The Red Line Extends

On silent winter evenings, Radcliffe students in the future may hear the rumble of subway cars beneath their dwellings.

The Massachusetts House Committee on Transportation is presently considering a bill that would permit the first phase of the extension of the Red Line subway.

The bill under consideration would extend the present subway tunnel 800 feet from the Square to Story Street. The Red Line will eventually extend all the way to Alewife Brook Parkway.

Planners are presently considering three separate proposals for the extension. All three include the 800-foot first-leg tunnel under Mount Auburn Street and deep-bore tunneling under the Radcliffe Quad.

The initial extension would provide turnback and storage facilities for Red Line trains and would replace the tracks on the site of the proposed Kennedy Library.

A plainning study for the first phase extension predicted that six months of open-cut activities would be needed to complete the project.

But the report, submitted last month to City Manager John H. Corcoran, indicated that the construction could be done consecutively in two or three separate sections to allow continuous movement of street traffic.