I am writing in this post about the Haymarket North Extension segment of the Orange Line, which runs from Haymarket to Oak Grove, a topic that has interested me for a while now, and write about my interest in this topic.
The HNE runs from Haymarket station in Boston and ends at Oak Grove at the Malden/Melrose border. However, Oak Grove was not supposed to be the end of the northern Orange Line. The Orange Line was supposed to go to Reading and take over service on the then Reading Line, now incorporated as a part of the Haverhill Line. There was to be express service between Reading and North Station, and an extra track and platform were built between Community College and Oak Grove, and if the rest of the extension ever happened, the same setup would have been present at all stations all the way to Reading. I will briefly touch on some important aspects of the HNE, such as the history and planning, and then get into each individual station on the HNE, starting at Haymarket (of course!) and ending at Oak Grove.
The Orange Line used to run through Charlestown and Everett on the Charlestown El. The El was getting old, and a new, modern Orange Line needed to be constructed to adequately serve Charlestown. At the same time, it was decided that the Orange Line could be brought to new communities, such as Malden, Melrose, Wakefield, and Reading, and could replace the slower Reading Line service already present in those communities with faster, more reliable rapid transit. Thus, the idea of the Haymarket North Extension was born.
The plan was to run the Orange Line through a new tunnel north of Haymarket and to a new underground North Station, replacing the old elevated OL terminal. The tunnel would then continue under the Charles River and then emerge at a new portal under the lower deck of I-93, running under 93 until it met up with the existing Reading Line right of way. It would then follow and run next to the Reading Line ROW the rest of the way to Reading. There would also be an express track built for express service to Reading. Construction began in the late 1960s and the first part of the HNE opened in April of 1975. Between this time, it became uncertain how far the extension would go due to funding and resistance from local communities not wanting the OL in their town. Melrose successfully blocked the construction of the HNE in their city, and around this time, Oak Grove, located right on the line with Melrose, but on the Malden side, was chosen to be the "temporary" end of the Orange Line. I will get into how Oak Grove was the "temporary" end in the Oak Grove write-up.
Even though the extension was cut back, all the amenities for it were still built at the stations that were already constructed, such as the third track for express service and secondary platforms.
The first station I will review on the HNE is where it all started, Haymarket! This will be my next post.
