Alewife station

ALEWIFE
A Red Line train at Alewife in April 2006
Location	11 Cambridgepark West, Cambridge, MA 02140
Coordinates	42°23′47″N 71°08′31″W / 42.3964°N 71.142°W / 42.3964; -71.142Coordinates: 42°23′47″N 71°08′31″W / 42.3964°N 71.142°W / 42.3964; -71.142
Owned by	Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority
Line(s)	Red Line
Platforms	1 island platform
Tracks	2
Connections	MBTA Bus: 62, 67, 76, 79, 84, 350, 351
Construction
Parking	2,733 spaces in garage
Bicycle facilities	~500 spaces in three secured cages
Disabled access	Yes
History
Opened	March 30, 1985
Traffic
Passengers (2013)	11,221 (weekday average boardings)
Services
Preceding station   MBTA   Following station Terminus Red Line Davis toward Ashmont or Braintree

Alewife is an MBTA Red Line subway station located in North Cambridge, Massachusetts. The northern terminus of the Red Line, Alewife serves as a local intermodal transit hub. Its facilities include a multi-level parking garage with 2,733 spaces, three secured bicycle cages, a busway with an enclosed shelter serving several MBTA Bus routes, and connections to the Minuteman Bikeway, Cambridge Linear Park, and the Fitchburg Cutoff Path. Alewife is located adjacent to the interchange between Alewife Brook Parkway and the Massachusetts Route 2 freeway, with ramps providing direct access to and from the expressway portion of Route 2.

Alewife opened on March 30, 1985. Originally only to be a temporary terminus during construction of the Arlington section of the Red Line, Alewife became the regular terminus when the further extension was canceled. The station is named after Alewife Brook, a nearby tributary of the Mystic River, which in turn is named after the alewife fish which inhabits the Mystic River system. Alewife features six pieces of public art which were built as part of the first stage of the Arts on the Line program.

Boston transportation planners expected to build an Inner Belt Expressway within the Route 128 corridor in the 1960s.MA Route 2 was designed with eight lanes to carry large volumes of radial traffic, east from Alewife Brook Parkway, through Cambridge and Somerville to the Inner Belt at the border of eastern Somerville and eastern Cambridge. When the Inner Belt was canceled, Route 2 became an overbuilt highway that terminated at what was little more than major city streets. When the westward extension of the Red Line was being designed, building a station near the end of Route 2 with a large parking garage seemed like a way to capitalize on the original Route 2 investment.