“After waiting 30 years, this is a historic day for communities that depend on the MBTA,” said CLF President Brad Campbell. “The long-delayed Green Line extension will finally unlock reliable rapid transit for thousands of people in Medford and Somerville. CLF will be continuing to push for the expansion of the Medford branch to Route 16 to bring access to even more residents in the coming years.”
The Green Line extension to Medford is finally here. Today, after 8 years of delays, a new branch of the Green Line – consisting of five stations reaching out into Medford – opened its doors to riders.
Staci Rubin, the Vice President of Environmental Justice at Conservation Law Foundation, calls Monday’s event, “a victory, 32 years in the making.”
One of the problems with this was the increase in traffic and air pollution was of great concern. And the Conservation Law Foundation actually sued the state and said, you know, you’re going to be violating the Clean Air Act by doing this and you really have to do something to mitigate it.
The opening of the Green Line Extension is a long-awaited milestone dating back to 1990, when CLF reached a historic settlement with Massachusetts over Big Dig pollution.
“It’s long past time for residents of Somerville and Medford to have access to reliable rapid transit,” said Staci Rubin, Vice President of Environmental Justice at CLF. “While the December opening date is past the late November promise the T made, we’re excited to finally see the full Green Line Extension open soon. We’ll be holding the T accountable to make sure there are no more delays to this project that has spanned decades.”
Clear communication goes a long way in helping people adjust to these inconveniences. It’s also time to dedicate the funding and staffing needed to repair our transit system today and stop kicking the can down the road.
“Completely shutting down the Orange Line for 30 days is unacceptable,” said Staci Rubin, Vice President of Environmental Justice at CLF. “It’s awful that the T has failed to maintain tracks and infrastructure for so long that it now warrants a monthlong shutdown. Replacement buses will more than double travel times, disrupting the lives of hundreds of thousands of riders. At the very least, the T must implement bus lanes for the entire length of the route and run more frequent commuter rail service.”
Slashing polluting emissions from medium- and heavy-duty vehicles is a critical part of our climate fight.
It’s a historic day in Massachusetts: For the first time since 1987, there’s a new subway branch on the MBTA train tracks. The Green Line extension has finally been extended into Somerville and is running trains to the city’s Union Square neighborhood. Trains on the Medford branch will begin in a few month.
