Green Line Extension Phase 2 Up to Communities Now

The Metropolitan Area Planning Council will issue a report by the end of the year that planners expect municipal officials in Medford and Somerville to use to decide how committed they are to running the rail to Route 16.

"Our hope is the muncipalities will take it and think about things that could happen in that area," said Kate Fichter, Green Line Extension project manager for MassDOT.

 The Metropolitan Area Planning Council, a firm commissioned by MassDOT to study the potential impacts of running the Green Line to Route 16 near the intersection with Boston Avenue, held it's fifth and final "community visioning" meeting Wednesday at City Hall in Medford, where they took input from community members and explained some of the potential impacts of the station. It will issue a draft report in coming days followed by a public comment period, Fichter said.

A final report is expected to be fully prepared by December, Fichter said.

Right now, MassDOT is concentrating on the first phase of extending the Green Line, which will bring it from Lechmere Station in Cambridge to College Avenue near Tufts University in Medford with a series of stops in Somerville along the way. That phase is currently projected to cost about $1 billion.

The second phase would bring the line to a terminal station at Route 16 near the Medford/Somerville line. That cost was previously estimated at $130 million but, unlike the first phase, MassDOT hasn't committed itself to building the line out to Route 16.

For the second phase to ever happen, it will have be driven by the communities in Somerville and Medford that would be impacted, Fichter said.

"Right now, we’re really focused on the first phase," Fichter said. "In the future, we’ll see what happens the second."

The first phase is currently expected to be completed by 2020.

Medford Mayor Michael McGlynn has previously said he would support a second phase if it called for a community station largely accessed by foot traffic, but not if it called for a commuter station with a garage.

"If that’s the case (a garage) we’re out If the other is other is the case, then we’re in," McGlynn said in a Mayor's candidate night Oct. 6.