Green Line Comes To Medford As Long-Awaited Extension Begins Service
MEDFORD, MA — The T’s new Green Line extension to Medford opened Monday with widespread celebrations after decades of discussions and years of construction through Medford, Somerville and Cambridge. Now in service, the extension saw hundreds gather outside the Medford/Tufts University stop in Medford before 5 a.m. on Monday for the chance to ride the day’s first train.
A matter of hours later, T officials stood similarly packed alongside municipal, state and federal leaders to mark the milestone at the Joyce Cummings Center at Tufts.
The $2.3 billion Green Line Extension, dubbed GLX, has been in the works since at least 1990. It adds Green Line service beyond the network’s previous terminus at the Lechmere station in Cambridge, now running into Somerville and Medford. A spur route connects to Union Square in Somerville while the larger main extension proceeds along five more stops as it pushes into Medford around Tufts.
After various stops and starts over the years, the T had been preparing for a Dec. 2021 opening date for the Green Line Extension. But the 2021 opening never came. The Union Square branch of the extension instead opened in March of this year before the rest of Green Line Extension opened this week.
Gov. Charlie Baker called the extension “a tremendous asset” to the Greater Boston community in remarks on Monday, joining others celebrating key state, local and federal partners involved in the extension project.
Among names, he individually praised former U.S. Rep. Mike Capuano, who he credited with helping secure $1 billion in federal funding for the Green Line Extension.
“You can’t build a project like this on good intentions and words,” Baker said. “You need dollars.”
“Between Mike and our colleagues in state government, and our colleagues in local government, and our colleagues in federal government, we were able to put together the $2.3 billion that was necessary to make this happen,” Baker continued.
“This is a day to celebrate,” Markey later said.
He discussed environmental benefits of expanded public transit, calling the Green Line Extension “a critical step toward a Green New Deal future in Greater Boston.”
Lungo-Koehn and Ballantyne both took the microphone on Monday, continuing celebrations of the Green Line Extension while thanking an array of participating stakeholders. “Without their determination, advocacy and resilience, we might have never seen the Green Line come to the city of Medford,” Lungo-Koehn said.
Monday’s Green Line celebrations kicked off early in Medford but soon spilled into other stations and locations elsewhere on the Green Line route. Where officials noted celebrations, a group of demonstrators also gathered, lining the short walk from the Medford/Tufts station to the Joyce Cummings Center at Tufts as dignitaries walked from a ribbon cutting at the station to the Cummings Center for their speaking program.
Medford and Somerville State Rep. Christine Barber shared her thanks for stakeholders involved in the Green Line Extension, celebrating Monday's opening alongside other speakers at Tufts.
She also discussed challenges linked to the project, though, ranging from construction disruptions to housing costs. "We've had rising rents and speculation that have led to many being displaced from our cities," Barber said.
That, she said, has forced collaboration to address affordable housing shortcomings and rent stabilization issues.
Despite challenges, Barber said the Green Line Extension "will have an immediate impact" on the area through predicted air quality improvements and expected increases in public transit ridership, among other benefits.
