Alewife (MBTA station)

Infobox Station
name=Alewife
type=MBTA subway station

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image_size=
image_caption="T" sign and top of glass pyramid from roof-level parking deck of Alewife Station"
address=11 Cambridgepark Dr, Cambridge, MA 02140
line=
other=
platform=1 center island
parking=2,733 space garage
bicycle=474 spaces
passengers=
pass_year=
pass_percent=
opened=March 30, 1985
rebuilt=
ADA=Yes
code=
owned=Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority
zone=
services=s-rail|title=MBTA

Alewife Station, located at the intersection of Alewife Brook Parkway and Cambridgepark Drive in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is a local intermodal transportation hub. It is the northern terminus of the MBTA's Red Line, and a bus terminal for several local routes. It opened on March 30, 1985. Its facilities include: [http://www.mbta.com/schedules_and_maps/subway/lines/stations/default.asp?stopId=10029]

*A 2733-space multi-level "park and ride" garage, with a direct connection to Route 2 at Exit 61
*Bicycle parking for 474 bicycles
*a Zipcar location in the employee parking area
*Connections to the Minuteman Bikeway, the Cambridge Linear Park and the Fitchburg Cutoff Path
*Pedestrian access to East Arlington, via the Minuteman Bikeway and Thorndike Street in Arlington
*A retail area with food and services such as dry cleaning
*Several works of public art commissioned for the station, including carved benches in the passenger pick up area. [http://www.ci.cambridge.ma.us/CAC/public_art_tour/map_01.pdf]

Terminating bus routes

**62 Bedford V.A. Hospital - Alewife Station via Lexington Center & Arlington Heights
**67 Turkey Hill - Alewife Station via Arlington Center
**76 Hanscom/Lincoln Lab - Alewife Station via Lexington Center
**84 Arlmont Village - Alewife Station
**350 North Burlington
**351 Oak Park/Bedford Woods

Attractions

*Alewife Brook Reservation, a wetlands conservation area with walking trails, adjacent to the station on the north side. The station is named after the fish in the reservation's Little River.
*Fresh Pond reservation
*Fresh Pond Shopping Center and cinema
*The Rindge Avenue Extension office park
*Russell Field and Danehy Park
*The Minuteman Trail

Accessibility

Alewife Station is wheelchair accessible. See MBTA accessibility.

History

Boston transportation planners expected to build an Inner Belt within the Route 128 corridor in the 1970s. Route 2 was designed with eight lanes to carry large volumes of radial traffic to the Inner Belt. When the Inner Belt was canceled, Route 2 became an overbuilt highway that terminated at what was little more than major city streets. When the westward extension of the Red Line was being designed, building a station near the end of Route 2 with a large parking garage seemed like a way to capitalize on the original Route 2 investment.

There was little near the site of the Alewife station besides a largely abandoned industrial park, a chemical factory and a protected wetlands. Following principles that came to be known as transit-oriented development, the City of Cambridge zoned the area immediately near the station for high rise buildings. Over the next 20 years, a mini-city developed with office and research and development buildings, along with high rise housing.

A state law required planning the Red Line Extension so it could later be brought out to Route 128 to Bedford, along the route of the former Lexington and West Cambridge Railroad. The Red line tracks extend past the station, under Route 2, and terminate in a small underground storage yard. 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 an access ramp from the station to Route 2.

The station is named after Alewife Brook, a nearby tributary of the Mystic River. The Alewife is a species of fish which inhabits the Mystic River system.

Parking Garage Expansion

As of April 2008, the MBTA has said that they do not have funds to add two levels to the parking garage to add capacity, which would cost $30 million to $35 million and add about 1300 spaces; the structure was originally designed to be able to have two more levels added, but whether the condition of the structure and building codes would allow today that is not clear. [http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/04/13/t_says_it_hasnt_the_funds_to_expand_alewife_garage/]

Gallery

External links

* [http://www.mbta.com/schedules_and_maps/subway/lines/stations/default.asp?stopId=10029 Alewife Station website]
* [http://maps.google.com/maps?q=11+CambridgePark+Drive,+Cambridge,+MA&ie=UTF8&om=1 Google map]