Quincy Quarry’s new Wollaton Red Line station design review

– News and commentary about Quincy from Quincy Quarry News    

Up and over, over and then down, out of service – whatever
A Quincy Quarry News exclusive photo

Quincy Quarry’s offers up a new Wollaston Red Line station design review.

Quincy Quarry tasked a staffer to check out the just reopened new Wollaston Red Line station, including also Red Line riding the Red Line to see how well the partial fix to the June train derailment destroyed train control equipment at JFK station was working.

As the Red Line ride was piggybacked to a trip into Boston for a private meet with personnel at the Massachusetts Secretary of State’s public records not provided complaint unit, adding a stop at Wollaston for a quick look/see was adding most likely but modest injury to already given inconvenience.

The good news: the morning commute time ride into Boston was uneventful and suffered but minimal delays.

But then the revenge of the T struck as well as could only reasonably be expected.

Riding the rails
An indosurflife.com image

The mid-afternoon return trip to Quincy was fraught with multiple as well as at times extended delays, not to mention testy passengers making life even more miserable for the quietly suffering passengers.

The further bad news, while the new Wollaston Red Line station has opened and has mostly but minor work yet to do, the new station’s layout was – to say the least – baffling.  Specifically, the new up, over and then down access way to finally provide Americans with Disability Act compliance at Wollaston station. 

More than just punch list grade work yet to do?
A Quincy Quarry News exclusive photo

For reasons unclear to Quincy Quarry, the designers of the new station decided to go with the considerable expense of going up and over instead of building a simple wheelchair ramp on the parking lot side of the station.

The resultant problems include that not only do the wheelchair-bound entering the station from the parking lot now have to take a wheelchair up to the new over passageway, travel the bridge way over the northbound tracks. and then ride another elevator down to the train platform to board – and then reverse these travails when returning to Wollaston, the whole of the station sprawls such that one can also only wonder about the personal safety of all using the station.

That and doubting the odds that the MBTA can keep these two elevators working regularly going forward at the same time along with the third elevator geared to the handicapped accessing the station from Newport Avenue side of the station.

The up and over access way (right)
An MBTA design rendering

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Riding the Red Line …
An MBTA Passenger Twitter Photo via Catherine Groux

After all, the Quarry was advised by one wheelchair-bound Red Line user that it took four tries to successfully call an elevator on the very day that Wollaston station reopened for use.

And finally, Quincy Quarry did not spot bathroom facilities at the station.

Why they are surely there as multiple reports that new bathrooms are in place at Wollaston station, they are not obvious, much less likely to be readily found by a public transit user in need.

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