Lechmere station ( ) is a Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) Green Line light rail station in Lechmere Square in East Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is located on the east side of Monsignor O'Brien Highway near First Street, adjacent to the NorthPoint development. The accessible elevated station has a single island platform, with headhouses at both ends. It opened on March 21, 2022, as part of the Green Line Extension (GLX). Lechmere station is served by Green Line D branch and E branch service.
The first transit in East Cambridge was a station on the Boston and Lowell Railroad, which served the neighborhood from the mid-19th century to 1927. Horsecar service through Lechmere Square began around 1861, using the Craigie Bridge to reach Boston, and was electrified in the 1890s. The Lechmere Viaduct was opened in 1912 with an incline to Lechmere Square, allowing streetcars from lines on Cambridge Street and Bridge Street to reach the Tremont Street subway.
In 1922, the Boston Elevated Railway opened a prepayment transfer station at Lechmere, separating the surface streetcars from the subway routes. This surface station had a loop for subway cars, with cross-platform transfers to the surface routes, and a small yard inside the loop. The surface streetcars were replaced by trolleybuses and later diesel buses in the 1930s to 1960s, while the subway routes became the Green Line in 1965.
Lechmere was the northern terminus of subway service for a century. Extensions northwest from Lechmere station were proposed in the 1920s, though planning did not begin until the early 21st century. A new elevated Lechmere station was to be built as part of the NorthPoint development, but it was instead added to GLX planning in 2007. The MBTA agreed in 2012 to open the station by 2017, and a construction contract was awarded in 2013. Cost increases triggered a wholesale reevaluation of the GLX project in 2015. A scaled-down station design was released in 2016, with a design and construction contract issued in 2017. The surface station was closed on May 24, 2020, for Green Line Extension construction; the busways at the old station remained open as a transfer point between MBTA bus routes and Lechmere– shuttle buses until the new station opened.
Station design
Lechmere station is located on the east side of O'Brien Highway at Lechmere Square, adjacent to the North Point development. The two-track Green Line viaduct runs approximately southeast–northwest through the station area. The station has a single curved island platform, long and wide, located over the block between East Street and North First Street.
The platform is high for accessible boarding on current light rail vehicles (LRVs) and can be raised to for level boarding with Type 9 and future Type 10 LRVs. While the other GLX stations have -long platforms with provisions for extension, the platform at Lechmere was built to its maximum length because it would be more difficult to extend in the future. A canopy covers the full length of the platform; it is two spans wide, rather than the single span used on the narrower platforms at the other GLX stations.
Headhouses are located north of North First Street and south of East Street. The north headhouse has two elevators and stairs to the platform; the south headhouse has one elevator and stairs. A bus loop for MBTA bus routes is located off Water Street north of the north headhouse. A bike station between the headhouses has space for 182 bicycles; racks for 72 additional bicycles are located next to the north headhouse. Public artwork at the station includes Field Notes by Randall Thurston – a set of panels on the elevator shafts depicting birds and vines. Some panels on station signs have artwork of poetry overlaid with images of birds; others have historical images and interpretive text.
History East Cambridge station
The Boston and Lowell Railroad (B&L) opened between its namesake cities in 1835. Passenger service initially ran express between the two cities, but local stops were soon added. One of the first was East Cambridge which was located near the Prison Point Bridge by 1846. By 1865, it was moved north to the foot of Third Street, closer to development on Dog Island (East Cambridge). The station was popular with employees from Somerville commuting to the factories of East Cambridge; among its more famous users was Benjamin Butler. In 1870, the Lexington Branch was routed over the B&L east of Somerville Junction, increasing service to Somerville Junction, Winter Hill, Milk Row, and East Cambridge stations. The Central Massachusetts Railroad began operations in 1881 with the Lexington Branch and B&L as its Boston entry. The Fitchburg Railroad also had an East Cambridge station (primarily served by Lexington Branch trains) located at Linwood Street, just over the Somerville border, in the mid-19th century.
In 1926, the Boston and Maine Railroad (B&M), which had acquired the B&L in 1887, began work on North Station plus an expansion of its freight yards. The B&M proposed to abandon East Cambridge station in order to realign the ex-B&L into the new station. Although most inner stations were largely replaced by streetcars and automobiles at this time, East Cambridge was still used by both industrial workers and by those headed to the Middlesex County Courthouse, and the proposed closure was locally opposed. The Public Utilities Commission approved the closure of East Cambridge and nearby Prospect Hill in March 1927; one train was rescheduled for ten minutes earlier to accommodate court attendees. (second page) The stations closed at some point between then and May 17, when trains were rerouted over the new alignment. The former alignment remained in use for freight for decades thereafter. A portion of the abandoned embankment near the former station location dates from between 1855 and 1868.
Surface station Early streetcar service
The Cambridge Railroad was granted permission in 1860 to run horsecar tracks over the Craigie Bridge from East Cambridge to Boston. Service began from Harvard Square along Cambridge Street to Lechmere Square around 1861, and from Lechmere Square over the bridge into Boston by 1862. In 1864, the company built a line from Union Square in Somerville along Somerville Avenue and Bridge Street to the existing tracks at Lechmere Square, allowing through service from Elm Street (now Davis Square) to Boston. The Cambridge Street line was converted to electric streetcar service by Cambridge Railroad successor West End Street Railway in 1891; the Somerville Avenue line and an 1888-built line to Davis Square via Highland Avenue were electrified and extended to Clarendon Hill in 1893–1895.
The West End was leased to the Boston Elevated Railway (BERy) in 1897. The three streetcar lines running through Lechmere Square began running into the Tremont Street subway via the Canal Street incline upon its September 3, 1898, opening. The trip from Lechmere Point over the bridge was slow and prone to delays, causing congestion in the subway. Construction of the Lechmere Viaduct and Causeway Street Elevated began in 1907 to provide the streetcar routes a more direct route into the subway. The BERy considered building a station at Lechmere Square at the north end of the viaduct but rejected the idea in 1911. The viaduct opened on June 1, 1912, though some local streetcar lines continued to use the Charles River Dam Bridge. The incline at the north end of the viaduct, which connected to the surface streetcar tracks, occupied half the block between Lechmere Square and Second Street.
Lechmere station
Although it substantially reduced travel times between Lechmere and North Station, the Lechmere Viaduct and Causeway Street Elevated soon became insufficient for the service the BERy needed. Unlike the Commonwealth Avenue, Beacon Street, and Huntington Avenue lines, the Cambridge Street and Bridge Street lines did not have dedicated medians, so automobile traffic caused delays on the surface lines, which in turn propagated into the subway. Additional capacity in the subway was also needed – more than could be provided by small streetcars suitable for operation in mixed traffic.
In 1917, transit consultant John A. Beeler was hired by the Massachusetts Public Service Commission to analyze the struggling BERy. Among Beeler's recommendations was for the Tremont Street Subway to be converted to a third rail rapid transit service, with surface lines terminating at transfer stations (as had been done with the Main Line El and Cambridge–Dorchester line). He proposed that the northern transfer station be at Lechmere Square, with elevated rapid transit platforms and surface loops for streetcars.
In September 1921, the BERy applied to the Massachusetts Public Utilities Commission (PUC), successor to the Public Service Commission, for authority to build transfer stations at Lechmere Square and Braves Field. The Lechmere Square proposal included taking of land by eminent domain. The city of Cambridge objected to the design, particularly the construction of a loop track on Third Street. The PUC approved the proposal in November 1921, but the city sought an injunction to prevent construction of the Third Street track. The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court upheld the BERy's position, allowing construction of the track, in May 1922 – by which time the construction of the rest of the terminal was already well underway.
The station occupied the triangular parcel bounded by Cambridge Street, Bridge Street, and Second Street. It had a balloon loop for subway trains (which were still made of streetcars, rather than true rapid transit cars), with cross-platform transfers between streetcars and subway trains. Terminating streetcars used a pair of tracks off Cambridge Street, with a covered platform for passengers to then wait for subway trains. Streetcars then looped under the viaduct at Lechmere Square and picked up passengers using two tracks off Bridge Street, where a waiting room was located on the platform. Harvard-bound streetcars ran on a single track on Gore Street and Third Street to reach Cambridge Street; streetcars arriving from Somerville used the same Third Street track to reach Lechmere station. A second loop and several storage tracks were located inside the main subway train loop. Unlike the Boston portion of the subway system, which was funded by the cities and built by contractors, Lechmere station was funded and built entirely by the BERy at a cost of $100,000 ().
Lechmere station opened on July 10, 1922. The new terminal was expected to be used by 24,000 passengers daily in each direction and to increase daily seated capacity through the subway by 8,754 passengers. Initial subway service to Lechmere was a shuttle service to Pleasant Street, which was intended as a temporary terminal until a more suitable western terminal could be found. Service ran with three-car trains every three minutes at peak and two-car trains every four minutes at other times. The forced transfer was unpopular with some riders who formerly had a one-seat ride to downtown Boston.
Modifications and service changes On January 2, 1923, some off-peak trips were extended through the Boylston Street Subway to the surface station at ; all-day service began on October 10. Most trips were extended along the Beacon Street line to on December 14, 1929. The Washington Street service was cut back to Kenmore in June 1930 but resumed that September. On February 7, 1931, all regular Commonwealth Avenue and Beacon Street service was extended from Park Street to Lechmere, and the existing shuttle services to Lechmere were replaced with Kenmore–Park Street shuttles.