Lechmere station

East Cambridge station in 1905

The Boston and Lowell Railroad (B&L) opened between its namesake cities in 1835. Passenger service initially ran express between the two cities, but local stops were soon added.[2] One of the first was East Cambridge, originally located near the Prison Point Bridge.[3] By 1865, it was moved north to the foot of Third Street, closer to development on Dog Island (East Cambridge).[4][3] The station was popular with employees from Somerville commuting to the factories of East Cambridge; among its more famous users was Benjamin Butler.[3]

In 1926, the Boston and Maine Railroad (B&M), which had acquired the B&L in 1887, began work on North Station plus an expansion of its freight yards. The B&M proposed to abandon East Cambridge station in order to realign the ex-B&L into the new station.[5] Although most inner stations were largely replaced by streetcars and automobiles at this time, East Cambridge was still used by both industrial workers and by those headed to the Middlesex County Courthouse, and the proposed closure was locally opposed.[6][7] The Public Utilities Commission approved the closure of East Cambridge and nearby Prospect Hill in March 1927; one train was rescheduled for ten minutes earlier to accommodate court attendees.[8] The stations closed at some point between then and May 17, when trains were rerouted over the new alignment.[9]

An inbound train prepares to leave the newly opened transfer station in 1922

When the Tremont Street subway fully opened in 1898, surface cars entering the subway from Cambridge Street and Bridge Street in East Cambridge had to cross Craigie's Bridge and proceed on surface streets to the Canal Street incline. The trip from Lechmere Point over the bridge was slow and prone to delays. After five years of construction, the Lechmere Viaduct and Causeway Street Elevated opened on June 1, 1912, providing the streetcar routes from Harvard Square and much of Somerville a direct route into the subway.[10]

The surface lines that fed into the subway had poor schedule reliability. The Boston Elevated Railway wished to convert the subway into a quasi-rapid transit service, with surface lines terminating at transfer stations (as had been done with the Main Line El and Cambridge–Dorchester Line). A prepayment transfer station was constructed at Lechmere Square for this purpose. The station had a balloon loop with separate boarding and alighting platforms for subway trains, with a small storage yard inside. Surface streetcars would drop off passengers on the inbound side with a cross-platform transfer, then use a second loop (under the elevated tracks) to pick up outbound passengers.[11] Lechmere station opened on July 10, 1922.[10][11]

Initial subway service to Lechmere was a shuttle service to Pleasant Street, which was intended as a temporary terminal until a more suitable western terminal could be found.[11] (A transfer station at Harvard Avenue on the Commonwealth Avenue line had been proposed in June 1922, but was rejected by the community.)[12][13]^:59 Service ran with three-car trains every three minutes at peak, and two-car trains every four minutes at other times.[11] The forced transfer was unpopular with some riders who formerly had a one-seat ride to downtown Boston.[14]

On January 2, 1923, some off-peak trips were extended through the Boylston Street Subway to the surface station at Kenmore; all-day service began on October 10.[15][16] Most trips were extended along the Beacon Street line to Washington Square on December 14, 1929.[17] The Washington Street service was cut back to Kenmore in June 1930 but resumed that September.[18][19] On February 7, 1931, Commonwealth Avenue and Beacon Street service was extended from Park Street to Lechmere, and the existing shuttle services to Lechmere were replaced with Kenmore–Park Street shuttles.[20][21]

An improved waiting area for outbound passengers opened in 1924.[22] A Lechmere–Arlington Center bus route (later route 80) was established in 1932; the outbound surface transfer area was paved for use by buses.[23] The route 66 streetcar (later renumbered as the 77, then the 69) was the first route to be converted to trackless trolley in 1936. The remaining surface routes out of Lechmere were converted to trackless and later bus over the next three decades. The inbound side surface boarding area was eventually disused; the outbound side was fully converted to a busway and the direction of traffic through it reversed for improved bus operations.

Green Line trains at Lechmere in 2018

Several years after it was inaugurated in 1959, the Riverside Line was extended to Lechmere at most times. The MBTA took over transit operations in 1964. With the ability to reverse Green Line trains at Park Street, Government Center, North Station, and Lechmere, the MBTA frequently switched which lines ran to which downtown terminals to match passenger demands and other operational needs. On September 10, 1966, the remaining Commonwealth Avenue line service to Lechmere was cut back to Park Street.[10] In 1967, the MBTA redesignated the remaining streetcar operations as the Green Line with branches "A" through "E". The Commonwealth Avenue line became the B branch, the Beacon Street line the C branch, and the Riverside line the D branch. After March 25, 1967, the "C" and "D" branches served Lechmere at all times.[10]

On March 25, 1974, the B branch was extended back to Lechmere and the "D" cut to North Station; for the next decade, the "B", "C", and "D" frequently were switched between Lechmere and other termini. On January 2, 1983, for the first time in the station's history trains from Huntington Avenue (the E branch) began serving Lechmere.[10] On February 11, 1983, the E branch was shut down by snow for several days; a Government Center–Lechmere shuttle ran in its stead, soon joined by some D branch service.[10] From December 28, 1985 to July 25, 1986, additional shuttle service ran between Lechmere and Kenmore. E branch service resumed to Lechmere partially on July 26, and fully on June 20, 1987. The remaining Lechmere–Government Center shuttles were replaced with an extension of D branch service on June 21, 1997.[10]

Around 2000, portable lifts were added at Lechmere as a temporary accessibility measure.[24] (Unlike other stations, Lechmere was not soon retrofitted with raised platforms due to the pending Green Line Extension.) On June 25, 2004, service to Lechmere was suspended as the Causeway Street Elevated was removed, and the surface and elevated platforms at North Station were consolidated into a new underground "superstation". A shuttle bus to Government Center accommodated Lechmere passengers. Service to Lechmere, operated only by the E branch, resumed on November 12, 2005.[10][25] Service past North Station was replaced with buses from April 30 to November 4, 2011, as Science Park station was rebuilt.[10][26][27]

Old station viaduct will be demolished and connection made to new viaduct, left

The Green Line Extension, which extends the Green Line north into Somerville and Medford, includes the closure and replacement of Lechmere station. The new station will be elevated on the east side of O'Brien Highway. Entrances will be located north of North First Street and south of East Street, with a busway off Water Street.[28] Both entrances will have elevators and stairs to the curved island platform, which will be 355 feet (108 m) long and 32–35 feet (9.8–10.7 m) wide.[28] A bike station between the entrances will hold 182 bicycles.[28]

Station design was 10% complete in March 2018 and 76% complete by that December.[29] Construction began in mid-2019.[28] By March 2020, the beams supporting the trackways and platform were being installed.[30] The project requires a temporary service suspension while the elevated structure to the old station is replaced with the new viaduct. A bus shuttle between Lechmere and North Station – with dedicated bus lanes on the Charles River Dam Bridge – began on May 24, 2020, with the old station closed. Service to the new station is expected to begin in April 2021.[31] It will be an intermediate station on the D branch (extended to Medford/​Tufts and the E branch (extended to Union Square).[32][33]