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North Station pedestrian tunnel finally opens
By adamg on Sun, 01/06/2019 - 2:52pm
Kathy reports the tunnel is finally open today - no more braving the elements to get between the Green and Orange Line stop and the commuter-rail station and the Garden.
Mark Allen is pretty happy:
This is the best thing to happen to the #mbta in decades. pic.twitter.com/yWmAQqTl11
— Mark Allen (@markgrassojr) January 6, 2019
Thanks for the heads up! Here are views from the inside: pic.twitter.com/rItju9O5VM
— Jared Alves (@JAlves6) January 6, 2019
The new mid-block Causeway Street entrance is also open: pic.twitter.com/ZcTLR3Pb4z
— Jared Alves (@JAlves6) January 6, 2019
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Comments
Question?
Who is responsible for maintenance and security of the new tunnel the MBTA or TD Garden?
Only one comment.
LOSE that column - which is noting but a hige impediment to efficient flow.. And backcharge the idiot designer who thought it was a good ifea.
Perhaps
It’s load bearing?
Maybe so
If true, that makes the design all the more unacceptable. The opening isn't so wide that it's not feasible to span it fully with a girder and provide an unobstructed passageway.
Obviously, nobody ever thought to observe commuters coming and going at TD Garden during rush hour before they developed their design. And compared to the main entrance, the new tunnel looks like an afterthought.
If you're going to gripe about width there
You'll be apoplectic when you reach the stairs/escalator, if Miles in Transit's photos are to be believed.
Good luck. And remember, at least you'll be inside.
Enemies of good enough?
Perhaps the tunnel was more of a retrofit at this point as opposed to part of the original plan for North Station. As such, perhaps the column was necessary. After all, such wouldn't be the first time the T screwed up on its planning efforts..
Conversely, maybe the column will work out as a de facto inbound and outbound traffic divider for foot traffic.
More importantly, the tunnel beats schlepping outside to make the transfer between rail and subway public transportation.as well as is heads and tails better than the maze of rat tunnels both at and connecting Downtown Crossing and Park Street Stations.
That and let's not forget that the tunnel was a freebie given to the T.
Unfortunately -- Reality includes Gravity
Do you really think that the column would be there if it didn't have to be there to hold up something probably quite heavy
the kind of comment that give Comments a bad name
Remember that this is not a design from scratch -- aka "Clean Sheet" design -- aka ab initio
This tunnel had to be accommodated within the context of a whole lot of existing stuff in- passing under a very significant street [filled with a lot of infrastructure from way back when]
- next to ramps of the I-93 / Leverett Circle Interchange
- through the foundations of the existing building and in the midst of lot of what will be tall buildings to come
Sure in the ideal world the halls would be wide and tall like Courthouse Station on the Silver Line and decorated as elegantly as in the Moscow Subway or parts of the Paris Metro -- but just remember that it was built by the "Notoriously Tight" operator of the old and new Bahhhston Gahhhdn -- Delaware North --- at their own expense and initiative -- no T dollars were involved
Also looks like fire/bulkhead
Also looks like fire/bulkhead doors - wouldn't be surprised if they need to be especially sturdy/reinforced for an installation like this.
Maybe
Maybe the column is there to
keepdiscourage people from trying to drive their cars into the tunnel.3... 2... 1...
Aaaaaand it smells like pee already.
Yes but it works. Need one between State & DTX. aka Red-Blue Ped
I don't care about the smell. I cross the FP Channel every week. I've grown an adaption to pungent odor
How long before someone gets
How long before someone gets assaulted in it, like with the Winter Street or Alewife concourses?
Alewife?
I don't doubt there's been at least a few assaults there, but that section seems more wide open than the Winter St. concourse. And it's in the middle of nowhere. I don't see that as being a particularly crime-friendly location.
I'd say that Back Bay underpass (under Dartmouth) is a better candidate.
Gross. Yeah an assault could
Gross. Yeah an assault could occur anywhere. This tunnel is going to be well trafficed like the rest of the system and no less safe. Don't be a creep.
I'm sure there are cameras in
I'm sure there are cameras in there.
It goes like this:
1) Why are these hallways outside so narrow? Don't worry about it, they are only temporary.
2) Why is the new permanent hallway so narrow? What are you talking about? It's just as wide as the outside (two) you've been using.
It may be that they didn't have the physical room to make it wider, but we've learned not to take the Jacobs family at their word.
Did the requirement for the
Did the requirement for the developer to build the tunnel say anything about its width?
Also, is that banner saying "TD Garden event ticket holder access only" temporary? It looks like it, since it's under a huge permanent sign saying "NORTH STATION". But who knows.
Can't wait to try it after BC
Can't wait to try it after BC/BU/Northeastern score their overtime/empty net goal on the Beanpot nights when the diehards who have hung around that long make their mad dash to the T down the Garden stairs like the running of the bulls at Pamplona.
Finally!
I've been holding it in all day.
Stairs
The column isn’t the trouble, it’s the stairs. They’re only wide enough for two people to walk down side by side, and the escalator runs up instead of down at morning rush hour. It sucks in the morning when all of the commuter rail passengers are trying to get to the T. Poor design.