Rethinking that Green Line Idea

I mentioned in a previous blog post the idea of finding a place to live in the Boston area near the future Green Line Extension in Somerville. However, my Green Line experience on Friday made me reconsider the idea.

I am staying at JMD's in Arlington, and wanted to catch a train out of North Station to head up to Bird and Jen's. Fortunately, there's a bus (#80) that goes right from the corner near her house to Lechmere Station. The bus worked out fine--on time, and not crowded. At Lechmere, as I was standing in line to buy a Charlie Ticket (grr... they don't take tokens anymore there), I saw a bunch of teenagers run through the new electronic turnstiles, and a blaring alarm sounded (swell: new technology=less effective). After getting through the turnstiles myself, I saw the conductors confronting the teenagers, having a back and forth to get them off the train. They ended up calling the cops ("I hope you don't have any warrants out, 'cause they're on the way"), and it seems like the teenagers refused to get off, because we were stuck waiting there for about 10 or 15 minutes. Did I mention that I was trying to catch a train? Or that the car was completely packed the entire trip? Grr.

I did manage to make the sprint from the Green Line at North Station to my commuter rail train, but it was pretty annoying. So overall, I'm wondering whether I might try to stay within a radius of the Red Line instead.