Why does the 22 have a colored name? Does that make it important? Because it only runs four trips a day. It doesn’t serve Greenfield. It almost entirely duplicates other routes. No, doesn’t seem important to me.
We boarded this Turners Falls circulator thing at its westernmost stop, Avenue A and 11th. From there, we ran straight through downtown Turners Falls before turning onto 3rd Street, then heading uphill on L Street. It was a mostly residential area before we traversed a forested ridge, travelling up to another residential area (this one much less dense, but with a few schools).
I think the route’s schedule must’ve been different in 2018 when I rode it, because it’s supposed to deviate to the Park Villa Apartments and we didn’t do that. The foibles of having a backlog so long…but anyway, we headed down Turnpike Road, passing more houses and the Turners Falls High School. We then turned onto Millers Falls Road and ran on that for a bit before taking a left onto Industrial Drive, serving the Franklin County Technical School and looping around an industrial area near the Turners Falls Airport.
The route does take a different routing on the way back, but I seriously can’t tell what route we might’ve taken – my pictures are too innocuous! At any rate, today it would go back the way it came until Turners Falls High School, then run up the residential Turners Falls Road. It merges onto Unity Street outside of “Scotty’s Convenience Store”, and that becomes 3rd Street to enter downtown Turners Falls.
FRTA Route: 22 (BlueLink Connector)
Ridership: Well, it was very low on my trip. In fact, as low as it possibly could be: a big fat 0. I kinda doubt other trips get many more people, unless they’re coming from school, I guess (I rode in the summer).
Pros: The more I think about it, the more I realize that this is probably a school bus. So in that sense, I guess it’s fine?
Cons: Oh wait, it looks like both schools this thing serves have school bus systems. Yeah, alright, the 22 seems pointless.
Nearby and Noteworthy: Nothing besides the usual of Turners Falls.
Final Verdict: 1/10
While it may be useful for getting people to that industrial area near the airport, that’s the only thing the 22 actually serves on its own. Wouldn’t it be better if this bus was put on the 32 to bolster its peak service? As far as I can tell, there’s not much use for it on this route.
Gosh, this is a sad way to close out the FRTA…
Latest MBTA News: Service Updates
So, my video about spending $16 to take Greyhound from Manhattan to Brooklyn was featured on a website called Jalopnik, and now it’s sorta blowing up! Is this worth putting in the “In the Press” section? I’ve never heard of it, but it seems to be pretty popular. Anyway, thanks so much for the continuing support!
Brta next?
Indeed.
I still kinda shudder at the days when they actually DID add the Industrial Park deviation to the 32. This was later ’16-early ’17 when they did, before the changes that brought this route about. They added on the deviation without adding time to the schedule. The on-time performance started to go in the crapper much more noticeably with that move. It was a case of giving the route too much to do without the time to comfortably do it.
Ooooof, I can’t stand when agencies do that.