Lechmere station

Lechmere
A northbound train arriving at Lechmere station in March 2022
General information
Location	3 North First Street East Cambridge, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Coordinates	42°22′17″N 71°04′34″W / 42.37125°N 71.07610°W / 42.37125; -71.07610
Platforms	1 island platform
Tracks	2
Connections	MBTA bus: 69, 80, 87, 88 EZRide
Construction
Bicycle facilities	254 spaces
Accessible	Yes
History
Opened	July 10, 1922
Rebuilt	May 24, 2020–March 21, 2022
Passengers
FY2019	5,697 boardings (weekday average)[1]
Services
Preceding station MBTA Following station Union Square Terminus Green Line D branch Science Park toward Riverside East Somerville toward Medford/​Tufts Green Line E branch Science Park toward Heath Street
Former services Preceding station MBTA Following station Terminus Green Line B branch Cut back in 1980 Science Park toward Boston College Green Line C branch Cut back in 1981 Science Park toward Cleveland Circle Union Square Terminus Green Line E branch March–August 2022 Science Park toward Heath Street
Location

Lechmere station (/ˈliːtʃmɪr/ LEECH-meer) 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–North Station shuttle buses until the new station opened.