Transportation officials analyzed key features of the T's Green Line extension project during a public meeting last week, but a recommendation on the line's terminus likely won't come until January.
At a Green Line Extension Project Advisory Group meeting last Wednesday, Massachusetts Executive Office of Transportation (EOT) planning officials said that they had selected a possible location for an equipment-support facility and two possible configurations of an extension section that would run near Union Square in Somerville. They also presented a new analysis of the extension's projected ridership.
The questions of whether to build a new track near Union Square and where in Somerville to locate the support facility remain two of the biggest debates currently facing state transportation planners.
In Medford, transportation officials are still focusing on where the Green Line will end, with two terminus sites along Boston Avenue under consideration. The first possibility is located along the commuter rail tracks by Tufts' Curtis Hall, the building that houses Brown and Brew, and the second at the intersection of the Mystic Valley Parkway (Route 16) and Boston Avenue.
The EOT hopes to provide an analysis of the two sites at an advisory group meeting in January.
"We're still working that through, both internally and with various stakeholders on the project," Kate Fichter, the deputy director of the project at the EOT, told the Daily. After that announcement, the EOT will hold a series of public meetings to gather community feedback.
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), which runs the T subway service, in May announced plans to add seven new Green Line stations in Medford and Somerville.
The Green Line extension is over 15 years in the making. Officials originally promised it in order to offset potential pollution increases from Boston's Big Dig.
Over the last couple of months, project consultants have studied numerous locations for a support facility for the extension and have settled on a property in the Brickbottom area of Somerville.
Ken Krause, a member of the Medford Green Line Neighborhood Alliance (MGNA), a local citizens' group, said that the EOT believes this location is the most cost-effective and practical option. The facility would hold unused subway cars and provide space for repair work.
Many Somerville residents have voiced concern over whether the maintenance facility can coexist with the artist community in the Brickbottom area, Krause said.
"We sympathize with the concerns of Somerville residents, particularly the Brickbottom [artists]," Krause told the Daily. "Right now, [the EOT's] recommendation is that this facility be built behind right where their [studio] building is. It was clear that their recommendation is not satisfactory to the people in Somerville."
The EOT's ridership analysis projected that the extension each day would help reduce automobile usage by more than 25,000 miles and bring in over 30,000 additional Green Line riders. Between 7,500 and 9,000 of those riders would give up non-public-transportation modes of travel, according to the EOT.
Daily boarding at the Boston Avenue station near Brown and Brew will run at around 2,100 if the stop does not become the line's terminus and around 2,420 if it does, the analysis said.
Meanwhile, four Somerville groups are organizing community members to ensure that all segments of the population can contribute to the extension's planning.
Groundwork Somerville, the Somerville Transportation Equity Partnership (STEP), the Somerville Community Health Agenda and the Somerville Community Corporation initiated the Community Corridor Planning Project two years ago. The organizations shared the goal of giving a voice to local residents "who are not tapped into what is already happening in Somerville," according to Aviva Asher, an employee at Groundwork Somerville, an environmentally focused community organizing group. The demographics she was referring to include non-English speakers and people without Internet access.
"We're trying to reach out to a really diverse group of people to … let them know what's coming and what to expect, and also to get their feedback and also to voice their opinions on what they'd like to happen," Asher told the Daily.
Groundwork Somerville and other organizations taking a role in the process aim to ensure that considerations of affordable housing, healthy living options and environmental impacts are taken into account when planning the extension.
In Medford, a similar movement has emerged, and Tufts community members have become engaged in the process.
Deciding where to place the terminus is "sort of the major unresolved issue on the project," Krause said. "We want to keep that on the forefront, and we want to make sure we can get as much effective input [as we can] in the affected areas [to] share with [the] EOT." The MGNA and STEP both endorse an end station at Boston Avenue and the Mystic Valley Parkway.
The two groups will co-sponsor an informational meeting on campus on Monday evening, focusing on the potential terminus location. The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. in the Sophia Gordon Multipurpose Room.
