MaxPak and abandoned railroad site visit

[ron_newman]

I walked along the abandoned railroad right-of-way and around some of the MaxPak property this afternoon. Here's what I saw:

• all of the steel rails and wooden ties have been removed between Cedar Street and the Lowell Street bridge.


• a new, rather flimsy-looking chain link fence now blocks off the abandoned right-of-way just west of the Lowell Street bridge, so you can no longer wander onto the active Lowell Line. It looks like the tracks and ties remain in place east of this fence.


• there's a new chain-link fence gate across the right-of-way just east of Cedar Street. It was open when I began my tour but closed when I finished. It doesn't stop anyone from wandering onto the right-of-way from the adjoining Faulkner Bros. or Royal White properties.


• Another new fence blocks access to the right-of-way from the 90-degree turn of Warwick Street. You can't walk around this fence.


• they've just started to pour gravel onto the right-of-way in order to turn it into a temporary haul road for trucks


• the word DEMO is spraypainted in several places along the exterior walls of MaxPak


• three new attached townhouses are already under construction at Clyde and Murdock streets.

Comments

[fefie.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the report. I had a feeling that putting a chain link fence at Cedar would largely be symbolic.

Regarding "three new attached townhouses are already under construction at Clyde and Murdock streets" -- just to clarify -- they are not part of the new condo development planned for the MaxPak site. There is no timetable at this time for the building of the 199 condos on the MaxPak site, according to the KSS rep who was at the Public Safety BOA hearing at City Hall last week about the impending demolition of the MaxPak buildings.

[ron_newman]

Someone in a truck very politely asked me not to walk around the site again after I finished doing so.

I didn't know that the three townhouses aren't part of the MaxPak development. What was there before?

OKAY, one of us that is not you can still go, though.

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

Right?

[billharnois.livejournal.com]

it was just an empty parking lot

[kpht.livejournal.com]

i cry when railroads get torn up. sigh.

[ron_newman]

Hopefully this right-of-way will become a Community Path extension once the MaxPak folks are done with it. Such an extension needs to be coordinated with the Green Line extension.

[m00n.livejournal.com]

I concur!

Although, fortunately this is one of the few cases where an old railroad was torn up because it was made obsolete by another railroad (the Red Line). Unlike, say, the railroad from Boston to Provincetown, which would be incredibly useful today, except that it's largely a bike path instead. The bike path from Alewife to Arlington would be another frustrating example. And I say this as someone who bikes everywhere.

[hikermtnbiker.livejournal.com]

The MBTA retains the right of way on the MMBT so never say never. If it ever came to pass then one would hope that it would be in a tunnel with the bike path above.

[m00n.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah right. A tunnel through the suburbs? That'll happen... (http://www.mercurynews.com/california-high-speed-rail/ci_13485480?nclick_check=1)

Seriously though, there seem to be dozens of cases of "railbanking" across the state and hundreds across the country (especially in the northeast) and I can't really think of any examples of one of these paths going back to rail, at least not in my lifetime. In the United States rail (unlike roads) has to be able to "pay for itself" so even the relatively minimal cost of turning these bike paths back into train tracks often proves to be more than taxpayers are willing to shoulder. That and we already have so many more railroad tracks than we're actually using that it's almost never worth it to install new tracks in the first place. Maybe if Arlington changes its mind about trains. Gas will probably have to cost $5 a gallon first.

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

The problem isn't that anyone requires rail to pay for itself -- I've never heard anyone make that demand.

The problem is that the purpose of government-run transit projects in this country is to spend as much money as possible, which means there's fewer projects that actually get built. Here we get projects like either Silver Line, or the Greenbush commuter rail. In places like Germany, they build train stations for $100,000 and use standardized off-the-shelf self-propelled railcars which only need one employee, and as a result can run frequently even on lines with low ridership.

[kpht.livejournal.com]

What's the history behind that stretch? Was it originally part of the Lexington branch that's now the Minuteman Trail?

[m00n.livejournal.com]

Indeed it was a branch of the Lexington and West Cambridge railroad (once owned by B&M) that split off from what is now the Lowell commuter rail line at Lowell Street (coincidence?) and ran straight through the middle of Davis Square, past Alewife and on to Concord and Lowell (back when we were committed enough to rail that it was possible for two different lines to start and end in the same place without being considered a money loser).

[ron_newman]

At different times this section of rail was connected to the Fitchburg Line or the Lexington branch or both.

[m00n.livejournal.com]

Extensive Wikipedia Article Here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexington_and_West_Cambridge_Railroad) :-)

[kpht.livejournal.com]

I thought it had been railbanked! I remember reading that article but it was awhile ago, and I have a mind like a seive. So will this project be built right over the ROW or are they going to keep the ROW clear in case they ever need it again which will never ever happen? :)

[kpht.livejournal.com]

Wait nevermind, I get it - this isn't the part used up until the late 70's so no matter what it'd never be used again. Derp.

[m00n.livejournal.com]

Ron will probably have to chime in here and be the voice of knowledge but I do believe they are keeping it clear by continuing the bike path over it.

[ron_newman]

In the short term it will become a haul road for KSS to use when demolishing the MaxPak buildings. In the longer term it will be an extension of the Community Path. The MBTA owns the right-of-way and will continue to do so.

It was used as an active freight spur until about 10 years ago when the MaxPak factory closed.

[msr-tim.livejournal.com]

I wonder why they need a special haul road when they have easy access to the site via Clyde, Warwick, and Murdock streets. It seems like a lot of unnecessary trouble and expense to tear out the tracks and erect a fence.

[ron_newman]

Because those are narrow residential streets, and the neighbors prefer that the trucks not use them. This is going to be a major demolition project.

The tracks need to be removed anyway if we are ever going to have a Community Path extension, so having KSS do it helps the city. KSS originally wanted to build their haul road by dumping gravel on top of the tracks, and we on the Bicycle Committee objected.

path and lowell street station

[smoterh.livejournal.com]

Ron,

When I attended a Bike Commmitte about oooooh year and a half ago, the BC was looking at the plans of the extension and the Lowell Street station and how the path would continue past Lowell street and connect to the station. If I remember correctly the option on the table were that the path would go up hill on top of lowell street, and continue past the VNA, with a separate downhill zig zag path towards the station from top of lowell street - or something like that.. i don't remember anymore. Have the plans for the station, the path and the access from the path to the station been finalized yet?

Re: path and lowell street station

[ron_newman]

I don't think there's any final design yet.

Re: path and lowell street station

[pjmorgan.livejournal.com]

My understanding from Wednesdays DOT meeting on the green line is DOT has agreed to do the the design of the Community Path in conjunction with design of the green line. Funding still needs to be worked out.

Re: path and lowell street station

[fefie.livejournal.com]

The latest design the community has seen on how the Path would link to Lowell St. station does have the zig-zag as you describe. You can see the Lowell St. station plan (with the proposed Path location) here (posted 16 October):
https://www.commentmgr.com/Projects/1228/docs/039_DEIR-EA_V2_Figure%203.7-14_Lowell_Street_Station_Layout.pdf