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Alewife station to re-open to passengers, trains on Friday, but with a bit of a walk
By adamg on Thu, 02/09/2023 - 5:32pm
The MBTA says it's resuming Red Line service to Alewife starting tomorrow - but that the trains will only be reachable via the Russell Field entrance, about a two-minute walk from the garage, where somebody rammed out a five-ton concrete barrier that fell onto large windows overlooking the main station entrance, which remains shut.
Because the main entrance and the top level of the parking garage remain shut, the T says riders who can should use other Red Line stations or buses. The T says it will have personnel stationed at the garage to direct people who do park there to the Russell Field entrance, along with signs and lighting along a path through a tunnel under Alewife Brook Parkway there.
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Comments
Thanks, MBTA
For installing better lighting on a path that has existed and been used by locals for 30 years or so. The area of that underpass has a dystopian / Max Headroom feel to it although it's always been functional and gotten plenty of use even before the kamikaze driver.
This past week continues to show how the T thinks their obligation is primarily to those who drive as shown by their rush to reopen the garage before the station itself.
The Globe is reporting the T police are asking that the 29 year old driver be charged with a variety of offenses and continue to think it was intentional.
It's not that they think
It's not that they think their primary obligation is to people who drive. It's that the main entrance to the trains passed under a glass roof that was hanging by a thread, and the main entrance to the garage did not. Do you think they should have kept the garage closed for no reason just so the trains could open first on principle?
See, that's my point
The Russell feild headhouse also didn't pass under the damaged roof but they kept it closed for a week.
That headhouse has worked fine without signage and extra lighting since 1986.
Now that you mention it...
Lights would also be nice on the other side where the Arlington bike path goes to the station.
to be fair
alewife is the only place along the red line where drivers can reasonably expect to park for the day.
i know cars are terrible, but people aren't going to be riding their bikes from Concord/Lincoln/Sudbury/Maynard to their jobs in Boston, and the Fitchburg line is somehow less reliable than the red line, while also being more expensive than parking at alewife and taking the t over the course of a month.
Bikes will need to slow down here
This underpass is the connector between the Minuteman bike path and the path leading to Davis Square. Usually it doesn't have many people walking, but it will now. Those of us who are used to speeding through it will need to slow down and yield to pedestrians.
That area is already tricky to bike through
as the path curves in a weird way and you get a mix of people who stick to the path, those who cut the "corner", and those who change their mind part way through. (This is true for both pedestrians and cyclists.) Add the blind corner into the mix and it can get dicey.
It might be one of those situations where if it gets crowded enough, it gets safer, because people *have to* slow down. Well, one can hope, at least. :-)
Mostly unrelated to the crash
But who uses that little playset and sandbox that's sandwiched back there? Always seemed like an odd spot and I don't think I've seen it in use.
There is, or at least was, a daycare center
inside the station building