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.

“This is a great day for the MBTA,” MBTA General Manager Steve Poftak said. “And it’s a great day for our riders in this community.”

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.

Capuano stood on a packed stage Monday alongside Baker and others including Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Sen. Ed Markey, U.S. Rep. Katherine Clark, state legislators and both Medford Mayor Breanna Lungo-Koehn and Somerville Mayor Katjana Ballantyne.

“I’ve just got one word,” Warren said early in her remarks, “— finally.”

Warren recalled "fits and starts and near-death experiences" in getting the Green Line Extension to completion.

Years later, Warren said the project will provide a badly needed increase in transit capacity, among other benefits.

“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.”

He again touted work to secure funding for the project.

“A transportation vision without funding is a hallucination,” he said.

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.

“Yes to public trains, no to rent hikes,” read one flier from the group.

Community organizers and public officials alike have raised concerns throughout ongoing Green Line work about rising housing costs around the line.

The Community Action Agency of Somerville, which has organized prior events and actions, called on supporters to participate in a march to the Tufts campus on Monday.

"While the City has made meaningful steps to protect low-income tenants from gentrification, it still is not enough," the group said in its call to action.

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.

Officials said the Green Line Extension should not be the end of the line in terms of public transit upgrades in and around Boston.

Despite the Green Line Extension, the T is still ending 2022 gripped by a series of controversies and issues.

The Orange Line, which shut down for 30-days in August and September for a series of maintenance projects, saw speed restrictions and generally sluggish service upon its return.

Issues have continued, with the Orange Line most recently running into a series of power problems on Saturday. Those problems caused delays and created headaches for weekend MBTA riders.

The MBTA as a whole has spent much of 2022 under the microscope of the Federal Transit Administration after a series of accidents earlier this year drew federal regulatory attention.

The administration issued a report in August criticizing the T for a number of issues and ordering the T to address specific directives.

The T has slashed service frequency on its core subway lines in part due to observations about dispatch center staffing levels from the Federal Transit Administration.

It has, likewise, cut bus service in some locations as it pushes to fill a series of vacant bus driver positions.

Through it all, Poftak is now in his final days in his role after announcing plans to step down next month.

Warren, who stood shoulder to shoulder with Poftak on stage at Tufts on Monday, reacted to Poftak’s announcement last month, calling it “long overdue.”

READ: Elected Leaders Look To MBTA's Future As GM Plans To Step Down

“We need to do better,” she said of the T this week.

“Extending the Green Line is great,” Warren said. “But we need a lot more extensions, and we can’t wait two decades for every single one of them to come online.”

Warren called for more reliable transit service and expanded bike lanes in Greater Boston. She additionally pushed for projects, such as Commuter Rail electrification, clean energy buses and envisioned East-West Rail expanded train service between Eastern and Western Massachusetts.

“We need a well-thought-out system that is studied and planned for and that will serve the needs of the next generation and the generation after that and the generation after that,” Warren said.

There is federal funding that could go to these projects, Warren said, thanks to legislation including the Inflation Reduction Act and last year’s federal infrastructure law.

“This money is available now,” Warren continued. “But the federal government will not force it down states' throats.”

“State and local governments have to come up with good plans that make sense and then they have to apply for the money,” she said. “…When the money is gone, it is gone.”

Markey acknowledged a difficult year for the T on Monday. He said projects like the Green Line Extension, though, give him hope.

“The collaboration and tenacity on display here can be the guiding star on our journey ahead as we work together to chart a shining green future for the T,” he said.

The future, officials said, should include transit upgrades around Greater Boston and beyond.

Even within Medford, Lungo-Kohen said work isn’t done, with officials eyeing additional Green Line extension work beyond the line's new end point at the Medford/Tufts stop.

“There is so much opportunity here,” she said. “(There is) so much to be thankful for and so much to be hopeful for. But this celebration should not be the end of our advocacy for the better."