Some people have been waiting for the day a Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (MBTA) train pulled into a Green Line Station in Somerville for decades. Phyllis Ewen is one of those Somerville residents who had been waiting.

It has taken more than 30 years.

A resident of the Brickbottom Artists Association and the mother of Ward 3 Councilor Ben Ewen-Campen, she’s been keeping an eye on the progress being made to extend the T into Somerville, both the spur that ends in Union Square, and the rail extension that cuts through the city and ends at Tufts.

She said she was thrilled, as she validated her fare card and prepared to take a ride from Union Square to Lechmere Station, where federal, state and local representatives gathered under the newly-renovated station to celebrate the opening of the Green Line Extension.

It was an important day for Somerville.

The trains, promises the lighted signage on the platform, are scheduled to run regularly, every seven to 13 minutes.

Riders walked into the new Somerville station, greeted by employees in red who showed them how the fare boxes worked, offered them timetable advice and were available to ensure opening day ran smoothly.

Kevin Huang, a Charleston resident, got a short lesson on how to use the farebox in the station by the waiting attendants: tap the Charlie Card against the receptor, validate the fare, tap the card again, fish the validation slip out of the machine: good to go.

Gov. Charlie Baker, his entourage, the state’s federal and state political delegation and local mayors, councilors and the advocates who have been championing the project for decades, were all on hand to take a ride. They boarded the train in Somerville and rode to Lechmere.

There, under the newly-renovated station, the delegation of politicians, transit leaders, and others who worked to complete the project reminisced, discussed the stumbling blocks and the funding glitches that nearly derailed the project. They also thanked all those who made it happen; from former Somerville Mayor and U.S Rep. Michael Capuano, who attended four groundbreakings for the project and vowed never to attend another, to the everyday GLX workers who packed the under-rail space to film the project manager; John Dalton as he thanked them for their constancy and hard work.

Listening to the speeches, Matt Penciak, a resident of Jamaica Plain, said he’s lived in the Boston metropolitan area for the past three years and is excited about the transit project.

“When I first moved here, I had an apartment near the Lechmere station and this is very exciting,” Penciak said. He dragged a visiting friend from Philadelphia, Daniel Brady, with him to the ceremony. “Dan just came up from Philly, he took a (Philadelphia public transportation) SEPTA train, Amtrak and the Orange Line: never got into a car.”

Former Somerville Mayor Joe Curtatone was one rider who worked tirelessly to make the vision a reality and he was up early to catch the first train: “This only happened because the people of Somerville advocated for it,” Curtatone said, acknowledging the residents who pushed for the long-promised train service. “They were the ones who refused to accept anything less.”

Project promised for Big Dig
The Green Line Extension was part of the state’s mitigation strategy when it negotiated the “Big Dig,” years ago; the public works project that relocated the elevated highways that traversed Boston underground. The train extension was promised to the city residents as part of the project.

It was the city residents, business owners, the advocates and activists, along with a push from the Conservation Law Foundation, that made sure the project happened. It was originally on the books to be completed by Dec. 31, 2014.

The project was sidelined repeatedly, sustained funding issues so severe that the mayors of Somerville and Cambridge put local funds into the kitty to ensure it would be completed: Somerville ponied up $50 million, Cambridge, with just one station, Lechmere on the line, $25 million.

Judicious cuts to certain aspects of the project; public art suffered as did the original plan to enclose the stations, revived it. The two cities also received their money back.

Another extension in the works?
State Sen. Patricia D. Jehlen said it was hard to believe that she was on the platform in Somerville.

“It was postponed, delayed, stopped so many times, this project has overcome so many obstacles,” Jehlen said. “It suggests to me that if we keep working, we will reach Route 16 (in Medford), if we keep working, we will get sound walls, if we keep working, we will stop displacement and stop the eviction of the working class.”

Jehlen was not the only one to suggest the GLX work won’t stop at Tufts in Medford, but could be extended further, all the way to Route 16. State Rep. Sean Garbally, as well as state Rep. Christine Barber agreed, they want to see the day when the MBTA reached Route 16.

U.S. Rep. Katherine Clark, a key player in the funding of the project, lauded the efforts to complete the Green Line Extension as she walked the Somerville platform.

“This is an important corridor,” Clark said, adding she was eager to start planning the further extension to Route 16.

Better transportation options
Cambridge Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui told of her father, an immigrant who relied on public transportation to get from his home in Cambridge to his work in a downtown department store where he was a shipping clerk.

“He took the 69 bus to Lechmere,” Siddiqui said. “He will be happy to see the station re-opened.”

She is gratified the residents of East Cambridge now have better public transportation options and promised Cambridge will be there as it's needed to continue the project as Curtatone suggested that the Green Line connect to the Red Line at Porter Square.

"See you on the Green Line," Siddiqui said in closing.

The mayors: Siddiqui and three from Somerville, current Mayor Katjana Ballantyne, along with Curtatone and Capuano, all thanked the city staff for their tireless efforts to get the project done.

“There was never a day in Somerville when the residents did not think that the Green Line would be coming soon,” Capuano said.

A green line MBTA train is stopped at the new Union Square Station during the opening of the Union Square station in Somerville as part of the Green Line Extension on Monday, March 21, 2022.
Riding back from Lechmere Station to Somerville, city employees Arne Franzel and Alan Inacio, were still talking about the phenomenal day it was for the residents of Somerville. “There were so many people involved,” Franzel said.

As the train pulled into the station, riders got off, a musician with a large bass strapped to his back, another a woman herding small children, riding the first trains out of Somerville, a treat for them, a moment in history. Other riders got on, eager for the T ride into Lechmere and beyond.

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Original story HERE