The B48 is amazing and wonderful and I love it to bits! Final Verdict: 10/10. Alright, review over, have fun! No…I guess there’s more to talk about than just that…
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| The bus coming into the terminal. |
Leaving the Holyoke Transportation Center, we headed down Dwight Street past a post office, a parking lot, and apartments. Next, we turned onto Beech Street, which made its way up past a field and around a huge rotary. Whilst traversing the rotary, we passed over the same train tracks twice, then we turned onto Hampden Street.
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| Going by a park. |
There were some houses, then we merged onto Lincoln Street, going by a Stop & Shop on one side and a park on the other. Unfortunately, this area only seems to have a stop on the northbound side, which is a big problem. Lincoln Street curved west and it was lined with dense but yard-endowed houses, then we turned up onto Northampton Street.
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| Some shrubbery at the turn. |
Northampton Street was also residential for a while, but then we entered the reason why I love the B48 so much: the majority of the route is just woods! Also, the majority of the route is stopless, which is great for through passengers, but the bus does go by a lot of houses in certain places that could possibly use the bus. I mean, we even went by a tourist attraction: a bunch of dinosaur footprints by the Connecticut River! I don’t know who would take the bus to those, but it seems like they deserve a stop.
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| I love this route I love this route I love this route |
Next, the road came alongside the Connecticut River, giving us a great view for a good amount of time as we also paralleled a train track down which the Amtrak Vermonter runs. Meanwhile, the other side was mostly woods, but we also went by a few housing developments and motels. As we curved away from the river, we started to see some other buildings: a banquet hall, a church, and some houses.
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| A factory poking above the trees. |
After that, there were some woods again, as well as a field, then we passed a hotel and a factory. As we entered Easthampton, there were some houses, then we were briefly on an isthmus between rivers that took us into Northampton. The street was now called Mount Tom Road, and there were more woods, then a bit of farmland.
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| Did I mention I love this route? |
We came up to an industrial area, then passed a development called Atwood Drive. Except…on one B48 trip, and I took a good amount of B48 trips, we actually deviated into it. And there was a shelter and a sign and everything in there, and…well, I have no idea what the deal with that is. I wanna say the PVTA is eliminating the “deviation”, but I can’t remember the exact details of the sign I saw, and there’s no information on the website. Either way, it’s weird.
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| Wow, nice fire truck! |
We went under I-91, traversed around a roundabout, and all of a sudden there was development everywhere. We went down Conz Street, going by industrial buildings at first, then an apartment building and some dense houses. Next, we turned onto Old South Street, then New South Street, which took us up to downtown Northampton. Our final turn was onto Main Street, where we arrived at the Academy of Music stop.
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| The bus and a…shopping cart. |