Cool 3D rendering of future Ball Square Green Line station

[billharnois.livejournal.com]

I really hope they follow through with the green line extension because this will be awesome.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=8Cf6TMS5dYI

It appears Ball Sq is the only stop that they did this 3D rendering for.

Comments

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

That's cool!

Could you tell from the video if that's on top of the stealth bowling alley and little garage that are there? Or on the other side? I am bad with orientation, apparently.

[billharnois.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure all of those buildings are getting demolished. More info, and other pictures/plans here:

http://www.somervillestep.org/map/

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[ron_newman]

We really should have one more Davis Square bowling meetup at that alley before it goes away.

[mindstalk.livejournal.com]

Don't worry, you'll have many years for that. :(

Unless they're starting work soon and then taking their sweet time about it.

[gruene.livejournal.com]

I was at the meeting where they were getting community feedback for proposed plans for stations. They had originally proposed putting the station at Harvard and Boston Aves. The conversation went something like this:

Everyone there: That's a giant clusterfuck of an intersection. We don't want the station there. Please put it in Ball Square.

Planners: But we can't put it in Ball Square, we'd have to demolish the local business there.

Community: You mean that run down auto body shop and bowling alley that's never open? We want them gone! They're eyesores! We've been trying to get rid of them for years!

Planners: You sure?

Community: Yes! Tear them down! Two birds with one stone!

And so it came to be...

[intuition-ist.livejournal.com]

which is really sad, because that "run down auto body shop" has done some of the best work i've seen yet in this area...

and yet, they really won the luck lottery on this one, if the planners plan to pay them anything like market rate for their property.

[benndragon.livejournal.com]

That is awesome! Also, YouTube's attempt to suggest related videos is hilarious.

[derekp.livejournal.com]

The related videos should be of the easter bunny, santa claus, and the tooth fairy.

[pakoo.livejournal.com]

^Haha!My workmates just looked over to see why I snorted out laughing :)

[ceo]

Because I'm the kind of person that notices thing like this, I noticed that the T map inside the station doesn't show the Green Line extension. I know the T loves their outdated maps, but installing one in a brand-new station that doesn't show that station is maybe a little much. :-)

[rufinia.livejournal.com]

Looks pretty realistic to me. :P

[skexy.livejournal.com]

of course; they'd need to get someone else to design the new map to put in there....they couldn't just extrapolate what it might look like, that would be unthinkable....

[nomacmac.livejournal.com]

Is that the actual station design? Do you really need to go up to pay the fare, then down to get to the track?

[gruene.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's the design.

The T insisted that there be no at-grade crossing of the tracks anywhere on the extension, despite the fact that there are tons of at-grade crossings elsewhere on the line. This adds hundreds of millions of dollars to the cost, but apparently the MBTA said it was non-negotiable.

("At-grade" means walking/driving across the tracks, as opposed to a bridge or a tunnel or some other way of crossing the tracks.)

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

What I couldn't tell from the video is if you can enter the station from the sidewalk on the uphill (east) side of the building.

If not, then people coming from the east will have to walk down the hill on Broadway, then go up the escalator to the turnstiles, then down the other escalator to the platform.

[gruene.livejournal.com]

You can enter from the top or bottom. Look at the first pan up to the station. There are doors on both sides.

[elements.livejournal.com]

I assume this is because they want one central platform, rather than two separate platforms on either side of the track. If people have to walk over tracks regularly, it can really slow the trains. They don't want this fancy new green line to suck as much as the B/C/D/E branches.

I also wonder if there is some farther-future thinking at play. The green line light rail cars may eventually get replaced with real subway, some far off day. Then at-grade crossings would be a real issue, and all the new stations being built for the extension would need to be majorly redesigned. The way it's planned now, you can imagine it not taking a lot of renovation to turn it into a track, station, and platform combo compatible with a normal subway car.

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

Pedestrian crossings wouldn't slow the trains, because the trains would have the right of way. That's how it works at D Line stations.

And it's also possible to have grade crossings on a subway, or frequent electrified commuter rail line, even with third rail.

If this project weren't so expensive because of these constraints (a billion dollars for 5 miles), it would be easier to build more rail lines in the future.

[infinitemorning.livejournal.com]

Lovely! That's well within walking distance of my current apartment...of course, by the time they actually finish this, sometime in the 22nd century, I'll likely have moved. And, also, died.

track widening

[ywwg.livejournal.com]

Does anyone know how much extra width will be used once the green line goes in? Our house abuts the commuter rail and I wonder how much closer the trains are going to be to our fence once they're done.

[rethcir.livejournal.com]

Now if we could only get a Robert Moses-like transport czar to actually make it happen. (and yes, I know that Moses would probably have made it an 8-lane expressway straight thru Davis and Union instead of public transit)

[tenshikurai9.livejournal.com]

I couldn't see if they were off to one side or not there, were there any elevators for handicap accessibility?