MTA Plans Bus-Shuttle To Ease Square Traffic

The MTA has announced plans to ease traffic congestion in Harvard Square by extending all bus and subway lines to its Bennett St. yards. The move will probably be made following the pending sale of 11 of the 12.2 acres in the yards early next year.

Bids for the land will be opened by the end of December, and the MTA plans to install terminal facilities on the remaining land soon after this date. Subways and buses which presently enter the Harvard Square station would disembark passengers in the yards rather than through the kiosk in the middle of the Square.

According to the proposal, passengers would reach an underground bus level from the subway by escalator. A continuous bus service between the yards and Mass. Ave. would shuttle passengers to the Square. The kiosk would no longer be used as an exit, and escalators would carry passengers from the shuttle-bus to the street level through other exits along the sidewalks of the Square.

The plan would lessen traffic congestion caused by pedestrians who cross Mass. Ave. during the rush hour. With no passengers crossing the street to and from the kiosk, traffic would flow more freely.

The MTA has suggested that Cambridge would follow the projected move by dismantling the kiosk entirely. The city would perhaps also remove the concrete island, widening the Boylston-Mass Ave. junction and easing traffic problems further.

With ads in this week's Boston newspapers, the MTA officially offered the Bennett St. Yards for sale. Sealed bids for the 12 acre plot will be accepted at the Authority's offices in Jamaica Plain until 12 noon on December 28, 1962.

The receipts from the land are expected to total approximately $5.5 million, but the MTA says that price may not be the only determining factor in choosing among bidders. The MTA plans also to consider proposals for the land's development according to the tax revenue the city of Cambridge would receive from construction.