I’ve now covered the two main buses on Washington Street in Quincy. The 220 and 222 run very frequently, especially at rush hour, carrying many people along the corridor. But there is one more route that runs along this street. One that only operates four times a day. Ladies and gentleman, I give you the 221.
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| The bus at Quincy Center. |
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| A different bus on a different day, but still a nice picture. |
As you can probably imagine, the bus wasn’t at all crowded leaving Quincy Center. We headed down Hancock Street, but looped around to Washington Street soon after. There were a lot of businesses along the street, but nothing noteworthy. Houses were dotted in, too, and they showed up more often the further we went. But as the Fore River Bridge started to loom in the distance, it went back to businesses until we went around a rotary then crossed the bridge.
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| Just to let you know, this route has some nice views, so it’ll have a lot of pictures. This is from the bridge. |
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| A skyline view from the bridge! |
The street was Bridge Street now, and we were in Weymouth. The businesses along the road felt industrial all the way to Bicknell Square, and even past there. We went by a school, then turned onto Neck Street, starting our independent portion. There was only one other person on the bus by this point.
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| Skyline view! |
I believe “Neck Street” refers to the fact that it’s the neck to a peninsula, and a peninsula with some great views at that. The street was residential now, but there were occasional views of the bay-like Weymouth Back River behind houses. Eventually the street became River Street and curved east, going by a small beach. There was a nice view of Boston here (see above), but it was short.
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| The beach. |
The houses continued past the beach, and many people had boats on their front lawns. The reason why was evident as we got a view of the Weymouth Back River again – it did indeed have a lot of boats in it. Abruptly we reached a shipyard with some big apartment buildings behind it, and that was it for the route. After taking a few pictures, I got back on the bus and we made a u-turn, heading back to Quincy.
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| Well, that’s industrial. |
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| Some apartments where the bus ended. |
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| Some more apartments further down the road. |
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| The bus laying over for a bit. |
Route: 221 (Quincy Center Station – Fort Point via Bicknell Square)
Ridership: Hahahahahahahaha! Yeah, right. This is the sixth least-used route on the MBTA, with only 123 riders per weekday. And the thing is, most of them just come from Washington Street! There are very few people that use the 221 for its independent portion. My ride had about 15 people one way and 8 coming back, and both times there were only 1-2 riders who didn’t get on along Bridge Street/Washington Street.
Pros: Well…it serves Weymouthport. And the views are nice. But good views don’t mean it’s a good bus.
Cons: Right, so I understand this route being sort of a rush hour commuter trip from Fort Point. I guess that makes sense, but I was talking to the driver and he was saying that very few people come from the 221’s independent portion in general. Sooooooooooo….why not terminate it at Bicknell Square and save some money? It could be run as a short-turn of the 220.
Nearby and Noteworthy: Well, there is that beach, which looks like it could be nice in the summer, and not very crowded. That said, taking the 220 as far as Neck Street and then just walking is significantly more reliable – and the walk isn’t that bad.
Final Verdict: 3/10
Ehhhhhhhhhhh. You know…I get that this is mainly meant for rush hours. But…you know…it just doesn’t seem necessary. I guess they shouldn’t ditch this bus entirely, especially since it’s pretty short so it’s kind of cheap to run, but…you know. I hope the low score is understandable. You know.
So there was a rabbit on the Blue Line or something? I don’t know, but this was top trending on Facebook, so I figured I’d address it. I mean….rabbits. How very newsworthy.
Exuse me rabbits are very newsworthy.
any time this run comes up for elimination the "so called rider's" from the Apartment complex and the surrounding area in the fort point section come out of the woodwork saying they need the bus for what ever reason and don't want to walk up to Bridge st to catch the Hingham bus .
The Beach is Wessagussett and its a big area to watch fireworks every July 3rd shot off from the beach. The shipyard is the former Hingham Shipyard now The Launch at Hingham Shipyard home of the Original Wahlburgers lol and a few other stores and restaurants
this section of Weymouth is right across the river from Houghs Neck and Germantown sections in Quincy. you can go to both of these sections and watch the fireworks from Weymouth on July 3rd.