| ALEWIFE | |||||||||||
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Red Line platform |
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| Station statistics | |||||||||||
| Address | 11 Cambridgepark West, Cambridge, MA 02140 |
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| Lines | |||||||||||
| Connections | MBTA Bus: 62, 67, 76, 79, 84, 350, 351 | ||||||||||
| Platforms | 1 island platform | ||||||||||
| Tracks | 2 | ||||||||||
| Parking | 2,733 space garage | ||||||||||
| Bicycle facilities | ~500 spaces total, 300 in two secured cages[1] | ||||||||||
| Other information | |||||||||||
| Opened | 1985 | ||||||||||
| Accessible | |||||||||||
| Owned by | Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority | ||||||||||
| Services | |||||||||||
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Alewife, located at the intersection of Alewife Brook Parkway and Cambridgepark West 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 and one intercity route. It opened in 1985.[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.
The station is unusual among MBTA stations for using Eurostile as a typeface for signage instead of Helvetica.[3]
Its facilities include:[4]
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Boston transportation planners expected to build an Inner Belt within the Route 128 corridor in the 1970s. MA Route 2 was designed with eight lanes to carry large volumes of radial traffic, east from Alewife Brook Parkway, through Cambridge and Somerville to the Inner Belt at the border of eastern Somerville and eastern Cambridge. When the Inner Belt was canceled, Route 2 became an overbuilt highway that terminated at what was little more than major city streets.[8] 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, via Arlington and Lexington, 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 (along a short remaining portion of the Fitchburg Cutoff) was no longer needed and its underpass was converted to an access ramp from the station to Route 2.
On September 18, 2008, two bike parking cages opened at the Alewife station. The cages can hold up to 150 bikes each. To use these cages, one must obtain a free plastic Bike CharlieCard, similar to the CharlieCard used to board the trains. Cards can be obtained from the MBTA customer service agents at Alewife station, or at the MBTA customer service center at Downtown Crossing station. Though the cages are covered, enclosed with security fences, and watched by security cameras, the MBTA advises riders to lock their bikes.[9]
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 have two more levels, but whether the condition of the structure and building codes would allow that today is not clear.[10]
As a part of the Red Line Northwest Extension, Alewife was included as one of the stations involved in the Arts on the Line program. Arts on the Line was devised 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 drives for art across the country.[11]
Six of the original twenty artworks are located at Alewife station. These works are: