After several years of effort from the Newton Highlands Area Council and former member Robert Solomon, there will be a second community meeting to discuss plans to update the Newton Highlands MBTA stop with ADA compliant ramps, walkways and other improvements. The official announcement can be found here.
Key changes to the station are:
- reconstructing the existing ramps from both Walnut Street and Station Avenue
- new pedestrian ramp from Hyde Street to the “Inbound Platform” side of tracks
- ramps will be covered with steel canopies
- inbound and outbound station platforms raised approximately 8-inches
- new lighting on platforms and ramps
- new covered bike rack, benches and trash receptacles.
Meeting will be held on Monday 30 April at 6:00 PM at the Women’s Club of Newton Highlands, 72 Columbus Street, Newton, MA. The meeting is open to the public.
Great news! I just hope that they don’t do anything that disturbs the beautiful Roxbury puddingstone outcroppings.
I’m a member of the Highlands Area Council, but had almost nothing to do with organizing or promoting this much needed project at the Newton Highlands T Stop. Robert Solomon was like a tenacious bulldog as he led the charge against recurring procedural, technical and bureaucratic obstacles that kept cropping up one after another over the past two to three years. Whatever the cause, you want Robert on your side. Many other Area Councilors, including the author of this post, also did yeoman work in getting us to where we are now with this project. There were times I thought this would never get this far, but it has. Another thumbs up for civic engagement.
What Michael said.
None of this would have happened without Robert. I’m thrilled to see this moving along, yet, very disappointed in the poor design from the MBTA. The T is repeating mistakes from the Newton Centre accessibility project over a decade ago. Accessibility isn’t enough. Operations and safety of this station for all users must be taken into account. The desire line of most inbound passengers will be blocked by a fence, apparently to enable an unlikely configuration of 4-car trains some time in the distant future. That’s likely to send people running in front of cars rather than taking a circuitous route. Hopefully criticism from the community will force the T to do better.