Green Line extension to Tufts, maybe...

[hauntmeister.livejournal.com]

Okay, this is more Tufts-related than Davis Square related, but I figured it was close enough! First, it looks as though the Green line will extend into Somerville...Hurray!

But there are two competing proposals for the route the extension will take. Either way, it would begin from Lechmere, and then either go one stop into Union Square (and stop there) or through east Somerville to Tufts, making three or four stops along the way. You can read the Somerville Journal article about it, though the proposals make more sense if you can see the maps in the printed version.

Let me encourage people to write a letter to the Somerville Journal (if you do it today, it'll be in this week's paper) at Somerville@cnc.com and support your proposal of choice. My feeling is that the longer extension into Tufts makes more sense than a single shunt into Union Square.

Comments

[dmaze]

From the north, Wellington seems to be a popular "park and T" destination; I assume from the parking garages in the area that Malden Center is as well. I guess a hypothetical stop at Boston Ave. and Harvard St. in Medford would be in about the right place, or at Boston Ave. and Mystic Valley Pkwy., or even West Medford, but the roads going west from 93 aren't really that friendly (and seem to be a little overburdened to start with). My initial suspicion is that the road layout will lead people to stay on the orange line, or at Alewife, for driving to the subway.

(This leads me to wonder if people drive from outer suburbs to Anderson RTC in Woburn, which I believe has lots of parking and advertising from both 93 and 128, and then take Lowell commuter rail trains in. But even if there were Ball Square and McGrath Highway commuter rail stops, the commuter rail would probably be strictly more appealing than the Green Line over this stretch.)