University: New Green Line Station Will be Named Medford/Tufts

The Green Line station in the works at the intersection of College and Boston avenues in Medford will be named Medford/Tufts, under an agreement announced Thursday by Tufts University.

Tufts will make annual payments of $200,000 to the MBTA for 10 years, a university official said, with the funds intended for ongoing station maintenance, cleaning and operations.

"Working collaboratively, we have chosen a name that emphasizes a sense of place for both our host community of Medford and the University," Tufts University President Anthony Monaco said in a statement.

Monaco said the new station will open at about the same time as the university opens its newest academic building, the Joyce Cummings Center, and will "serve as a welcoming gateway to the university for students, employees, and the tens of thousands of visitors who come to our campus each year."

The Green Line Extension will extend the northern end of the Green Line from Lechmere to Union Square in Somerville and College Avenue in Medford, next to the Tufts campus. The project will feature six new MBTA stops in Cambridge, Somerville, and Medford. Medford/Tufts will be a terminus for the line when service is expected to begin in 2021, Tufts said.

In a statement released by Tufts, MBTA General Manager Steve Poftak said the name "is the result of a collaborative effort that truly represents the shared sense of placemaking that a station creates."