The 2 turned out to be a dastardly one to ride. Earlier in the day, Sam and I had tried to get it from its Shaw’s terminus to ride it around its long terminus loop, but it had left Shaw’s early. Surprise. I had to grab it later from the Fall River Terminal instead.

A few people waiting to board in Fall River.

We headed out from the terminal and made our way over I-195, eventually coming onto North Main Street. I was surprised – most of Fall River had been underwhelming, but this little strip on North Main was actually kinda charming. There wasn’t even much in the buildings on either side, but there were these nice trees that made it feel a lot more welcoming. I guess that goes to show how far greenery goes in improving the urban landscape.

Well, it wasn’t as leafy on the side streets.

It started to get residential soon, with some dense but nice suburban houses lining the road. There were also a few businesses, particularly around the intersection with President Ave (also the location of a school and a park). On weekdays, there’s an extra deviation here that runs to a place called Commonwealth Landing. It seems like it’s meant to serve Bristol Community College, but there are also some apartments there.

Some houses running up a hill.

The street became a big mix of stuff after that. We went by a cemetery, then there were houses, businesses, and some factories converted to modern uses. Crossing over Route 79, a highway, we got closer to the Taunton River and it was almost all suburban houses for a while. That changed when we pulled into the route’s last stop, Riverview Marketplace – or, as the SRTA calls it in the schedule, “Shaw’s”.

A snaking road.

Except it’s not actually the last stop, it’s just where I got off. When you’re reviewing every bus route on the system in a day, you need to make some cuts, especially if the route screwed you over beforehand! The rest of the 2 consists of a big loop, running clockwise or counterclockwise depending on the time of day. It was the morning in this case, so the bus would have made its way onto Airport Road, running through (and deviating into) an industrial area. It would then turn onto Innovation Way, which is all woods aside from an Amazon facility, which also gets a deviation. Finally, now in Freetown, the bus would have turned back onto Main Street, going past some apartment complexes – one called Four Winds gets a deviation – before returning to Shaw’s.

The back of the bus at Shaw’s.

SRTA Route: FR 2 (North Main)

Ridership: For the SRTA, this route gets great ridership, with about 508 people per day in May 2014. In fact, this is the busiest bus route in Fall River. We’ll see why this fact annoys me once we start talking about the schedule…

Pros: The 2 takes a nice, direct route as far north as Shaw’s. The Commonwealth Landing deviation on weekdays is pretty annoying, but it’s a really pedestrian-unfriendly area, so I understand why they do it. On weekdays, the route runs every half hour from 6 AM to 9 PM – pretty darn good.

Cons: But on Saturdays, it’s every hour! Why? They run half-hourly Saturday service on other routes that get far less ridership than the 2! Also, there’s this twice-daily deviation to “Holmes Apartments” that just complicates the route. I think the residents of Holmes Apartments can stand to walk five minutes to the main route, and then we don’t need this random deviation to just make the route more complicated. Finally, I’m mad that it left Shaw’s early, but at least we had cut it really close so it didn’t feel as cruel as the 9.

Nearby and Noteworthy: This route serves a ton, actually! First, there’s the Children’s Museum of Greater Fall River, which seems like a nice little place for little kids. There’s also the Fall River Fire Museum, which isn’t open to the public “as of yet”, but it’s run by some very dedicated people and they seem to open up for the occasional event. Finally, the loop at the northern end of the route serves part of the Freetown-Fall River State Forest. It looks like it has some beautiful trails with stunning views!

Final Verdict: 6/10
I can’t get over the hourly Saturday service. The busiest route in Fall River only runs every hour on weekends! That’s just crazy to me! Also, this is a prime route for Sunday service if the SRTA ever adds that, which they absolutely should. The Holmes Apartments deviation is also annoying, and in general, this route makes a ton of deviations (particularly on the loop section). That all adds up to a final score of a 6/10 – it’s a good route otherwise!

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Time for a short route that’s not particularly noteworthy. Okay, it’s the FR 8!

I doubt many people will board here on a Saturday.

We left the parking lot of Bristol Community College and turned onto Elsbree Street, which soon passed Durfee High School. There were some suburban businesses as we turned onto President Ave, but it got residential when we swung around onto a roundabout to Eastern Ave, then turned onto New Boston Road. Apart from where we intersected the 4 at Robeson Street, it was mostly dense houses along here.

Yeah, like this!

We made our way around the giant Charlton Memorial Hospital via local roads before settling on Linden Street. This is the unfortunate part of the route where, due to one-ways and narrow roads, the inbound route is three blocks away from the outbound. Once Linden Street ended, we did some quick turns to get onto Bedford Street, and this led us into downtown Fall River. It was only a short time from there before we got to the terminal.

A pretty unremarkable side street.

SRTA Route: FR 8 (BCC/Durfee HS)

Ridership: The 8 tends to get higher ridership during school months and less ridership when school is off. For example, in April 2014, the route got about 420 passengers per day (probably more on weekdays and less on Saturdays), but in June of that year, it only got about 283 people per day.

Pros: The 8 serves two major schools, a huge hospital, and dense residential areas. It’s also pretty direct, and it runs frequently, with service every half hour on weekdays until around 9 PM. Saturday service is only every hour, but I think ridership is a lot lower on Saturdays anyway – my midday inbound trip got just one person.

Cons: Mostly just the inbound-outbound split in the middle of the route. I know there’s no way to fix that, but three blocks is not an insignificant distance. Also, there’s a slight typo on the schedule where a school trip serving Durfee High School shows up after a regular trip, even though the school one comes first. Not a huge deal, but a little annoying.

Nearby and Noteworthy: Nothing much, unless you believe in the importance of a good education. Two schools, people! Two!

Final Verdict: 7/10
Yup, this is just a standard, quick little route. I don’t have too much to say – I think the 8 does what it sets out to do pretty well. Even the lack of Sunday service isn’t as big of a deal for this one, since a lot of its destinations are weekday-oriented anyway.

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It’s time to go west! Leave the constraints of Fall River and escape to the idyllic countryside of Swansea! It’s home to such wonderful points of interest as, and this is a direct quote from Wikipedia, “Swansea Motor Inn (featuring water beds)”! Featuring water beds? Sounds like a great place to me! Let’s hop on the 14 and head out there!

Leaving from the terminal.

“Are you Max?” the driver asked. “No, I’m Miles,” I responded. “Then you can’t take pictures of the buses,” the driver said. “Only Max can take pictures.” Welp, looked like I wouldn’t be getting a photo of the 14. Shoulda just said my name was Max, it’s close enough! The bus, with its picture having not been taken, headed up 4th Street, crossing I-195. As soon as we made it to the other side of the highway, we turned onto Pleasant Street and then hopped onto a ramp to get onto it.

Right onto the bridge!

We zoomed through the short tunnel underneath Fall River City Hall, then the highway headed onto the impressively high Braga Bridge over the Taunton River. Taking the first exit on the other side of the bridge in Somerset, we merged onto Wilbur Ave, a street offering a mix of houses, woods, and farmland. It curved north, passing the Clifton Rehab Center, and some suburban businesses dotted the road as we got closer to the river.

Back at the river.

We used a roundabout to get onto Riverside Ave, but we were only on it for a few seconds before turning onto Slades Ferry Road (right across the street from an abandoned bridge). Among the sights to see were suburban businesses and what is apparently a park and ride – I imagine it has to be for this route, since there are no other buses here, but there’s no indication of its existence anywhere on the route schedule or the SRTA website. We used Brayton Ave to get onto Grand Army of the Republic Highway next.

Is this a deviation I smell?

G.A.R. Highway was a very very very wide road that was near-impossible to cross, so I suppose the route’s Stop & Shop deviation was inevitable. After that deviation, though, we went up Brayton Point Road, a pleasant residential street. Read Street, which we turned onto, was similar, but we soon headed down Lees River Ave to return to G.A.R. Highway. It was at least slightly narrower as we took it over the Lees River, entering Swansea.

Within the suburban neighborhood.

The road had a brief stint in the woods before the retail came back, and when it did, we performed an outbound-only deviation to Target. Next, we turned onto Swansea Mall Drive and did another outbound-only deviation, this time to Swansea Crossing. Finally, we looped around into the parking lot for the dying Swansea Mall, making a stop in between the mall and Walmart. Contrary to what Google Maps says, the bus doesn’t actually deviate into the Walmart, which created a lot of confusion when it came to Sam finding me in order to pick me up.

Ha! Got one from the back!

Update: here’s another picture of a 14 that I took later!

SRTA Route: 14 (Swansea Mall)

Ridership: As you might expect from a suburban bus route, overall ridership on the 14 is low (187 people per day in May 2014) and cost per rider is high ($10.77 in the same month). However, this was one of the routes of the day where I saw the highest number of people on board at once: 11 people leaving the terminal. This is probably because, as a suburban route, the 14 is bound to get less local ridership and more people coming from Fall River.

Pros: This is the one connection to Somerset and Swansea, and the route generally serves the biggest locations in each town. It’s only every hour, but because the route is longer than others, it makes sense from an efficiency standpoint to run it less frequently. Also, it makes up for the low frequency with a large span of service, with buses running until 9 PM on weekdays.

Cons: I don’t know if commuting into Fall River is a common thing, but because the route doesn’t start until 9 AM, it’s impossible to commute with the 14. The route is also pretty crazy, and it felt maddening when I was on board. Now that I look at the map, though, the deviations make sense – these are just spread-out places, and it’s hard to serve everything well with just one route. The outbound-only ones are all close enough to the end that it’s basically treated as a loop.

Nearby and Noteworthy: If you get off at Swansea Crossing, it’s just a 15-minute walk to the SWANSEA MOTOR INN! WATER BEDS, BABY!!!!! No, there really isn’t much to see along here. If you like dying or dead malls, though, it might be worth checking out the Swansea Mall, since it’s definitely on its way down.

Final Verdict: 6/10
Y’know, it’s a suburban route, and it does its best. There’s a lot to serve in these towns, and if you can only afford to run one route, you’re gonna end up with something a little crazy. It still gets people, and it’s nice that it runs pretty late into the night.

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What was my first impression of the 9? Well, I couldn’t really form one…because the bus never showed up! Sam and I got to the first stop five minutes early, but I guess that was a little too late – the rascal left before we got there. All was lost. We weren’t going to complete the system in a day. “No,” I declared. “You know what? Screw the 9. If it’s not going to dignify us with a ride, then let’s not do it.” So…we were going to drive the route.

Here we go…

We curved around onto Pleasant Street, which was lined with dense houses. At the awkward intersection between the FR 9 and the NB 9, we turned onto Eastern Ave, a wide road with a grassy median. It was still mostly residential, but we also went by a park. We eventually turned onto Bedford Street, starting an annoying jog – this would be weird to do in a car.

Typical scenery.

We turned onto Stonehaven Road, going by much more suburban houses than before, as well as the Diman Vocational Technical High School – I think that was the main reason for this deviation. We turned onto Locust Street next, then Oak Grove Ave, where the houses started to get denser. Once we got back onto Bedford Street, they were back to being quite dense, and businesses in between were appearing more and more often. That culminated in downtown Fall River, where we made our way around to the terminal…or just outside it, since cars aren’t allowed in the busway.

The “bus”.

This is the NB 9…but you can’t tell the difference, can you? Mwahaha.

SRTA Route: FR 9 (Bedford Street)

Ridership: Wow…400 people per day in May 2014? That’s…way more than I would’ve thought! Then again, I did the route in a private car, so I really had no idea how many people the bus got. It does serve a lot of dense neighborhoods.

Pros: Like I said, the 9 serves a bunch of dense neighborhoods, and it has a good ol’ half-hourly schedule on weekdays.

Cons: First of all, for the ridership this route gets, I would expect half-hourly Saturday service (versus the current hourly schedule) and even Sunday service, as well as night service (right now the route ends at around 6 PM). Also, there has to be a layover point somewhere on this route! I mean, Pleasant Street at Eastern Ave (a little further from where I was trying to board) is technically the “start” of it, so maybe it lays over there? But knowing the SRTA, I’ll bet buses just leave whenever they arrive. That is unacceptable.

Nearby and Noteworthy: Houses, and some businesses that didn’t look too appealing. Yup.

Final Verdict: 4/10
Look, the bus left so early that I couldn’t even catch it. It’s probably more of a 5/10 route, but that fact alone is worth a point off. Probably should be more than one, but the 9 isn’t that bad otherwise. Darn it.
UPDATE: Turns out the ridership numbers for this route were accidentally copied over from the 10. The graph shows the real numbers, which are a lot more mediocre, around 150 people per day. Now the schedule makes more sense. Honestly…this is more like a 2/10, given the ridership, plus the earliness.

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Believe it or not, the SRTA route with the most legit terminus is also one of the least frequent routes on the system. Yes, the 7 ends at a proper turn around, probably a remnant from an old streetcar! Yet it’s one of the few in-town routes that runs every hour on weekdays. Well, let’s see why that might be.

At the Fall River Terminal.

I’m not quite sure why, but the 7 has a jog up past I-195 on its outbound route. We went over the highway on 4th Street, then we used Troy Street to get to Bedford Street, passing some vacant downtown buildings and a post office. Soon after passing Main Street (where downtown is actually pretty nice), we turned onto Milliken Boulevard, crossing south over the highway again. What was the point of this jog when the inbound route doesn’t even do it? I have no idea. It was even worse when the outbound route would have a second deviation to Battleship Cove, but it’s not running right now because of construction.

195 about to go over its Taunton River bridge.

We now turned onto Columbia Street, which was lined with dense houses and apartments, as well as some businesses. Columbia Street ended and we used the parking lot-filled Broadway to get to William Street. It became Bay Street as it curved south, and as the name suggested, we were rather close to Mount Hope Bay.

I can see it!

Bay Street was a bit of an odd one; on the bay side, it kinda switched between big industrial buildings and suburban houses. The inland side was just residential, with the occasional apartment development. We basically just sped past all this with no one on the bus until we hit the Bay Street Turn Around, just before the Rhode Island border. That was that!

It’s not that impressive, but it’s still kind of awesome.

SRTA Route: 7 (Bay Street)

Ridership: I’m impressed by how many people this route seems to get. It got 6,941 passengers in May 2014, which ends up being 257 per day, or around 10 per one-way trip. That’s pretty darn good for SRTA, and the total number is very close to and sometimes even higher than other, more frequent routes.

Pros: My trip only got one person, so I thought this route doesn’t get a lot of people, but it turns out it does! My guess is that some of those big apartment developments along Bay Street generate riders. Anyway, that’s what I like about it: it runs a fairly direct route down an important street in southwest Fall River.

Cons: Okay, we’ve established that the 7 gets similar ridership numbers to other SRTA routes…except the 7 is every hour on both weekdays and Saturdays when most others are at least every half hour on weekdays. It’s even a similar length to the other routes! If anything, raising the frequency to the level of other routes would generate even more ridership! Either run each route every hour or each route every half hour, because clearly, they’re getting similar amounts of people. Oh, also, that outbound-only deviation is stupid. Just had to put that somewhere.

Nearby and Noteworthy: I think the SRTA intends to have this route start serving Battleship Cove again once construction there ends. I’m not a fan of putting an even longer outbound-only deviation on this thing, but Battleship Cove does seem like a cool place.

Final Verdict: 5/10
I don’t get it. The hourly 7 gets higher ridership than at least one other route that gets half hourly weekday service. It’s a short route, so it would only take one more bus to improve service, and the way SRTA interlines, it would also improve service somewhere else. I dunno, I’m not a fan of this route double standard of sorts, especially since each trip on the 7 is going to get twice the passengers of other routes because it runs at half the frequency.

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The 3 ends right around where the 5 ends, so let’s hop on that to get back into Fall River!

The bus at Stop & Shop.

I actually got the 3 from Stop & Shop, since it’s an outbound-only deviation right near the terminus! It actually does another one just before the Stop & Shop to the Fall River Shopping Center, but they share a parking lot, so it’s technically the same deviation. From Stop & Shop, we looped our way around to the proper terminus at Ocean State Job Lot…but the layover point is kinda far from the store, so it feels like the bus is just sitting in a random industrial area instead.

What a weird place to end a bus route!

So we went down Amity Street from the end (or now start) of the route, and the industry soon gave way to an apartment development. It turned to regular houses when we turned onto Laurel Street, but there also was another development and the back of the Fall River Shopping Center. From there, though, it was basically all houses until we got to Plymouth Ave.

One of the apartment complexes.

We were on Plymouth Ave for exactly one block before we turned off onto Globe Street. This was an urban local street: dense houses and a few little businesses here and there. We turned onto East Main Street, which was more or less the same thing until we joined South Main Street, meeting up with the 1 soon after. Now, there were lots of businesses, as well as a hospital and a park. The road started to feel like a downtown eventually, with a ton of dense retail on both sides, and once we hit I-195, we made our way around to the terminal.

I tried to take a cool shot out the front of the bus. I failed.

SRTA Route: FR 3 (Laurel)

Ridership: Overall ridership on the 3 is pretty good; in May 2014, it got about 365 passengers per day. It’s interesting to note, though, that the route got about 24 passengers per revenue hour – the 3 runs every half hour, so that’s four trips every hour (two in each direction), meaning an average of six people per trip. Hm.

Pros: The route takes a direct path to the southern parts of Fall River, and it serves some big important stores near its terminus. It’s also super frequent, running every half hour weekdays and Saturdays, although only until around 6 PM.

Cons: The terminus at Ocean State Job Lot is really weird, and there’s little indication of where the bus actually boards. I also wonder if there’s a market for night or Sunday service in the form of a 3/5 loop – that could be a more efficient way of providing it if it’s needed. Indeed, neither the 3 nor the 5 get that much ridership, so maybe they could be combined full-time.

Nearby and Noteworthy: Nothing much except for the shopping centers at the end of the route. I already mentioned the South Main Street corridor in the 1 review, but that looks interesting, too.

Final Verdict: 7/10
It’s a good local route. It’s direct. It serves places that need bus service. Not much else to say here, it’s not a very interesting route.

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I didn’t think the SRTA actually makes it to Rhode Island, but I was wrong – the FR 5 very much enters that friendly small state to the south. As for the rest of the route? It isn’t all that interesting, alas.

Boarding at the terminal. That “Harbour Mall” sign is outdated, as the plaza now has a new name.

We did a little loopy-loop coming out of the terminal, eventually making our way onto 4th Street. This was an extremely narrow road lined with dense houses, so it was a pretty big change when we suddenly merged onto the very wide Plymouth Ave. We weren’t on this for too long, though, as we soon turned onto Warren Street, another narrow road lined with dense houses.

Looking down a side street.

We turned onto Lapham Street, another narrow road with the same scenery, but then we turned onto Brayton Ave, which was a rather wide road with…the same scenery. We then made a left onto Stafford Road, and after going down that for a bit, we performed a deviation into the Seabra Supermarket. It was only saving people about a two minute walk, but okay, whatever…

In the parking lot.

We passed a park as the houses started to get more suburban and spread out. There were also a few businesses thrown in at certain intersections. Just before crossing Route 24, we turned into the SouthCoast Marketplace (formerly known as Harbour Market, as seen on the bus’s headsign). This was a fancy new mall complete with a Market Basket and even a modern bus shelter!

The best shot I could get of the shopping center.

This was also a well-executed deviation because we used the mall parking lot to get out to a new street, William S. Canning Boulevard. This wide road took us through an interchange with Route 24, and on the other side, we entered Tiverton, Rhode Island! We weren’t in it for long, though – after reaching a newly-constructed rotary, we looped onto Stafford Road, which took us back into Massachusetts. The route’s final stop was right on the border.

The bus going back towards the terminal.

SRTA Route: FR 5 (Stafford Road)

Ridership: In 2014, the most recent year for which I could get ridership data, it seemed the 5’s ridership was on the decline. In May of that year, the route averaged around 308 riders per day, down from an average of 467 in May the previous year. I don’t know what things are like now, but the route’s schedule is near identical to what it was in 2014 (and, indeed, 2013), so the changing numbers seem to have been due to other factors.

Pros: The 5 serves important destinations in the southern portion of Fall River, and for SRTA standards, it’s reasonably direct and most of the jogs make sense. It also has great frequency, with service every half hour weekdays and Saturdays.

Cons: First of all, this route has no night service, which I think would be useful considering that both Seabra and SouthCoast Marketplace are open until 9 and 11 PM respectively. It would be helpful for a lot of people if service was extended past its current 6 o’clock ending. On the topic of Seabra Supermarket, I don’t think this really has to deviate in there when it’s such a close distance to the road, but that’s the only problematic detour. Finally, I’m skeptical of the terminus – it’s one of those SRTA termini that’s just a street stop, and as I would come to find out later, buses tend to leave early from those kinds of stops. Just be aware that vehicles might depart the terminus a few minutes ahead of schedule.

Nearby and Noteworthy: Nothing that would be interesting to outsiders, but Seabra and SouthCoast Marketplace are both important shopping locations for Fall River residents.

Final Verdict: 6/10
The 5 seems like a decent route, but it has enough problems to bring its score down to a 6. Does it really have to directly serve the front door of Seabra Supermarket? Wouldn’t it be beneficial if it had night service (or even Sunday service, although there are other routes that need it much more)? Don’t buses leave that terminal early a lot? It’s an important route, but it has issues.

Latest MBTA News: Service Updates

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.

Latest MBTA News: Service Updates