May 21, 2024
Fresh News for the Neighborhood You Love
JP residents recently learned that one side of the platform at Forest Hills T will be closed starting next week through December. An MBTA spokesperson says the change “should have no impact on customers other than the fact they will be boarding on the southbound side.”
UPDATE: The T explains that it has a plan so that during rush hour it can keep to the regular Orange Line schedule.
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Fellow Orange Line riders, get ready for some additional chaos in your favorite subway line. The T will be shutting down one of the two platforms at Forest Hills soon as part of the Casey Arborway Project.
When students and teachers at the Neighborhood School, a K1-6 school in Jamaica Plain, returned to school last September, they had all noted a change in the fabric of the community. The demolition of the Casey Overpass had begun over the summer and the construction of new surface roads brought daily traffic jams that touched almost everyone in our community.
The schematic drawings of the new Washington Street upper busway canopy and platform published last week caught many readers by surprise; it was the first time even the most active observers had seen the replacement shed. Some questioned the practicality of a flat roof.
The cab stand opposite Asticou Road was originally a straight walk away from the entrance to the Forest Hills terminal. That ended Wednesday when the taxis moved to a new reservation further south on Washington Street at the Ukraine Way intersection.
To the surprise of many, the upper busway opposite the Arnold Arboretum began being taken apart on Saturday.
Riders had to look for their bus in the temporary lot further down Washington Street. T personnel were on hand to direct riders transferring off the Orange Line.
Four months – 120 days – and the Casey Overpass is gone.
As these photographs show, it is a vastly different Casey Arborway than on May 15 when the bridge was closed.
