Microtransit, microtransit, microtransit. Everybody loves microtransit. At this point, it feels safe to call it a fad, but is it a fad that will last? I’ve been sour on the concept in the past, but the MWRTA’s CATCH Connect in Wellesley might just be the route to warm me up to it, at least in certain contexts. Let’s see why.
It’s important to talk about the precursor to the CATCH Connect: the 8. This route was an atrocious deviatory mess that got just over 30 riders a day. I wasn’t a fan. But in 2020, that route was replaced with the CATCH Connect, a service that can be hailed at any time on an app to take you anywhere in Wellesley, plus a few locations outside the town. For a town like Wellesley that’s not very conducive to transit, this might not be the worst idea.
I had to download the MWRTA CATCH app before riding the route. It’s…not the best. Most of these microtransit things will use an existing app like Transloc, but the MWRTA decided to make their own and it’s clunky. It can also be used to track fixed-route buses in its God-awful interface, but we’re concerned about the CATCH Connect section. We can enter our information, and for some reason the confirmation email comes from the CCRTA and throws an error…well, at least we’re in.
Now, I was actually using this thing for a purpose! I was trying to get to Newton Highlands to ride the Newton Connector Railbus. I figured I’d have some fun in the process, though: by traveling from the Natick Community Center to Waban Station, I could not only travel what very well might be the longest distance you can go on the CATCH Connect, but I could also take this Wellesley-based bus service from not-Wellesley to not-Wellesley! I struggled through the app interface to book my trip, and the bus was due to arrive in several minutes. It’s also worth noting that trips are free right now, but they’ll eventually rise to the standard MWRTA rate of $1.50 at an unspecified time.
The bus…er, van…came promptly, and after a struggle with the manual door, we were off. Because CATCH Connect buses are only taking one party at a time right now because of COVID, we made a beeline for Waban, traveling down Central Street past Wellesley College. Before hitting Wellesley Square, we turned onto Weston Road, running past houses before heading onto Route 9. This part of the trip was fun – we just ran express through Wellesley and into Newton! We finally left the big road by exiting off onto the residential Chestnut Street, using that to make our way up to Waban Station.
Ridership: It’s hard to say right now. Obviously I was the only one on my trip, and they’re only allowing one party at a time on board anyway, but anecdotally, I have seen other people on CATCH Connect vehicles before. I’m hoping people find this to be a more convenient alternative to the 8 and use it!
Pros: I don’t know if it’s because the 8 was so bad, but…this thing is honestly great! I mean, if the alternative is a worse-than-hourly route that deviates all over the place, maybe microtransit is a valid solution. I’d have to try it at a busier time later in the day to see how the system handles more riders, but at least early in the morning, the bus came pretty much right away and took me straight to my destination. And this seems like it’s a good environment for microtransit: the boundaries of Wellesley are pretty even, and even though a fixed-route service could logically follow Routes 16 and 135, it would still have to deviate to serve places like Babson College, MassBay Community College, and pretty much any residential area. Plus, if they market this to college students (which they should – get on that, MWRTA), they’re probably more likely to ride something like this than a fixed route because, you know, “Those Gen-Z’ers love their Ubers!” It’ll be much cheaper than Uber even once it starts charging fares, too – who can argue with $1.50?
Cons: Okay, let’s get it out of the way that the app sucks. If they’re going to try to get young people (or heck, anyone) to ride this thing, they need to make the app actually usable. Beyond that, it’s a bit disappointing that the route only runs from 6:45 AM to 6:45 PM on weekdays only – I’d love to see early morning service (for Commuter Rail commuters) and night and weekend service (for leisure travel, particularly college students). I’ll also play devil’s advocate and note that if you took three CATCH Connect buses (I’m not sure how many the MWRTA is actually using for the service), you could run a 20-minute headway on the rescheduling I did for the 8. But honestly, in this case, microtransit might really be the best way to serve Wellesley – it’s just not a transit-conducive town.
Final Verdict: The CATCH Connect definitely isn’t perfect, but I’m coming around on this microtransit thing, at least in certain contexts. Wellesley seems like a pretty good place to do it, especially given the route this service replaced. The MWRTA should be marketing the heck out of this, though – both to college students and to commuters! Of course, those populations may not find the service completely useful until the service hours are improved. And for God’s sake, someone update that app! 6/10.
Microtransit is definitely a great way to extend local RTA service past the early evening hours if you do it right. I could see, say, the MVRTA running microtransit zones in each of their main cities while continuing to run their intercity arterials every hour.
That’s an interesting idea – so after, say, 7 PM, you only run the 1, 41, and (maybe) 51/54, and then Lawrence and Haverhill are covered by microtransit zones?
I was skeptical as anything about microtransit service at first, too. But, after the VIA WRTA service that replaced the infamous Westborough Shuttle expanded into Shrewsbury a few months ago, I figured it was at least worth a try. I became a convert to that service relatively quick.
Much better service and coverage than what it replaced, haven’t had to wait any more than 15-20 minutes for a ride (usually a good deal less), and the VIA app is probably the best out of the lot thus far for ease of use.
It’s not the most perfect solution by any means….but, much like with the CatchConnect, it works much better than what came before it.
It’s so weird that the WRTA has taken away any mention of that VIA shuttle from its website! I half-thought they had quietly eliminated it, but I just downloaded the VIA app (it’s very nice) and I guess the shuttle is still around. Does it tend to be busy? They should make it more clear that it actually exists, haha!
Since they’re also still on the “one rider per trip” thing, it’s hard to truly gauge accurately how busy it is. But, since they’re usually coming from somewhere that’s not a staging spot (which I just learned those this past week), they’re getting consistent use. And they have 4 vehicles out at any given time.
The RTA not marketing it more is a strange thing, indeed. Especially since you can actually connect from the main system now (anywhere along the 15 in Shrewsbury or walk to White City from the 16 and 24). To be able to get from Worcester to anywhere along Route 9 and Northborough Crossing should be a draw in itself.
The one thing I WISH the VIA app did, though, was integrate all the systems that operate under their platform into that app alone. CATA’s new On-Demand service in Gloucester and the Salem Skipper operate under VIA’s platform, yet require separate downloads (and passwords) to use. That’s a major pain that can’t be overlooked.
Wow, today I learned that CATA redesigned its website (with nonexistent schedules for its seasonal routes) AND created an on-demand service…
But yeah, those should DEFINITELY be included in the VIA app! I love how in the app you can scroll around to the different cities it serves.
They must have just did that redesign within the last week or so, because even two weeks ago it was still the same clunker of a site it always was. Good on them. It was high time for that.
And, digging a little further, they have currently non-existent schedules for their summer services……but they’ve very notably omitted the Saturday service to the malls in Danvers. That may speak volumes to the prospects of that service ever coming back.
Microtransit can work, if done right…
RIGHT GATRA?????
Maybe the MBTA could try a microtransit to bridge the late night service gap to have 24/7 service?
It could also be viable for replacing stuff like the 112’s deviations.
I’m LOVING these video components Miles!
For future reviews, do you think, instead of uploading it as unlisted, you could upload the vid as private and then mark it public when the print edition comes out on the blog? By doing this, YouTube will send out a notification, giving us yet another way of knowing when the latest review is live.
Thanks Andrew! I think my concerns with making these videos public are that they might clutter up the channel, and also that the YouTube algorithm won’t be a fan of me uploading videos that do worse than usual – even if they were public, I think they would still get fewer views than the main videos. If they’re kept unlisted, I don’t think YouTube cares about that.
Little bit of updated information on the Wellesley Catch Connect:
Right now it is experiencing approximately 150-200 riders per day during the Spring & Fall, and approximately 50-100 per day during the Summer and Winter breaks.
Average wait times vary from 10-20 minutes, with average travel times in the same ballpark.
Shared rides have resumed on MWRTA service, as have fares starting on May 1, 2023 ($2 per passenger trip).
Thank you for highlighting the good and the bad of public transit. We are going to be spending a lot of time over the next several years making improvements to the MWRTA. Happy to have your input as we go!
-Friendly MWRTA Administrator