Alewife station is a Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) intermodal transit station in the North Cambridge neighborhood of Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is the northwest terminal of the rapid transit Red Line (part of the MBTA subway system) and a hub for several MBTA bus routes. The station is at the confluence of the Minuteman Bikeway, Alewife Linear Park, Fitchburg Cutoff Path, and Alewife Greenway off Alewife Brook Parkway adjacent to Massachusetts Route 2, with a five-story parking garage for park and ride use. The station has three bike cages. Alewife station is named after nearby Alewife Brook Parkway and Alewife Brook, themselves named after the alewife fish.
The Fitchburg Railroad (now the MBTA Commuter Rail Fitchburg Line) opened through North Cambridge in 1842, followed by the now-closed Lexington Branch and Fitchburg Cutoff branch lines. An extension of the 1912-opened Cambridge–Dorchester line to North Cambridge was first proposed in the 1930s, though planning for the project did not begin until the 1960s. The Red Line Northwest Extension project included a station at Alewife Brook Parkway to capture traffic from Route 2, as a planned extension of the highway was cancelled in 1970. Construction began in 1979; with the planned route to Arlington Heights rejected by Arlington, Alewife became the terminus of the extension.
Alewife station opened on March 30, 1985, though some peak-hour service did not run to the station until that December. The station has a single underground island platform, with a busway and glass-roofed fare lobby inside the parking garage. Ramps connecting the garage to Route 2 opened in 1986. The station spurred transit-oriented development on formerly industrial land in the surrounding area. The station features six works of public art built under the Arts on the Line program.
Station layout
Alewife station has one underground island platform serving two tracks. Both tracks are used for boarding and alighting; a scissors crossover east of the station allows arriving and departing trains to switch tracks. A three-track underground yard extends about northwest past the station for use as layup tracks and overnight storage.
A five-story, 2,733-space parking garage is located just west of the station platform, with vehicle entrance and exit at its northwest side. The first floor of the garage includes a -long enclosed bus platform with bus bays on both sides, as well as two bike cages. Pedestrian entrances to the garage are on the south (Cambridgepark Drive) and west (Steel Place) sides. A below-ground concourse runs east–west under the garage, with ramps to the bus platform. The garage is bisected by an elongated atrium, which has red exhaust pipes on one side to ventilate the bus platform.
East of the garage, the concourse widens into an atrium covered with a glass pyramid, with faregates and access to the platform on the north side. A third bike cage is located on the south side of the glass pyramid, under escalators connecting the atrium to the garage levels. A freestanding headhouse connects to the east end of the platform. Elevators connect both ends of the platform to the fare lobbies, making the station fully accessible. The walls and floors of the station are finished with brown Welsh quarry tiles with granite highlights. The Minuteman Bikeway and Fitchburg Cutoff Path meet at the northwest corner of the garage; the Alewife Linear Park runs along the north side of the garage and past the east headhouse.
Bus connections
MBTA bus routes – – terminate at the busway inside the Alewife garage. The routes serve northwestern suburbs including Arlington, Lexington, and Burlington. Route terminates nearby at Russell Field because is not possible to turn left from Alewife Brook Parkway onto Rindge Avenue, preventing the bus from serving Alewife directly. The bus stop is connected to Alewife by a short spur of the Cambridge Linear Park.
Alewife station is also served by bus routes operated by private carriers: The Route 128 Business Council operates shuttle bus services from Alewife to companies along the Route 2 and Route 128 corridors. Seven routes to Waltham and Lexington are open to all riders; one private residential route is also run. Go Bus (formerly World Wide Bus) operates intercity bus service between Alewife, , and New York City. The service began in October 2010. The Middlesex 3 Transportation Management Association and the Alewife Transportation Management Association both operate private shuttle services terminating at Alewife.
History Railroads
The Charlestown Branch Railroad opened from Charlestown to Somerville in October 1839. It was extended to Fresh Pond in West Cambridge in 1842 for ice harvesting. Under the control of Alvah Crocker, the line was extended from West Cambridge to Fitchburg as the Fitchburg Railroad in 1843–1845. Stops on the line included West Cambridge (Brick Yards) at Sherman Street, and Hills Crossing at Brighton Street just over the Belmont border to the west. The Lexington and West Cambridge Railroad (Lexington Branch) opened north from West Cambridge in 1846; the Watertown Branch opened south from West Cambridge in 1849.
In 1870, the Boston and Lowell Railroad (B&L) bought the Lexington Branch to prevent it from being a competitor. The B&L constructed a new line from near West Cambridge to Somerville Junction to connect the branch with its mainline. Among the stops on the new line was North Cambridge (North Avenue) at what is now Massachusetts Avenue. The Massachusetts Central Railroad (later Central Massachusetts Railroad) opened in 1881; it paralleled the Fitchburg west of Hills Crossing, then turned slightly north to meet the Lexington Branch at North Cambridge. The B&L was acquired by the Boston and Maine Railroad (B&M) in 1887, followed by the Fitchburg in 1900.
In 1926–27, the B&M built two new sections of track; these allowed the Lexington Branch and the Central Massachusetts Railroad to use the Fitchburg mainline east of West Cambridge. On April 24, 1927, passenger service was rerouted over the rebuilt line; the Fitchburg Cutoff (Hills Crossing to Somerville Junction) became freight-only, with North Cambridge and the two other passenger stations on the line closed. Passenger service ended on the Watertown Branch in 1938. Hills Crossing station closed by the mid-1940s, and West Cambridge by the 1960s. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) was formed in 1964 to support suburban rail service. A number of lightly used branch lines were closed by the MBTA, with the Lexington Branch closing in January 1977.
Planning the Red Line
By 1922, the Boston Elevated Railway believed that would be the permanent terminus of the Cambridge–Dorchester line; the heavy ridership from the north was expected to be handled by extending rapid transit from Lechmere Square. A 1926 report proposed an extension from Lechmere to North Cambridge via the Southern Division and the Fitchburg Cutoff, with a possible further extension along the Lexington Branch. A northwards extension from Harvard to the North Cambridge/Arlington border was proposed by Cambridge mayor John D. Lynch in 1933 and by then-freshmen state representative Tip O'Neill in 1936, but was not pursued.
The 1945 Coolidge Commission report – the first major transit planning initiative in the region since 1926 – recommended an extension from Harvard to Arlington Heights via East Watertown. The 1947 revision recommended an extension north to Porter Square instead, with branches along the Fitchburg Railroad to Waltham and the Lexington Branch to Lexington. (second section, third page) The 1966 Program for Mass Transportation called for an immediate extension to Alewife Brook Parkway (the eastern terminus of the Concord Turnpike) via Porter Square, with possible future extensions to Arlington or Waltham. Original plans called for a subway under Massachusetts Avenue to Porter Square, then a surface route along the Fitchburg Route to Alewife. In the late 1960s, the project was expanded to follow the Lexington Branch to a terminal at Route 128.
By then, highway plans called for the Concord Turnpike (Route 2) to be expanded to eight lanes and extended east along the Fitchburg Line right-of-way to the proposed Inner Belt Expressway. In 1970, then-governor Francis Sargent suspended most highway construction inside Route 128 and created the Boston Transportation Planning Review, which focused on the implementation of new transit routes. This placed increased pressure on a Red Line extension at least as far as a park-and-ride station at Alewife Brook Parkway to handle Route 2 traffic. By the mid-1970s, the project was split into two phases: an all-subway extension to Arlington Heights via Alewife, with a later extension to Route 128.
Three general sites were considered for Alewife station, depending on the alignment of the whole project. Alternatives running via Garden Street or via Porter Square and the Fitchburg mainline were to have a station along the Lexington Branch just north of the Fitchburg mainline. Alternatives using the freight cutoff (via Davis Square or Cotter Square) were to have a station east of Alewife Brook Parkway on the pre-1927 Lexington Branch alignment, or to the south straddling the parkway. The chosen alignment was an all-tunnel route via Porter Square and Davis Square, with the southern station option.
Construction
Intended primarily as a park-and-ride facility for suburban commuters, Alewife station was built on a former brickyard adjacent to the terminus of the expressway portion of Route 2. Although largely away from residential and commercial areas, the station was intended to be walkable from East Arlington and North Cambridge. The industrial site was chosen to minimize disruptive land takings. The station was designed by Ellenzweig Associates. After and , Alewife was among the first MBTA stations made accessible during initial construction, rather than by renovation. Alewife station was named for the adjacent Alewife Brook (a tributary of the Mystic River) and Alewife Brook Parkway – themselves named for the alewife, a type of fish long associated with the Massachusetts Bay area.
By the time the Red Line Northwest Extension began construction in 1978, opposition in Arlington and reductions in federal funding had caused the MBTA to choose a shorter alternative with Alewife as the terminus. The Fitchburg Cutoff was abandoned in 1979 to allow construction of the extension. The station was constructed by the Perini Corporation. On January 12, 1981, construction worker Ulysses Lemon was killed in a tank truck explosion on Harvey Street in North Cambridge.
After six years of construction, Alewife was the final station on the extension to open. Revenue service began on March 30, 1985. Because the yard facilities were not complete, only Ashmont trains terminated at Alewife at peak hours; peak-hour Braintree trains ran only to Davis until December 26. Initially expected to cost $78 million to construct, the station ultimately cost $84 million. In 1989, the station was awarded a Federal Design Achievement Award by the National Endowment for the Arts, which stated that the "design surrounds all the activity with excitement and beauty... The entire structure is full of art..."