Medford/Tufts
Medford/Tufts is the terminus of the Green Line ‘E’ Branch Extension and opened on December 12, 2022. The station is located directly across from the main campus of Tufts University and replaced a station that was briefly in service on the Lowell Line in the same location from September 15, 1977 to October 1979. The station is located in the same ROW as the Lowell Line whose closest station is West Medford about a mile and a quarter north of the MBTA Green Line station. Although the two branches of the Green Line Extension largely follow Commuter Rail ROWs, there are no stations with connections between the Green Line and the Commuter Rail on the extension. The closest stop to Medford/Tufts is West Medford about a mile and a half north of this station.
The station itself consist of a single island platform located in an open-cut (with a concrete retaining wall the view from Track 1). The tracks continue north of the station as tail tracks where some trains can be stored, but there are no switches. All trains use switches south of the station to change direction with a light sign telling passengers if the Next Train is on Track 1 or Track 2. The platform is fully canopied with a simple grey canopy structure for its entire length.
Stupidly all arriving terminating trains pull up and stop at the northern end of the station. This is a problem because the platform’s only entrance is at its southern end. The northern end has just a covered ramp structure that is an emergency exit up to Boston Avenue. The only station entrance consists of two elevators, followed up two staircases between the two station tracks that lead up to a small entrance area where the TVMs are and a very short bridge over Track 1 to the east side of Boston Avenue that runs along the western edge of the train line. This entrance contains a Park & Pedal right near the station entrance. Tufts University’s main campus is just across Boston Avenue up a little hill, although the most obvious campus feature is ironically a Tufts campus parking garage.
Artwork at the station consists Waggle Dance and Speeding Green Line by Nancy Selvage that consists of panels about the artwork on the platform and a sculpture (that I completely missed photographing) by the station entrance. It uses honey bees to convey movement similar to the movement of the new Green Line trains.
Photos 1-34: June 21, 2024
