The MBTA's first new station in 27 years opened this Tuesday at the start of service with little fanfare. Of course, no grand opening isn't without its ribbon cutting ceremonly, which followed that afternoon with Governor Patrick, Somerville Mayor Curtatone, MassDOT Secretary Davey, and MBTA GM Scott.

Assembly Station on the Orange Line is located in Somerville on the site of a former Ford assembly plant. Somerville is hoping to grow its available housing stock to keep up with booming housing demand and especially the demand induced by the introduction of this and 6 new stations over the next 5 years.

What does this growth mean for the region? Will Somerville be the only town on the north side of the Orange Line to truly seize the opportunity for 'smart growth' and add meaningful volume to a region starved for housing?

About a month ago, I took a tour of the MBTA Orange Line carhouse at Wellington Station with the Boston chapter of the Young Professionals in Transportation. We got to see what goes into keeping the 34-year-old trains running well past their designed lifetime. Have a look at the full Flickr album here.

Back in June, I had the pleasure of attending a forum on Green Line issues hosted by the MBTA and facilitated greatly by Senator Brownsberger. The presentation included updates on the primary issues afflicting the Green Line and its dependent riders as outlined by Brian Kane, MBTA Director of Policy, Performance Management & Process Re-Engineering and former budget analyst with the MBTA Advisory Board.