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Alewife MBTA subway station
"T" sign and top of glass pyramid from roof-level parking deck of Alewife Station
Station statistics
Address	11 Cambridgepark Dr, Cambridge, MA 02140
Lines	Red Line
Platforms	side platforms
Parking	2,595 space garage
Bicycle facilities	174 spaces
Other information
Opened	March 30, 1985
Accessible
Owned by	Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority
Services
Preceding station     MBTA     Following station   Terminus Red Line Davis toward Ashmont or Braintree

Alewife Station, located at the intersection of Alewife Brook Parkway and Cambridgepark Drive in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is a local intermodal transportation hub. It is the northern terminus of the MBTA's Red Line, and a bus terminal for several local routes. It opened on March 30, 1985. Its facilities include:[1]

• A 2595-space multi-level "park and ride" garage, with a direct connection to Route 2 at Exit 61
• Bicycle parking for 174 bicycles
• a Zipcar location in the employee parking area
• Connections to the Minuteman Bikeway, the Cambridge Linear Park and the Fitchburg Cutoff Path
• Pedestrian access to East Arlington, via the Minuteman Bikeway and Thorndike Street in Arlington
• A retail area with food and services such as dry cleaning
• Several works of public art commissioned for the station, including carved benches in the passenger pick up area. [2]

• • 62 Bedford V.A. Hospital
  • 67 Turkey Hill
  • 76 Hanscom AFB
  • 79 Arlington Heights
  • 84 Arlmont Village
  • 350 North Burlington
  • 351 Oak Park/Bedford Woods

• Alewife Brook Reservation, a wetlands conservation area with walking trails, adjacent to the station on the north side. The station is named after the fish in the reservation's Little River.
• Fresh Pond reservation
• Fresh Pond Shopping Center and cinema
• The Rindge Avenue Extension office park
• Russell Field and Danehy Park
• The Minuteman Trail

Alewife Station is wheelchair accessible. See MBTA accessibility.

Boston transportation planners expected to build an Inner Belt within the Route 128 corridor in the 1970s. Route 2 was designed with eight lanes to carry large volumes of radial traffic to the Inner Belt. 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.

There was little near the site of the Alewife station besides a largely abandoned industrial park, a chemical factory and a protected wetlands. Following principles that came to be known as transit-oriented development, the City of Cambridge zoned the area immediately near the station for high rise buildings. Over the next 20 years, a mini-city developed with office and research and development buildings, along with high rise housing.

A state law required planning the Red Line Extension so it could later be brought out to Route 128 to Bedford. The Red line tracks extend past the station, under Route 2, and terminate in a small underground storage yard. When the adjacent chemical plant eventually closed and was replaced by an office development, the rail spur to the plant was no longer needed and its underpass was converted to an access ramp from the station to Route 2.

The station is named after Alewife Brook, a nearby tributary of the Mystic River. The Alewife is a species of fish which inhabits the Mystic River system.

High-density development at Alewife

Kiss and ride area with sculptured benches by artist William Keyser, Jr. Note bicycle parking to the rear,

Looking down to the concourse from the escalator

An outbound Red Line T departs from Alewife station.

• Alewife Station website
• Google map