Lake Street (MBTA Lexington Branch station)

LAKE STREET
The former Lake Street station site in 2013
Coordinates	42°24′16.3″N 71°8′49.1″W / 42.404528°N 71.146972°WCoordinates: 42°24′16.3″N 71°8′49.1″W / 42.404528°N 71.146972°W
Owned by	Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority
Line(s)	Lexington Branch
Other information
Fare zone	1
History
Opened	1846 (original); March 1968 (MBTA)[1]
Closed	1958 (original); 10 January 1977 (final)[2][1]
Traffic
Passengers (1976)	Fewer than 10 daily[2]
Services
Preceding station   MBTA   Following station Arlington Centre toward Bedford Lexington Branch Cambridge toward North Station

Lake Street is a former regional rail station on the Lexington Branch, located in the East Arlington section of Arlington, Massachusetts. It was closed in January 1977 when service on the Lexington Branch was suspended.

History

Lake Street station around 1915

The Lexington and West Cambridge Railroad opened from West Cambridge to Lexington on September 1, 1846.^[3] Lake Street station was located at the crossing of the eponymous street.

On April 18, 1958, the Boston and Maine Railroad received permission from the Public Utilities Commission to drastically curtail its suburban commuter service, including abandoning branches, closing stations, and cutting trains. Among the approved cuts was the closure of four stations on the Lexington Branch in Arlington - Lake Street, Arlington Centre, Brattles, and Arlington Heights - because Arlington was part of the funding district of the Metropolitan Transit Authority, which provided parallel bus service on Massachusetts Avenue.^[4] The four stations were closed on May 16, 1958.^[3][5]

Due to community input, Arlington Centre station was reopened in October 1965, followed by Lake Street in March 1968.^[2][1] Ridership at Lake Street station generally did not exceed 10 passengers per day; although taking the Lexington Branch allowed a faster trip than taking the 77 bus to Harvard (then the northwestern terminus of the Red Line) and then transferring to the Red Line to get to downtown Boston, it had only one trip per day and was substantially more expensive.^[2]

On January 10, 1977, following a major snowstorm which temporarily shut down the Lexington Branch, stranding a train at Bedford Depot, the MBTA announced that commuter rail service on the branch would not be restored.^[6] In the 1980s, the MBTA planned to extend the Red Line through Arlington and Lexington to Route 128 along the former path of the Lexington Branch as part of the Northwest Extension, but fierce opposition from Arlington residents scuttled this plan, and the Northwest Extension was cut short to Alewife in northwestern Cambridge.

The only surviving stations of the Lexington Branch are Bedford Depot and Lexington; Lake Street was demolished at some point following the branch's closure.^[6]

References

1. Belcher, Jonathan (22 March 2014). "Changes to Transit Service in the MBTA district" (PDF). NETransit. Retrieved 8 June 2015.
2. Massachusetts Executive Office of Transportation and Construction (22 April 1976). Capital needs developed at the corridor level: core and west (Report). Massachusetts Executive Office of Transportation and Construction. pp. 101–102.
3. Humphrey, Thomas J.; Clark, Norton D. (1985). Boston's Commuter Rail: The First 150 Years. Boston Street Railway Association. pp. 77, 87. ISBN 9780685412947.
4. "Drastic Service Cuts Approved on Five B.& M. Divisions". Daily Boston Globe. 19 April 1958. p. 11 – via Proquest Historical Newspaper. (subscription required (help)).
5. "B.&M. Closes Saugus Branch, 3 Other Lines". Daily Boston Globe. 17 May 1958. p. 3 – via Proquest Historical Newspapers. (subscription required (help)).
6. "About the Lexington Branch". Friends of Bedford Depot Park. Retrieved 9 July 2015.