Lechmere station is a Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) Green Line light rail station in Lechmere Square in East Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is located on the east side of Monsignor O'Brien Highway near First Street, adjacent to the NorthPoint development. The accessible elevated station has a single island platform, with headhouses at both ends. It opened on March 21, 2022, as part of the Green Line Extension (GLX). Lechmere station is served by Green Line D branch and E branch service.
The first transit in East Cambridge was a station on the Boston and Lowell Railroad, which served the neighborhood from the mid-19th century to 1927. Horsecar service through Lechmere Square began around 1861, using the Craigie Bridge to reach Boston, and was electrified in the 1890s. The Lechmere Viaduct was opened in 1912 with an incline to Lechmere Square, allowing streetcars from lines on Cambridge Street and Bridge Street to reach the Tremont Street subway.
In 1922, the Boston Elevated Railway opened a prepayment transfer station at Lechmere, separating the surface streetcars from the subway routes. This surface station had a loop for subway cars, with cross-platform transfers to the surface routes, and a small yard inside the loop. The surface streetcars were replaced by trolleybuses and later diesel buses in the 1930s to 1960s, while the subway routes became the Green Line in 1965.
Extensions northwest from Lechmere station were first proposed in the 1920s, though planning did not begin until the early 21st century. A new elevated Lechmere station was to be built as part of the NorthPoint development, but it was instead added to GLX planning in 2007. The MBTA agreed in 2012 to open the station by 2017, and a construction contract was awarded in 2013. Cost increases triggered a wholesale reevaluation of the GLX project in 2015. A scaled-down station design was released in 2016, with a design and construction contract issued in 2017. The surface station was closed on May 24, 2020, for Green Line Extension construction; the busways at the old station remained open as a transfer point between MBTA bus routes and Lechmere– shuttle buses until the new station opened.
Station design
Lechmere station is located on the east side of O'Brien Highway at Lechmere Square, adjacent to the North Point development. The two-track Green Line viaduct runs approximately southeast–northwest through the station area. The station has a single curved island platform, long and wide, located over the block between East Street and North First Street.
The platform is high for accessible boarding on current light rail vehicles (LRVs) and can be raised to for level boarding with Type 9 and future Type 10 LRVs. While the other GLX stations have -long platforms with provisions for extension, the platform at Lechmere was built to its maximum length because it would be more difficult to extend in the future. A canopy covers the full length of the platform; it is two spans wide, rather than the single span used on the narrower platforms at the other GLX stations.
Headhouses are located north of North First Street and south of East Street. The north headhouse has two elevators and stairs to the platform; the south headhouse has one elevator and stairs. A bus loop for MBTA bus routes { is located off Water Street north of the north headhouse. A bike station between the headhouses has space for 182 bicycles; racks for 72 additional bicycles are located next to the north headhouse. Public artwork at the station includes Field Notes by Randall Thurston – a set of panels on the elevator shafts depicting birds and vines. Some panels on station signs have artwork of poetry overlaid with images of birds; others have historical images and interpretive text.
