Sam and I had an ambitious plan to ride the entire rest of the SRTA in one day. How would we do that? He would drive me from route to route! We began this interesting and busy day with an early trip on the FR 4…
Coming into the parking lot.
The route began at the Catholic Memorial Home, a nursing home in northern Fall River. From there, we headed down Highland Ave, which was lined with suburban houses. We stayed on it as it curved southwest in order to serve the Highlands Apartments, but then it was a turn onto the narrow Dexter Street to get onto Robeson Street, the route’s namesake road.
What a lovely side street!
This was lots and lots and lots of houses until we suddenly did a jog onto Stanley Street. This was to serve both Truesdale Clinic and an apartment complex called President Village. The long jog took us via Ray Street and President Ave before we could get back onto Robeson Street. Upon our return, it was more houses, but they were denser now.
Wow, the scenery changed a lot.
Although it was mostly residential, businesses were becoming more common. Once we turned onto Bedford Street, there were a ton of them, although many were industrial in character. Now in downtown Fall River, we turned onto 3rd Street, going by the City Hall over I-195, and from there, it was just a few twists and turns before we arrived at the Fall River Terminal…8 minutes early.
A scene in downtown.
SRTA Route: FR 4 (Robeson Street)
Ridership: It looks like the 4 got about 234 people per day in 2014. That’s not great. Indeed, my early Saturday trip only had two people in total. I guess most of the route is residential and relatively suburban, so the lower ridership makes sense.
Pros: It’s a reasonably direct route that serves a big chunk of Fall River. It also runs surprisingly frequently, with service every half hour on weekdays and every hour on Saturdays. Service ends at around 6 PM, which I don’t think is a huge deal because of the suburban nature of the route.
Cons: The jog to Truesdale Clinic is a little annoying, but I get why it’s there, and this route is generally direct other than that. But…8 minutes early to the terminal? That’s a little scary. It seems like they pad the schedule between Truesdale Clinic, the previous timepoint, and the terminal, so at least it doesn’t seem to leave early from timepoints.
Nearby and Noteworthy: Eh…just a bunch of houses.
Final Verdict: 7/10
Yeah, this is a nice route. It just does its thing, running up and down Robeson Ave. I wonder if it was running every half hour in 2014 when the ridership data was taken or if that happened after – if it happened after, I’ll bet the route gets much more ridership now.
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