I sprinted out of my house at 4:17 AM. I arrived at the empty main street…no cars going in either direction. Well, Sam said to wait at an inbound bus stop, so I headed over to the closest one. No cars coming. *BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP*!!!!! A vehicle was coming the other way. I dashed across the street, jumped in with Sam, Jordan, and Uillia, and we drove away at full speed, “This Is How We Do It” blasting through the radio. It was time to ride the first SL3.

We pulled into the South Station parking lot and headed down to the bus terminal. The Commuter Rail station was still closed…maybe the subway entrances were open? Tried one…didn’t work. Tried another…nope. A third? Nuh-uh. They were all closed. The time was 4:55, and the first trip was scheduled to leave at 5:02. “If we miss this thing, I’m gonna be so pissed,” Jordan remarked.

Finally, someone came out to open the doors to the Commuter Rail station. We ran in and went down to the Silver Line platforms, where a surprisingly small amount of people was waiting. At 5:01 AM, bus 1102 entered the station, and all eleven of us boarded the first trip of the T’s first new line in over a decade. So much fanfare!

HERE IT COMES!!!!

I regret to say that this first trip was not the one I reviewed. We took it up to Chelsea (and gave a round of applause when it arrived), but then we went back and reviewed all the stations – that post will be tomorrow. After that, we got a bus back to Chelsea (we had to wait for the stupid drawbridge to come down, and I will definitely be ranting about that later) and now…let us review the journey back to South Station!

The busy crowd inside the bus. Hi, Jordan!

Our bus boarding at Chelsea!

So we began at Market Bask…er, Chelsea Station, where we boarded the bus after its tight loop. This portion of the busway ran right next to the Commuter Rail tracks, while on the other side, there were some office buildings with big parking lots. After going under Route 1, we arrived at our next stop, Bellingham Square, where you can also transfer to the Commuter Rail Chelsea Station…although that’s not shown on any of the maps. Shucks.

A wide road just east of Chelsea Station.

There wasn’t all that much to see after Bellingham Square (although a signalized “single-track” section under a bridge worked perfectly) until we reached Box District, which had some TOD apartments next to it. We were away from the Commuter Rail now, and we were running past industrial buildings on one side and dense houses and apartments on the other. The big Chelsea Employee Lot meant that we had arrived at Eastern Ave Station, which is also used by 77s to turn around (they also short-turn some SL3s here if they’re bunching).

Some apartments running up a hill.

From Eastern Ave, the bus traversed an intersection to get onto Chelsea Street in mixed traffic. We went over the dreaded drawbridge, and on the other side of the Chelsea River, we were in East Boston. Oh boy, talk about industrial. We didn’t have to deal with the area’s huge vats for too long, though, as we turned onto the Martin A Coughlin Bypass Road, running in a cut underneath the neighborhood.

Alright, a view!

We popped up onto the eloquently-named Service Road, and this led us next to I-90 and the Blue Line tracks, with various industrial airport buildings on the other side. After serving the Airport Blue Line station in its busway, we ran down Transportation Way, which had I-90 to the north and a park to the south. We did some curves and passed the Rental Car Center, then it was a left onto the highway ramp into the Ted Williams Tunnel.

Here we go!

From here, it’s just like the SL1 you know and love(?). Coming out of the tunnel in the Seaport District, we did everyone’s favorite “Congress Street opposite Seaport Hotel” stop, then it was the ol’ looparound to Silver Line Way. The wires came up perfectly, but we had no such luck at D Street, where the light (as usual) took about 80 years to change. From there, it was down through the overbuilt World Trade Center and Courthouse Stations, and on to South!

We got out at Courthouse so we could get a picture still signed as SL3. See ya!

Route: SL3 (Chelsea Station – South Station via Airport Station)

Ridership: Well, if you thought 11 people on the first trip was bad, try 1-2 people on every other trip this morning! Granted, it was a Saturday morning at a time when nobody wants to be up – I rode the route later in the day, and it was much busier. Ridership today was definitely more of the “seeing the line” type of folk, but hopefully people start to use it as a service come the work week.

Pros: Once you get past Eastern Ave, this thing is pretty good. The busway is somewhat fast, the stations are generally nice (more on those tomorrow), and the route is useful, running through the urban core of Chelsea. It’s a one-seat ride to the Seaport District and to Downtown, plus this makes the trip from Chelsea to the airport much easier. There’s a free transfer from the SL3 to the Blue Line at Airport Station (as long as you don’t pay with cash), and that will likely be the fastest way of getting into the city using this route. Buses come often: service is every 10 minutes at rush hour, every 12 minutes on Saturdays, and every 15 minutes middays, nights, and Sundays. Finally, the multi-use path that runs along the busway from Box District to Eastern Ave is a nice touch, although it could be longer.

Cons: Okay, I hope I don’t get killed for this, but…this route is problematic.

• First, no discussion about the SL3 is complete without comparing it to the 111, and that’s what a lot of these cons come from. In terms of raw frequency from Bellingham Square, the 111 beats the SL3 by a long shot, running every 3-5 minutes at rush hour, every 10 minutes or less middays, nights, and Saturdays, and every 12 minutes or less on Sundays. The SL3 can’t even hold a candle to those kinds of headways. Plus, the 111 serves the square directly.
• Whereas the 111 goes straight over the Tobin Bridge, the SL3 has to contend with the drawbridge over the Chelsea River. We arrived as it was on its way down, and we still had to wait five minutes! There’s some complicated diversion the route has to do if it gets there just as it’s going up, and I’m sure it saves no time at all. If the drawbridge goes up during the rush, there will be bunching. And sure, the Tobin Bridge gets snarled up during rush hour…but so does the Ted Williams Tunnel! So the SL3 has two chokepoints to deal with, while the 111 only has one.
• I’m not going to make any conclusions about speed (I hope to stage a race soon), but I think it can be reasonably assumed that the 111 is generally, on average, about as fast as the SL3 is to the city. Even if that’s not the case, the SL3 is a rapid transit fare. This means that in many cases, people are spending more money for a relatively equal service.
• Speaking of fares, it’s annoying that this brand-new BRT route has front-door only boarding. Maybe they’re waiting for AFC 2.0, but still! When I rode the route midday, there were a ton of people at Chelsea, and it took way longer to board as a result.
• The complete lack of transit signal priority along the route is insane. Buses have to wait at the Eastern Ave light, and at numerous stop signs at level crossings with side streets. What they should’ve done with the latter is put traffic lights for cars up that default to green, and just turn red when a bus is coming. A BRT service shouldn’t have to stop for cars! Also, there’s the D Street light, but that’s a problem with every Silver Line route.
• I’m not sure if this is a first-day problem or what, but the interaction with the 77s at Eastern Ave is awful. I was on a bus that got stuck behind a 77 that was boarding, and I’ve heard reports that this has been happening all throughout the day. This is not good. Along with the drawbridge, although to a lesser extent, this could be a huge cause of bunching.
• Also, if the route bunches, there’s no place to lay over in Chelsea, so that bunch is sticking around all the way back to South Station! Maybe even beyond South Station, since having only two layover spots in the tunnel with three routes is tough to work with…