Alewife station


Alewife is an intermodal transit station in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that is the northern terminus of the MBTA's Red Line subway system. It is also a hub for several MBTA bus lines. Alewife station is located in the North Cambridge neighborhood, adjacent to the highway interchange between Alewife Brook Parkway and the Massachusetts Route 2 freeway, with ramps providing direct access to and from the expressway portion of Route 2. Its facilities include a multi-level parking garage with 2,733 spaces, three secured bicycle cages, a busway with an enclosed waiting room for bus passengers, and connections to the Minuteman Bikeway, Cambridge Linear Park, and the Fitchburg Cutoff Path.
Alewife opened on March 30, 1985. Originally only to be a temporary terminus during construction of the Arlington section of the Red Line, Alewife became the permanent terminus when further extension was canceled. The station is named after Alewife Brook which in turn is named after the alewife fish which inhabits the Mystic River system. The station features six pieces of public art which were built as part of the first stage of the Arts on the Line program.

Station layout

Alewife station has one underground island platform serving two tracks. Both tracks are used for boarding and alighting; a scissors crossover east of the station allows arriving and departing trains to switch tracks. A three-track underground yard extends about northwest past the station for use as layup tracks and overnight storage.
A five-story, 2,733-space parking garage is located just west of the station platform. The first floor of the garage includes a -long enclosed bus platform with bus bays on both sides, as well as three bike cages. A below-ground concourse runs east-west under the garage, with ramps to the bus platform. East of the garage, the concourse widens into an atrium covered with a glass pyramid, with faregates and access to the platform on the north side. A freestanding headhouse connects to the east end of the platform. Elevators connect both ends of the platform to the fare lobbies, making the station fully accessible.

History

Railroads

The Charlestown Branch Railroad opened from Charlestown to Somerville in October 1839. It was extended to Fresh Pond in West Cambridge in 1842 for ice harvesting. Under the control of Alvah Crocker, the line was extended from West Cambridge to Fitchburg as the Fitchburg Railroad in 1843–45. Stops on the line included West Cambridge at Sherman Street, and Hills Crossing at Brighton Street just over the Belmont border to the west. The Lexington and West Cambridge Railroad opened north from West Cambridge in 1846; the Watertown Branch opened south from West Cambridge in 1849.
In 1870, the Boston and Lowell Railroad bought the Lexington Branch to prevent it from being a competitor. The B&L constructed a new line from near West Cambridge to Somerville Junction to connect the branch with its mainline. Among the stops on the new line was North Cambridge at what is now Massachusetts Avenue. The Massachusetts Central Railroad opened in 1881; it paralleled the Fitchburg west of Hills Crossing, then turned slightly north to meet the Lexington Branch at North Cambridge. The B&L was acquired by the Boston and Maine Railroad in 1887, followed by the Fitchburg in 1900.
In 1926–27, the B&M built two new sections of track; these allowed the Lexington Branch and the Central Massachusetts Railroad to use the Fitchburg mainline east of West Cambridge. On April 24, 1927, passenger service was rerouted over the rebuilt line; the Fitchburg Cutoff became freight-only, with North Cambridge and the two other passenger stations on the line closed. Passenger service ended on the Watertown Branch in 1938. Hills Crossing station closed by the mid 1940s, and West Cambridge by the 1960s. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority was formed in 1964 to support suburban rail service. A number of lightly-used branch lines were closed by the MBTA, with the Lexington Branch closing in January 1977.

Red Line

By 1922, the Boston Elevated Railway believed that would be the permanent terminus of the Cambridge–Dorchester Line; the heavy ridership from the north was expected to be handled by extending rapid transit from Lechmere Square. The 1945 Coolidge Commission report – the first major transit planning initiative in the region since 1926 – recommended an extension from Harvard to Arlington Heights via East Watertown. The 1947 revision recommended an extension north to Porter Square instead, with branches along the Fitchburg Railroad to Waltham and the Lexington Branch to Lexington. The 1966 Program for Mass Transportation called for an immediate extension to Alewife Brook Parkway via Porter Square, with possible future extensions to Arlington or Waltham. Original plans called for a subway under Massachusetts Avenue to Porter Square, then a surface route along the Fitchburg Route to Alewife. In the late 1960s, the project was expanded to follow the Lexington Branch to a terminal at Route 128.
By then, highway plans called for the Concord Turnpike to be expanded to eight lanes and extended east along the Fitchburg Line right-of-way to the proposed Inner Belt Expressway In 1970, then-governor Francis Sargent suspended most highway construction inside Route 128 and created the Boston Transportation Planning Review, which focused on the implementation of new transit routes. This placed increased pressure on a Red Line extension at least as far as a park-and-ride station at Alewife Brook Parkway to handle Route 2 traffic. In 1972, a new all-subway route via Porter Square and Davis Square was considered. By the mid-1970s, the project was split into two phases: an all-subway extension to Arlington Heights via Alewife, with a later extension to Route 128.
By the time the Red Line Northwest Extension began construction in 1978, opposition in Arlington and reductions in federal funding had caused the MBTA to choose the a shorter alternative with Alewife as the terminus. The Fitchburg Cutoff was abandoned in 1979 to allow construction of the extension. Intended primarily as a park-and-ride facility for suburban commuters, Alewife station was built on a former toxic waste dump away from residential and commercial areas – but adjacent to the terminus of Route 2. The station was placed slightly south of the Fitchburg Cutoff alignment, allowing for a curve northwards to the intended Arlington alignment. It was designed by Ellenzweig Associates. After Davis and Porter, Alewife was among the first MBTA stations made accessible during initial construction, rather than by renovation.
Until the late 1960s, there was little near the site of the Alewife station besides a largely abandoned industrial park, a chemical factory, and protected wetlands. Following principles that later came to be known as transit-oriented development, the City of Cambridge zoned the area immediately near the station for high-rise buildings, leading to the construction of the three massive Rindge Towers rental apartments in 1971. Over the next several decades, a mini-city developed with office and research and development buildings in addition to the high-rise housing.
When the adjacent chemical plant eventually closed and was replaced by an office and hotel development, the rail spur to the plant was no longer needed, and its underpass was converted to a vehicular access ramp from the station to Route 2. This design was criticized by local residents, since it forced many pedestrians to cross the fast-moving roadways on foot.
The Alewife Linear Park between Alewife and Davis opened in 1985. It was followed by the Minuteman Bikeway in 1992, which connects the northwestern suburbs of Arlington, Lexington, and Bedford to Alewife. Alewife became a major junction point between trails: The Fresh Pond Path to the south opened in the 1990s, the Alewife Greenway to the north in 2012, and the Fitchburg Cutoff Path to the west in 2013. The Minuteman quickly became a popular commuter route, necessitating additional bike storage at Alewife. On September 18, 2008, the MBTA opened two 150-bike parking cages on the ground level of the garage. A third cage was added around 2013 as the MBTA built bike cages at a number of stations.
The parking garage frequently fills to capacity. In April 2008, the MBTA said that they did not have funds to add two levels to the parking garage, which would cost $30-35 million and add about 1300 spaces. The structure was originally designed to support two more levels, but whether the condition of the supports and building codes would still allow this expansion was not clear. In August 2018, the MBTA awarded a $5.7 million contract for garage repairs, which were needed even in the absence of funding for expansion. Work began in September 2018, and the main garage entrances were temporarily closed on October 19, 2019. Work was accelerated in March 2020 when ridership dropped during the coronavirus pandemic. Phased replacement of the garage elevators and the west platform elevator began in mid-2018, with completion planned for mid-2020.

Arts on the Line

Alewife was included as one of the stations involved in the Arts on the Line program. This new program provided funding to bring art into the MBTA's subway stations in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It was the first program of its kind in the United States, and became the model for similar movements to support public art across the country.
Six of the original twenty artworks are located at Alewife station. These works are:
Seven MBTA bus routes terminate at the busway inside the Alewife garage:
Route terminates nearby at Russell Field because is not possible to turn left from Alewife Brook Parkway onto Rindge Avenue, preventing the bus from serving Alewife directly. The bus stop is connected to Alewife by a short spur of the Cambridge Linear Park.
Alewife station is also served by several private-carrier routes: