Green Line Citizens’ Group Pushes for Route 16 Stop

More than 2,000 Sign Petition to Extend Green Line to Route 16

The above map, created by Medford Green Line Neighborhood Alliance member Doug Carr, shows the walking radius around a proposed Green Line station at Route 16 on the Medford/Somerville line. Courtesy photo.

– Allison Goldsberry

Members of the Medford Green Line Neighborhood Alliance (MGNA) sent a strong message to transportation officials at Monday’s Green Line meeting: extend the Green Line all the way to Route 16.

The MGNA, a volunteer group of citizens that supports the extension of the Green Line to Medford in the most beneficial way to the city, says a petition signed by more than 2,000 people and demographic data support a Route 16 stop.

“The citizen petition and demographic data quantify MGNA’s position that a Green Line station at Route 16 has community support, and that it will help the extension project meet two of its most important objectives – improving air quality by providing better transit alternatives to car travel, and providing fair and equitable service to environmental justice communities,” MGNA said in a statement.

One Medford resident who signed the petition had this to say:

“In today’s world of high gas prices, this addition could provide many of us with a cleaner, faster and simpler way of transportation. [It] would be nice to leave my car and walk to the T,” wrote Medford resident Rick Weir.

MGNA member Doug Carr credits the group’s volunteers for delivering flyers to nearly every home within a half-mile of the potential Route 16 stop. Carr said he was surprised by the strong support in those neighborhoods to extend the Green Line to Route 16.

“The closer you got the terminus, the stronger the support was. I think the petition puts to an end once and for all to the idea that Medford is somehow ‘divided’ on the Green Line. It is not. The Green Line supporters have presented overwhelming numbers in favor of the Green Line and the few opponents of the Green Line have not. This is not to diminish in any way the abutter’s concerns, which MGNA has always said need to be addressed in a fair and transparent manner. But the impression that Medford is divided over the Green Line is false and our numbers prove it,” said Carr.

According to the MGNA’s research, a Route 16 stop would put nearly 10,000 more people in Medford, Somerville, and Arlington within a ten minute walk of the Green Line.

State officials are currently considering three potential station locations including just over the Medford/Somerville line near Broadway by Ball Square, somewhere between College Avenue and Winthrop Street adjacent to Boston Avenue, and at Route 16 by the UHaul and Cummings Park properties.

The Green Line could extend all the way to Route 16, which would require significant land takings and business relocations, or could end somewhere between College Avenue and Winthrop Street, which would require less construction and land acquisition.

Project managers are still working on details about how many stops the Hillside will have, where they will be, and where the line will end. They are considering such things as ridership, cost, right-of-away, and environmental impact, among other factors, before making a decision.