Lechmere (MBTA station)
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Lechmere is the north (railroad east) terminus of the MBTA Green Line. It is located in Lechmere Square in East Cambridge, Massachusetts, near the intersection of Cambridge Street and Monsignor O'Brien Highway (Route 28). The tracks make a loop at Lechmere, with a small yard.
Lechmere station is near the former site of a well known department store by the same name. The store has been replaced by a large shopping mall. There is a proposal to extend the Green Line northwest through Somerville, Massachusetts and Medford, Massachusetts next to the Lowell Line of the Commuter Rail. This plan would involve relocating the Lechmere station to the east side of the O'Brien Highway. The new station might also serve as the southern anchor for the proposed extension of the Somerville Community Path.
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[edit] History
The concrete Lechmere Viaduct leading up to the station opened on June 1, 1912. At the Lechmere end, there was no station, but track connections to existing streetcar lines on Cambridge Street and Bridge Street (now O'Brien Highway), which had continued downtown via the Charles River Dam Bridge. Due to schedule problems caused by delays on the surface propagating into the subway, a new prepayment station opened on July 10, 1922, and the existing loop was built to turn subway cars, while surface cars also looped on a separate track. As most if not all existing subway service from the south and west looped at Park Street, a new service was inaugurated between Lechmere and the Pleasant Street Portal. Beginning January 2, 1923, this was changed to loop at Kenmore (a surface station at the time), and some trips were extended along the Beacon Street Line to loop at Washington Square. On February 7, 1931, Commonwealth Avenue and Beacon Street service was extended from Park Street to Lechmere, and this separate service was removed.
On February 11, 1983, a Lechmere-Government Center shuttle was brought back during rush hours and middays, due to the "E" Branch, which had been the only service to Lechmere at those times, being closed by a snowstorm. This shuttle stayed even once the "E" Branch reopened, last running over 14 years later, on June 21, 1997. From December 28, 1985 to July 25, 1986, additional shuttle service ran between Lechmere and Kenmore.
Lechmere was planned for closure June 18, 2004, but fire alarm systems at North Station had to be tested more. The "D" Branch was cut back to Government Center at that time, but "E" trains continued operating to Lechmere, and additional shuttle service was added to Government Center. Lechmere closed in the evening of June 25 and the Green Line Bus Shuttle to Government Center began operating. The new alignment opened November 12, 2005, returning streetcar service to Lechmere.
The 77 (renumbered 69 ca. 1967) streetcar to Harvard became the first trackless trolley in the Boston area on April 11, 1936. The 87 and 88 streetcar routes were replaced with trackless trolleys on November 8, 1941, and with buses March 30, 1963; the 77 became a bus route on March 31. The 80 ran to Sullivan Square as a streetcar, and was replaced with a bus to Lechmere on July 9, 1932. It later too became a trackless trolley route before reverting back to bus on March 29, 1963.
[edit] Future plans
There are plans to move the Lechmere station to the opposite side of McGrath/O'Brian Highway in order to extend the Green Line to Somerville and Medford.
[edit] Timeline
This timeline shows which services extended through to Lechmere at which times (before 1922, surface routes simply entered the viaduct at Lechmere). <timeline> ImageSize = width:800 height:auto barincrement:15 PlotArea = left:50 right:10 bottom:45 top:10 Legend = columns:3 left:10 top:20 columnwidth:200 AlignBars = justify TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy DateFormat = mm/dd/yyyy Period = from:06/01/1912 till:01/01/2006 ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:5 start:01/01/1915 ScaleMinor = unit:year increment:1 start:01/01/1913
Colors =
id:all value:red legend:all_service id:most value:rgb(1,0.6,0.6) legend:most_service id:some value:rgb(1,0.8,0.8) legend:some_service
BarData =
bar:surface text:"surface" bar:shuttle text:"shuttle" bar:B text:""B"" bar:C text:""C"" bar:D text:""D"" bar:E text:""E""
PlotData=
align:center textcolor:black fontsize:XS width:10
bar:surface from:06/01/1912 till:07/10/1922 color:all
bar:shuttle from:07/10/1922 till:02/07/1931 color:all bar:shuttle from:02/11/1983 till:06/21/1997 color:some #middays and rush hours, extra to Kenmore began December 28, 1985 and ended 07/26/1986 bar:shuttle from:06/19/2004 till:11/12/2005 color:all
bar:B from:02/07/1931 till:11/20/1961 color:all bar:B from:11/20/1961 till:09/10/1966 color:some #Sunday only bar:B from:03/25/1974 till:01/01/1977 color:all bar:B from:01/01/1977 till:03/19/1977 color:some #weekends bar:B from:03/19/1977 till:06/18/1977 color:all bar:B from:09/09/1977 till:09/09/1978 color:all bar:B from:09/09/1978 till:03/24/1979 color:most #all but nights and Sundays bar:B from:03/24/1979 till:03/21/1980 color:some #rush hours only
bar:C from:02/07/1931 till:11/20/1961 color:all bar:C from:11/20/1961 till:03/25/1967 color:some #Sunday only bar:C from:03/25/1967 till:06/01/1968 color:all bar:C from:06/01/1968 till:09/01/1968 color:most #all but Saturday bar:C from:09/01/1968 till:03/21/1980 color:all bar:C from:03/21/1980 till:06/21/1980 color:some #rush hours only bar:C from:06/21/1980 till:04/04/1981 color:all
bar:D from:11/20/1961 till:09/10/1966 color:most #all but Sunday bar:D from:09/10/1966 till:03/25/1974 color:all bar:D from:01/01/1977 till:03/19/1977 color:most #weekdays bar:D from:06/18/1977 till:09/09/1977 color:all bar:D from:03/21/1980 till:06/21/1980 color:all bar:D from:04/04/1981 till:01/02/1983 color:all bar:D from:01/02/1983 till:03/26/1983 color:some #evenings and weekends bar:D from:03/26/1983 till:01/20/1984 color:most #all but middays bar:D from:01/20/1984 till:06/20/1987 color:some #evenings and weekends bar:D from:09/10/1994 till:03/28/1997 color:some #Saturday only, some trips only bar:D from:03/28/1997 till:06/21/1997 color:some #weekends bar:D from:06/21/1997 till:06/19/2004 color:all
bar:E from:01/02/1983 till:02/11/1983 color:some #middays and rush hours bar:E from:07/26/1986 till:06/20/1987 color:some #middays and rush hours bar:E from:06/20/1987 till:06/25/2004 color:all bar:E from:11/12/2005 till:end color:all
</timeline>
[edit] Bus connections
- 69 Harvard/Holyoke Gate via Cambridge St.
- 80 Arlington Center via Medford Hillside
- 87 Arlington Center or Clarendon Hill via Somerville Ave.
- 88 Clarendon Hill via Highland Avenue
- EZRide Cambridge - North Station
[edit] Accessibility
The station is accessible when served by the MBTA's newer low-floor light rail vehicles. It is an alternative to the non-accessible Science Park stop for visiting the Museum of Science, Boston. See MBTA accessibility.
