleviate some of it.

NOW can the Blue Line be extended to the Swampscott/Marblehead border?

Richard M. - I think you got the better of the deal, moving out of dour Medford and to cheerful Newton (with its better public school system).

A map would be nice.

There is no point extending the terminus to route 16 without building a parking garage.

What happened to the blue extension to Lynn????

I used to live in this part of Arlington. The Greenline there would be huge. However, Medfford does have the Orange line already and Arlington is right up the road from Alewife . Where will these people park?

Nice proposal, but I am sure it will just mean they will mismanage that as well. The construction will be over budget and take years longer than expected and then the MBTA will claim they need to raise the fares again to cover the costs of mismanagement.

This is great! Kudos to the state for making the best decision for our communities and our mobility.

!4, just pull up Google Earth. The new Green line will run along the existing commuter rail tracks in Medford. The terminus will be next door to Whole Foods where the tracks cross Alewife Brook Parkway.

nevermind the green line.. it's archaic and should be scrapped and replaced with better faster moving cars. why not do something like extend the red line out past alewife into stoneham/woburn/burlington and pick up medford/somerville along the way with a secondary spur line like the old ashmont/braintree split? The trains are much more efficient and comfortable.

Total Fail. Added congestion at RT 16 and destruction to the mystic water shed.
Trust me, you will ride the green line to Boston ONCE from Medford. 3hr round trip, nice.

Good news for transportation. Unfortunately that goes through some of the tightest residential spaces on the tracks.

Everyone that whines about NIMBY should think about how they'd feel if the state wanted to take their backyard, put a train through it, and pay prices that match a deflated market. We're going to be financially hosed for years to come, and absolutely no one's going to notice. This has been one of the most alienating experiences in my life.

Barbara - I was thinking the same.

And who is going to 4PM to listen? Those most affected either way are most likely working!

Instead of extending the silly, anachronistic streetcar called the Green Line, why not extend the Blue Line from the Bowdoin station in the same direction, so that the people in Somerville and Medford actually have access to a real subway line?

Why not extend the orange line, make a spur out to Medford Square. It already goes into Medford. Also why extend the Red Line from Alewife to Medford. Both could be done for less then extend the Green Line and give better coverage and a faster time

the strange part is that less than 1/2 mile away from their proposed stop at Mystic Valley Parkway is the Commuter Rail stop at West Medford. I suppose that this green line stop will be of some help... but if there is no parking available there, the added benefit is really only to very immediate area residents, who have very easy bus access to the commuter rail and Davis Sq's red line. I guess I don't really see the point in extending it that far...

The Green Line's turnaround time sucks as it is - people have to remember that the Green Line really isn't true "light rail". It's a 2 and 4 car "streetcar" with an identity crisis. Expand the green line all you want, but the problems still remain:

- Slow cars, susceptible to traffic on surface stops
- Aged, highly curving tracks that slow cars down to a crawl ad Govt Center and Park Steet
- Limited capacity cars

The infrastructure we HAVE should be upgraded before we start expanding an outdated light rail and streetcar system. Let's not put more good money after bad.

Barneys.

Yeah, that's extraordinarily lazy not to make a visual aid for this. The Ledger must have less manpower but it always puts maps with stories like this.

Green Line Orange Line. I live in Mansfield. The Red Line is the best! I just get up roll out of bed and hop on the the train and bam I'm in Downtown Boston! Got to love the south shore man. They even leave you alone and let you sleep on the train platform if you need to.

They will walk to the station. Or whole foods could build a garage on their parking lot!!!

Why not extend the orange line, make a spur out to Medford Square. It already goes into Medford. Also why extend the Red Line from Alewife to Medford. Both could be done for less then extend the Green Line and give better coverage and a faster time

Now that they've figured this one out, time to make some incremental improvements elsewhere in the system. Extending the Orange Line to West Roxbury along the Needham Line tracks would be easy and cheap, and would replace a lot of bus service. Make a short line from B.U. to Kendal Square on the Grand Junction (can eventually tie to an urban ring, but do the easy and possible first). Extend the Mattapan line to Dorchester via Blue Hill Ave's median strip. Convert the Farimont Line to DMU with high frequency service. There are a lot of really good and effective rail transit options for underserved communities. Somerville and Medford aren't the only neighborhoods that diserve some attention.

Just shut up and lay track.

Great news!

This has 8,000 residents in walking distance, with planned biker and pedestrians walks included.

As a Medford resident this is a big deal and makes sense.

Now that they've figured this one out, time to make some incremental improvements elsewhere in the system. Extending the Orange Line to West Roxbury along the Needham Line tracks would be easy and cheap, and would replace a lot of bus service. Make a short line from B.U. to Kendal Square on the Grand Junction (can eventually tie to an urban ring, but do the easy and possible first). Extend the Mattapan line to Dorchester via Blue Hill Ave's median strip. Convert the Farimont Line to DMU with high frequency service. There are a lot of really good and effective rail transit options for underserved communities. Somerville and Medford aren't the only neighborhoods that diserve some attention.

The point is to give 10,000 people the ability to walk or bike less than 1/2 a mile to get to the train. A parking garage would only add to the traffic congestion.

The question of parking misses the point. If riders are driving to the T, they can already make it to Wellington on the Orange, which is in Rt. 16. The value of this extension is for commuters within walking distance (est. 10,000 in the article) who currently don't have the option to walk to the T.

I don't agree with many of the comments bashing Green Line service. The B line is horrible but not representative. It seems to me that this extension will be more along the lines of the D.

There must be well over a hundred thousand people living within a fifteen minute walk of this location. When you combine this fact with bus service and the ability of some people to get dropped off by family/spouse's car, I think you'll see that there's PLENTY of new ridership without having to build a parking garage. We have to get out of the mindset that everything revolves around the almighty automobile.

Hurry up and build it, so that the Revolution can finally build their stadium on top of the T yards in Somerville!

I'm assuming from use of the term "trolley" that this will be an above-ground train. Considering the T ended the Green Line A train, and chopped off the E Line from Forest Hills, they'll be ripping this up 10 years after they build it.

I live in West Medford, and the Wellington station is on the other side of town... a bit like saying that folks in Brighton should head over to Heath Street to catch the trolley. This is a wonderful idea, which has had lots of public input.

The big secret in Medford is that there is no traffic or parking enforcement now to speak of. Anyone from any town can come and park on our streets for free, for as long as they want. I'm hoping that the Green Line's arrival will give the council the necessary kick in the pants to actually do something about the issue.

Interesting decision based on the fact 10,000 people live in the area. How many of those people are inbound commuters? Oh wait, we don't need empirical data to make billion dollar decisions, we just need to make our recommendations before the stimulus package gets approved so we get our chunk of pork.

Shameful. I agree with the other poster who said an overhaul of the tracks and trains is money better spent than adding another mile of lumbering T service.

It's not going to happen but given the congestion in this area already, the best thing they could do would be to provide ZERO CAR PARKING. Give us one huge locking bike parking area like the new one at Alewife. So many people live within walking/biking/busing distance of these proposed stops that to further promote driving to the train is absurd.

reducemedia, I agree! I'll be affected both in terms of commuting options and property values by the extension (both in a good way, I hope). But there's no way I can make a 4pm meeting, and I'm sure that's true of most of the target ridership audience.

Let's hope they schedule something for an evening so the rest of us can have our say.

Bravo, Bubba!

The green line absolutely needs a third track so every third train (during rush hours) in and out of the central district (Park St./Gov. Ctr.) can be expressed to Kenmore (westbound) and somewhere between Lechmere and the new terminus (northbound). A system resembling this is in place on the B route of the RER trains between St. Michele/Notre Dame and Charles De Gaulle Airport in Paris, and it works GREAT. That's right - the French, regularly derided in the U.S. as incapable, have a better system than we do!

I live in Medford, and having a station there would be hugely beneficial. Traffic on 16 is a crawl anyways, and this would greatly increase the amount of people riding public trans instead. I would be one of them.

Oh yeah, this is a great time to increase spending. That's what happens when people lose their jobs and the economy is in the dumps and housing prices drop through the floor, "increase spending"... What is the City-State thinking! When in a down-turn, reduce spending!! It's as simple as that!!

The state needs to be held accountable for the negative impact that this extension will have on the hundreds of families who live along the extension route. Dozens of questions remain unanswered and avoided regarding decreased property values, noise pollution, visual pollution, and land takings. The extension of the Green Line to Mystic Valley Parkway will tear apart the diverse community of residents that live along the extension corridor. In our excitement to extend public transportation, let's not forget the lives of those who will have to sacrifice to make this a reality.

well, where are the tracks going to be? on the street?? or on the commuter rail track bed that runs from ball square to whole foods??? the t loses tens of millions a year and yet we still throw money out the window?

Expansion? The T is billions in debt and they want to ADD to their services? This is insanity.

Why not fix the VERY broken, sporadic (at best) service, never on time system before we expand the broken system to other locations. It's easy, MBTA: Fix THEN Expand!!!!!

I am all for this; in travelling all over the States, I'm always amazed (and a bit smug) at how much better Boston rail is than others I've tried. This will only improve things more. Fellow commuters: even on the worst day, remember that yo live in the finest city in America!

Please...just...GET IT DONE. Holy cow, another insanely slow Massachusetts transportation / infrastructure project...

No matter what you do you can only fit so many trains per hour through the green line tunnels. This will not increase capacity, only mileage and it will not speed the trip through Boston where the trains are running as close a safety permits. At rush hour it is physically impossible to improve.

This is great news.... But, whatever happened to the blue line extension? North Shore commuters are due!

Excellent. Another project that neither the MBTA or the state has the money for, proposed in the middle of a financial crisis for both.

Please assure me that we spent lots of money on consultants to figure this out - otherwise I will not be able to sleep.

“The Green Line Extension will advance community plans for smart growth and urban redevelopment and provide environmental justice communities with faster rides to jobs and destinations," said Transportation Secretary James Aloisi Jr. in a press release announcing the decision.

any of you savants care to tell us what exactly is an "environmental justice community" and to what destination does it require greater speed?

What kind of organizer arranges for a meeting of this level of importance, in this kind of neighborhood, on this day, at 4:00PM? This is just poor, poor planning. Perhaps they just don't want to hear our opinions!

Anyone who thinks this will happen in their lifetime is nuts. It's all fluffernutter. I'll believe it when it is approved and funded. After hearing of I think another 160 million MBTA deficit this morning, even with increased ridership and fares, this is nothing but a pipe dream.

doesn't affect me, but great news.

Train service is good for the economy. Period. And therefore should be supported, as for once Mass is spending its money in a sensible way.

Granted the T could be run a hundred times better - its full of featherbedding union jobs - but then that's true of most things in this state, at least there are SOME benefits from this.

I'm glad there will not be a parking garage, as that would encourage even more people to *drive* to the T and add to the congestion. However, I do worry about the impact to the neighborhoods around the area. Many commuters park in the East Arlington neighborhood closest to Alewife and walk to the Red Line. I see no reason why this Green Line extension would be different. Neighborhoods that don't currently see much traffic will have a lot more of it.

On the other hand, the Whole Foods, Starbucks, and the liquor store on Rte 16 will do a lot more business!

Great idea. My only regret is that the existing Lechmere Station would be relocated. I really like the retro look of that station. With the relocation, another small part of (relatively) Old Boston will vanish, like the elevated Green Line track over Causway St. vanished a few years ago. While it's rare for me to support "progress" over preservation, in this case it's a fair trade off for all of the advantages that the extended Green Line would offer.

Yes! This will only bring great things. I challenge anyone to name an area that has been hurt by adding rail lines to it. This will mean FEWER cars, not more. Do people still not get this?

Route 16 could not possibly handle a parking garage here, that's why they put it within walking distance of so many people. The traffic would go from current gridlock to a complete stop.

Why extend the Green line though?...that outdated train is almost useless.

This should be finished in about 20 more years....

To the poster that suggested that this extension would resemble the D line, more than th B line, I think you are mistaken. As it is currently, the green line service to lechmere comes sporadically, and often the cars are beyond jammed during commuting hours. Also commuting into the city in the morning, the train is often very crowded by the time it leaves lechmere. What is going to happen when the train has already picked up several stops of riders before even reaching the lechmere station. This has a bottle neck written all over it. Two car lines like the green line do not have the physical capacity to service that many riders. If they want to fix the public transportation problem then they should either add another real subway line or extend the red/organge/blue lines that actually have the car capacity to take on additional ridership.

I'm just bubbling over with excitement over this.

The only problem is the state is broke, the Feds are broke and printing money like it's gone out of syle. If you thought the Big Dig was a a boondogle, just see how much 4 miles of track will cost!!

Sheer Lunacy!!

I can't wait! It will make my commute so much shorter. I'm tired of waiting on unreliable buses or walking 30 minutes to get to a train!

If the "state" said it would do this 20 years ago, so a recommendation is actually a step backward. And the "state"? How about some actual information, like "who" actually made the recomendation? Or at least what committee, commission, official or official's office does this come from?

So when will some one say put a rail line over near or on a road. No land to purchase and seeing that train or trolley move when trafic stoped will make people want to ride it. So what am I missing?

Would somebody explain what is meant by "NIMBY lawsuits"? This extension will go right near my house and I'm delighted. What's not to like, unless you're a resident of another community underserved by the MBTA.

Ok, can you now figure out how to connect north and south stations please? Or extend the Blue line to Lynn like you've been saying for 50 years?

Yes, expanding the green Line is needed. However, have you been on the Green line lately. It seems to me they should fix what they already have rather than expand. Most Green line stations are in pitiful condition.

Also, where are they going to get the money? I thought the MBTA was broke. I doubt the feds will pay the whole bill.

Hello! The T is drowning in debt! They are in a financial crisis because they keep doing projects they can't afford. Had they been patient and prudent they would have delayed expansion of the rails to New Bedford and Fall River and in a better operatinmg position. You can't keep spendig when you don'ty have money to pay for it.

1. This is awesome. Please build it now. Lay track tomorrow!
2. Bring back the A line!
3. Put the DMUs on the Fairmont Line.
4. No parking. Excellent. We should get rid of parking garages everywhere. It's a subway/trolley, not Amtrak! Hopefully this encourage town centers at each of these stops. The towns should start now to get the right zoning in place for compact walkable development.

I am a very happy Medford resident today. FINALLY no commuter rail to the Orange line to a shuttle bus but can now ONE TRAIN and ride it all the way to work. I realize it is not perfect but building new infrastructure anywhere in the NE is tough....

How about extendng the green line the other way, to Needham Heights? The tracks are already laid down. The existing commuter rail is too infrequent and doesn't go a convenient part of Boston...there are tons of people that could use the green line to get downtown, to Kenmore, and to the Longwood area.

So when is thing, which has been talked about for 20 years, finally going to start? 2050? I'll be dead before the green line is extended! Government red tape at its finest!

In concept, this is a good idea, but the Green Line is too slow to move people in and out of the city from this far away. The right approach would be to extend the Red Line up Rt. 2 or Rt. 16 a ways with a few new stops. Or convert the entire Green Line to higher-speed light rail. It could be done!

Residents are opposing the light rail line because it will increase congestion? Seriously? Does anyone think that makes any sense? It is clear that people will oppose anything.

"It's about time! And it should be done quickly with minimum public input. These things are planned and designed by professional and there is no reason for the man on the street to have significant imput!"

GF,

Perhaps you should consider a move to a society with a political structure more to your liking...say Russia or China. Unfortunately, America is a democracy based on the principle that the "man on the street" should have an enormous amount of "imput" (sic). Possibly this is to rein in a stupid expansion by an agency already in debt to the tune of $8 BILLION.

Perhaps the "man on the street" might not think that another $600 million for an expansion is the way out of that deep hole.

People - what is wrong with you? You live in a bankrupt state in a bankrupt country. The Bankrupt MBTA which pays too many bureaucrats over $100K is proposing to expand? Who is going to pay? Not us of course, we're the borrow and spend generations - future generations will pay. The standard of living is about to crash. DON'T RE-ELECT ANYONE.

mynmaegoeehere,
It looks like this would be more like the Green line D line rather than B line --wait until the pols start adding stops --here there and everywhere so instread of 5 stops to lechmere it will be more like 10 and there you have your 3 hour round trip--also you may not need parking --tufts and so many people near by --perhaps it will reduce the need for busses--

s nathanial -The towns should start now to get the right zoning in place for compact walkable development
You already have that in these areas tageted for development --surely we should not raise the existing housing stock to build another set of charles river apartments --
I agree that NO parking should be needed--

When we bought our house, ten years ago, the Green Line extension was on the MBTA's "ten-year plan."

Getting all excited about where the last stop of this is planned to be is like getting excited about Fantasy Baseball. They have these conversations about How Great It's Going to Be, Baby, to distract us from the fact that they haven't actually *done* anything, and don't intend to.

Please note this comment from the article, "The state committed to extend the Green Line into Medford nearly 20 years ago to avoid a lawsuit. The Conservation Law Foundation had threatened to block the Big Dig if Massachusetts did not also make transit improvements". Keep this in mind folks, because Somerville's Mayor Curtatone will take credit for this unless we keep this in mind the same way that idiot took credit for Assembly Square, a project that was under way before he took office.

This is exciting news. Stopping the line at College Ave and leaving thousands without access made zero sense. Too much fear-mongering going on here from the old-timers who don't like change and the hippies who always need something to protest. People won't drive to Boston if they can walk to a T. There are no plans in place to take anyone's home. And if you already built your home along an existing commuter rail track, the damage to your property value is done. At least now you could tell prospective sellers they're only a short walk away from easy access to the city, and this should only improve property values. As a resident, I want this expansion and look forward to it...in 2020.

The green line is 111 years old. We can't do anything to change the plan to extend it because, while other options might be better, the green line is the line that's been promised. While we wait another 20 years for this to actually happen, why don't we look into contemporary rail options? We can still use the same route, we could even call it the green line. The bottom line is that it is unacceptable to continue to use an ancient trolley in the 21st century. Imagine a round-trip ride to Copley! There goes the day.

Glad for the go-ahead! I lived in Davis during the construction of the Red Line which wasn't fun (lot of noise) but it was worth it. On another note, I'd like to compliment whoever is on the Globe staff that thought to put a decent map to accompany the article! The NYT does this all the time and I'd like to see the Globe do it more often.

What about extending Green Line, Orange Line or some other line to West Roxbury, Hyde Park or the Dedham Line??? How about investing in replacing the so called Silver Line with a more reliable form of transit?...Or even reinstituting the E-Line beyond Heath Street....possibly underground? My point is that it would be nice if the MBTA spent more of our tax money and their focus on improving the infrustructure within our city limits v.s in other neigbhoring towns.

What about the people in Winchester-Woburn? If we're going to have the green line, it would be more wise to extend the line through Winchester-with stops in Wedgemere, Winchester Center, Cross St, Montvale, Olympia Ave/Cummings Park, reopen the mishawum stop for the Green Line, and use the Anderson Woburn terminus as the end point. It has ample parking, connection to commuter rail, and the logan express terminus as well as Manchester Airport shuttle. It is also right off 93 in an industrial area and wouldn't be as bad as having the end of the line in a residential area like Medford. If you're going to extend it include everyone and get it done right.

A grade-separated Green Line is not necessarily so bad. The bottleneck to getting downtown, to which many have alluded without explaining fully, is in the BRAND NEW connector tunnel between Science Park and North Station, which currently makes Lechmere service a lethargic nightmare and promises to make any Somerville extension the same. Trains descending into the tunnel encounter a STOP SIGN. Not a stop light, but a permanent sign!! So 100 feet after leaving Science Park, they're required to come to a full stop. Another 100 feet later, they encounter a merger with the stub tracks used by trains that reverse at North Station, equipped with a light that, thanks to the Green Line's archaic signalling mechanisms, is red 100% of the time. Amazingly, there is yet another full-stop prior to entering North Station. The whole Green Line should have its signalling brought into the 21st century, and this segment should be revised to provide an unbroken ride. It is embarrassing to spend that kind of money on a brand new underground passageway and then have to stop more frequently than if one travelled the same 2 blocks (2 blocks!) on Causeway Street!

What about Winchester and Woburn residents who would want to use the station?
people would be driving through our towns from neighboring communities to drop people off there.
What about us? Don't we have a right to use the station as well
What about bus connections from the station to towns like Winchester and neighboring communities? Has anyone thought about that? Sure 8,000 residents in medford will be happy, but what about everyone else?

whi