MBTA obtains $67M grant to make Green Line stations accessible

The Federal Transit Administration has awarded a $67 million grant to the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) to help fund a project designed to improve accessibility for passengers on the Green Line.

The funding comes from the All Stations Accessibility Program, which funds projects that upgrade older transit-systems to make them accessible to people with disabilities or limited mobility. The project will make fully accessible 14 ground-level stops along the B and C branches of the Green Line in the neighborhoods of Allston, Brighton and Brookline.

"This funding will be a game changer for making critically important changes to 14 MBTA stops to bring them into ADA-compliance and ensure passengers with disabilities or limited mobility can access them,” said Gov. Maura Healy in a press release.

The Green Line is the nation’s oldest light-rail subway line and serves more than 70 stations with an average weekday ridership of more than 100,000 in the Boston area. Nearly all of these Green Line stations were built before the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

The project will make the 14 B and C branch stops more accessible by raising platforms to remove the current 14-inch step that makes boarding and alighting at these stops difficult or impossible for passengers with disabilities, elderly riders and people with strollers or carts. The requested project will also widen, level and illuminate the platforms to ensure safe and accessible navigation for all riders, including those who use wheeled mobility devices, the release said.