37th Street (Trolleys)
For any Bostonians who have ever ridden the Green Line: you have it good. I was like everyone else, thinking that nothing could be worse than the screechy, unorganized, crazy Green Line. Then I rode the SEPTA Subway-Surface Trolleys. Oh, how wrong I was about Boston’s maligned rail line. Let’s look at perhaps the most distinctive SEPTA trolley station, 37th Street, and find out what makes the trolleys so insane.
This isn’t the crazy part.
We begin with the entrances to the westbound platform. They’re as basic as they could possibly be, although at least they have screens above them. These mostly show ads, but they also display the system status of each trolley line. If service is normal, it says “Normal”. If something is wrong, it says “Alert”. What is the alert? What exactly is going on? Ha! Sorry, you’ll have to find out the details on your own, because the screens tell you nothing.
Looking down the long set of stairs.
The other important feature of these entrances (and every subway entrance on the trolleys) is the ubiquitous blue light that signifies that the trolleys are terminating at 40th and Market on Sunday nights. Boston people: it’s like if the Green Line had surface tracks to Back Bay and terminated there. See what I’m getting at when I say the trolleys are crazy? Also of note is that there’s no mezzanine at this station, so the stairs go a longgggg way down directly to the platform.
I love this!
Remember how I mentioned that 37th Street is SEPTA’s most distinctive trolley station? This is why. It has a fantastic eastbound entrance modelled after the old Peter Witt trolleys that trundled through the UPenn campus at surface level! Now, of course, the trolleys run underground, and the old tracks have been paved over to form the beautiful Locust Walk. As much as I love the Walk, I can’t help but think how awesome it would be if trolleys screeched through campus every few minutes. I might be alone on that one…
The front of the car. I imagine it’s labelled as the 56 because it was donated by the Penn Class of 1956, although the 56 actually was a streetcar in North Philly until the 90s.
The trolley even has an inside! Due to construction around it, it’s hard to get into right now, but you can do it if you wiggle around some dirt and jump up a step. It’s just a few benches and some controls up front, but that’s a darn good novelty for a transit entrance. Due to the construction (probably), there’s some random stuff lying around in the trolley that definitely defeats some of the atmosphere, but I guess it’s as good a place as any to store a random box and some gloves. Right…?
It’s worth talking about the other eastbound entrance, because it’s in a rather sorry state at the moment. Normally, this would be a great exit to get far into Penn’s campus, but because of the construction, all it leads to is a big blue fence. There’s a tiny opening with a miserable excuse of an asphalt path that just…leads back towards the trolley replica entrance. I guess if you want to have a picnic at one of the haphazardly placed tables here, though, this is the entrance for you.
Down on the platform.
Boy, talk about basic. What have we got on this platform? Two benches, a wastebasket, a phone for emergencies…is that it? No, like, fare machine? That’s not important? How about, I dunno, cell service? I have Verizon, so it works at most SEPTA locations, but apparently not the independent section of the trolley tunnel. Is AT&T any better here?
Think fast!
This is as good a time as any to talk about the process of boarding a westbound trolley in the tunnel. So you’re standing there, right? Let’s say you’re waiting for an 11. So you’re standing there, and suddenly, there’s a headlight. It’s coming closer, but you can’t see the number because the headlight is so bright. Man, this thing is going fast! Closer, closer…it’s an 11! Okay! Flag it down as wildly as possible so you can make it on! Flag harder! Harder! Aw, and there it goes speeding through. Bostonians: the Green Line sucks, but it’s leagues better than these darn trolleys. I rest my case.
A different trolley leaving the station.
Station: 37th Street (Trolleys)
Ridership: There is NO PUBLIC RIDERSHIP INFORMATION FOR ANY OF THE SUBWAY-SURFACE TROLLEY STATIONS. Sure, every insignificant street-running stop on the 101 Suburban Trolley in Media has ridership information, but this rather substantial subway station gets nothing? Makes sense! Well, I’m sure the ridership here is pretty good, though, since this is basically the station for UPenn. This and 36th Street.
Pros: That trolley entrance is great. The other entrances are fine. The platform is…clean? I think I’ve run out of pros.
Cons: Here’s a good question: why are there no fare machines here? Seriously, one on each platform would suffice. I cannot believe that this is a subway station with no fare machines! Having to pay onboard is also a pain, but that’s less easy to solve, since you would need to create makeshift mezzanines at the bottom or top of each entrance staircase. Of course, the ridiculous boarding procedure for westbound trains gets a mention here as well, as it will for every other subway-surface trolley review.
Nearby and Noteworthy: UPenn, baby! Bam! Also, a ton of food trucks are always lined up here on Spruce, so this is a great place to go if you’re looking for that kind of meal.
Final Verdict: 4/10
37th Street Station is basically just a hole in the ground with hardly any amenities, no cell service, and a really stressful way of boarding westbound trains. Normally I would give it a 3, but I’ll throw in an extra point for that awesome streetcar entrance. In other words, this is one of the best subway-surface trolley stations on SEPTA!
Latest SEPTA News: Service Updates
SRTA: Fall River Terminal
This terminal is pretty brand-spanking new, having been built in 2013. But…does new mean good in this case? Spoilers: yes.
And there we go!
The main waiting area is bright, shiny, and spacious. We’ve got benches galore, schedules galore, and…just one ticket machine. Well, we can’t have everything. Other attractions include ticket offices, a mural, a great water fountain (the kind with the bottle-filler), and some really nice bathrooms.
Woah…
Okay, this was a surprise. A set of stairs and an elevator lead down to an underground parking garage…with 30 spaces. Yes, they built a whole underground parking garage for a whole…30 spaces. I mean, it’s something, I guess. The garage is open whenever the terminal is (Mondays-Saturdays, 6 AM to 10 PM), and there is also parking for up to ten bikes down here.
Outside in the boarding area.
Sweet, the boarding area has seating too! It’s not as much as what’s inside the building, but two shelters is two shelters. There are no designated “berths” here, so buses seem to just pull in wherever they want, but it’s not a huge problem, since it’s not a big terminal to begin with. It shouldn’t be hard to find your bus when there are only a few berths to begin with. The “boarding platforms” just being lines on the asphalt is pretty bad, though.
Two buses of two different companies.
SRTA Station: Fall River Terminal
Ridership: According to this article, the SRTA transports 3,500 Fall River passengers every day. I’m not sure what that translates to as far as terminal ridership, but probably a good chunk of those people start or end their journeys here.
Pros: This is a nice, simple terminal! It has every amenity you would want, and it’s laid out very well.
Cons: It mostly comes down to the berths. Organized berths would be great, but more importantly, the boarding areas should at least have curbs so the step up to the bus isn’t as big.
Nearby and Noteworthy: The station is only a few blocks away from South Main Street, which has some interesting businesses along it if you search.
Final Verdict: 8/10
Not much else to say! This is a good bus station, and its only real problem is boarding the buses from the ground. Other than that, nothing too big to complain about. It’s a good terminal.
Latest MBTA News: Service Updates
Millbourne (MFL)
Yes, I fully admit it: I’m getting a fun one out of the way early on. There is no other SEPTA rapid transit station quite like Millbourne, from the fact that it’s at ground level and outside of the City of Philadelphia (two qualities shared only by its neighbor, 69th Street) to its strange, abandoned tranquility. Or how about the fact that the borough of Millbourne is just nine short blocks long and, at most, two blocks tall? This might be the only place in America where an entire town can be within walking distance of one subway station!
Here we are!
Alright, here we are on the platform. As you can see, there isn’t all that much to it. The westbound side is practically bare, with only some wastebaskets to keep its riders company. That said, as the penultimate stop on the El, I imagine the number of people boarding here to go to 69th Street is practically nil.
No other station like it!
Also on the westbound side is what looks like a big abandoned parking lot that’s slowly being reclaimed by nature. There are some staircases from the platform that go to this wasteland, but they’re marked as “Emergency Exit Only,” and I wasn’t about to get arrested on only my second review. Still, these emergency exits are the only way to leave the station from the westbound platform; otherwise, you have to use the footbridge, which features another one of Millbourne’s quirks.
On the footbridge.
So, stairs and an elevator lead to the footbridge. Simple enough. But…there are actually two footbridges. The other one is accessed via an exit-only turnstile from the outbound platform, and it leads straight to the exit. The question is: does the elevator also take you to and from the unpaid footbridge? It has a button for it and doors and everything. I tried calling it from up on the unpaid footbridge to see if it was possible to get a free ride to 69th (it isn’t), but I never tried to actually use it the normal way by taking it up there from the westbound platform. Man, I need to get my priorities straight here…
The station…from above.
I’ll briefly touch upon the eastbound platform, but it’s not all that different from the westbound. Wanna know the difference? It has two whole benches near the entrance! Okay, and that’s it. At least the exits from the eastbound side actually go somewhere, though.
The “mezzanine”, as it were.
Millbourne’s strangeness continues. There’s not really a mezzanine here, just a sales agent with two faregates, each accessible via their own separate fenced area. But, you might ask, where’s the ticket machine? Look closely, see if you can spot it. Aha! It’s at the entrance to the unpaid footbridge! Yeah, that makes a ton of sense! You probably could walk across there and get a free ride to 69th, since the fare machine there just beckons people to do that! Oh wait, but there are exit-only turnstiles blocking the way to the platform. Okay, okay, SEPTA thought this through…
Looking at the building.
And now we get to Millbourne’s multitude of exits. Yes, five out of the borough’s twelve streets get direct access to the station, two of which are covered by the Sellers Ave exit. It’s the simplest one, just a short path from the mezzanine to the street, and it’s also the only wheelchair accessible exit. When you’re leaving, you walk by a nice station sign with feather art all around it, and you also go by the single bike rack at the entrance.
Up close and personal.
The rest of the exits are accessed by a set of stairs (or exit-only turnstiles from the eastbound side) leading down to a path. When you’re walking along here, you’re quite literally in people’s backyards. For example, I can tell you that at least one of the houses along this path has a cute dog, because I could see it bounding around the yard as I walked by!
One of the staircase exits.
Soon the backyards get replaced by a wall, but it is plastered with awesome murals! Yes, this might just be the most art-heavy station on SEPTA, because the murals go all the way down the path once they start showing up. There are two exits along this section that are just staircases going up to the end of whatever street they’re serving.
Woah, really up close and personal!
Ah yes…the path is also running right next to the tracks. That means that you get a fantastic view of trains every time they come by – it’s probably the only place on the El where you can be at ground level next to them. Anyway, the last exit is at the end of the path, and basically, the path just ends at Park Ave next to Millbourne’s police department. Nothing too fancy here, especially compared to the rest of the station’s quirks!
Two trains leaving in opposite directions.
Station: Millbourne (MFL)
Ridership: Every weekday, there are 323 trains that stop at Millbourne. What is Millbourne’s daily ridership? 391 people. So, factoring in that a lot more people probably get on here at rush hour, there are a heck of a lot of trains that stop here without getting any passengers. However, it is worth noting that Millbourne’s total population is 1,159 people, meaning that about a third of the borough’s residents take transit! Yes, I know there are non-Millbourne residences that are also close to the station so the percentage is probably smaller, but it sounds like a neat fact.
Pros: I can say with almost complete certainty that this is the most pleasant SEPTA rapid transit station to wait at. It feels absolutely nothing like any other station on the system, what with the abandoned tranquility of the parking lot to the north and the charming dead-end streets to the south. Millbourne also has some fantastic artwork and a lot of it, and the access to the surrounding neighborhoods is top-notch.
Cons: Here’s a little Millbourne tip: if you’re getting off here from a westbound train, board as close to the front as possible. Having to go over the footbridge just to get to the exit is made even more annoying if you have to walk all the way down the platform to get to it. The placement of the fare machine at the entrance of the unpaid footbridge is also very questionable. Finally, there’s the elephant in the room: very very few people use Millbourne to the point where during off-peak times, I would imagine stopping here feels like a waste of time. There’s obviously nothing that can be done about that (except for midday A-B skip-stop service…blech. This is a B stop at rush hour, for the record.), but it was worth mentioning. I still think every train should stop here anyway.
Nearby and Noteworthy: It’s predominantly residential around here, but there are some businesses down on Market Street. I came to Millbourne for its nearby Dollar Tree, hoping to find some crappy $1 headphones, but they weren’t in stock, so I bought $1 water instead.
Final Verdict: 6/10
I’ll say it one more time: there’s no station on SEPTA rapid transit quite like Millbourne, and that’s why I love it. Even at rush hour, it was super peaceful, so I would love to see what it’s like on, say, a Sunday morning. There are of course a number of functional problems with Millbourne, but I can’t help loving this weird little station.
Latest SEPTA News: Service Updates
SRTA: FR 1 (South Main)
So…how did Sam and I end up getting from Tiverton on the 61x back to Boston? Why, we took the SRTA, of course! Yes, we had to walk about an hour to get from the Fish Road Park and Ride to the terminus of the 1, but it was a surprisingly nice walk, and now, here we are on the SRTA for the second time! It certainly won’t be the last, either…
Shove Street? What an odd name!
Although businesses line the road closer to the Rhode Island border, the 1 starts a block north of that, where it’s a lot more residential. We immediately turned onto Broad Street, a very deceiving street, as it’s actually really narrow. Next, we turned onto Shove Street, as seen on the bus’s headsign, and we used this to merge back onto South Main Street, which had a mixture of dense houses, apartments, and businesses.
A blurry picture, but there’s the ocean!
Outside of a park, we curved onto Broadway, which was all dense houses. We turned onto Middle Street at a park, then it was a left back onto South Main Street. It was basically all retail up until we hit Fall River City Hall and I-195, where we turned onto Frontage Road. From here, it wasn’t long until we arrived at the Fall River Terminal.
Going alongside I-195.
SRTA Route: 1 (South Main)
Ridership: The most comprehensive SRTA ridership data I could find shows the numbers by month, which is a little awkward, but I’ll work with it. The route seems to get about 350 people per day, which is pretty good. My ride only had three people, but it was one of the later trips of the evening, and it was going inbound.
Pros: As I would come to learn about the SRTA, they like to run routes that are twisty. That’s why it’s nice to see that the 1 here is nice and straight, running mostly down South Main Street with a slight jog to serve Broadway. The route is also frequent, with service every half hour on weekdays and Saturdays; it even runs until around 9 PM during the week!
Cons: No Sunday service is always going to be a complaint for me when it comes to the SRTA. This is a route that serves a major corridor in Fall River, and I think it would get the ridership needed to support at least limited Sunday service, say, every hour.
Nearby and Noteworthy: Along South Main Street closer to downtown Fall River, there are some interesting restaurants, from ethnic food to plain ol’ hot dogs.
Final Verdict: 8/10
The 1 checks almost all the boxes: it serves a major corridor, it gets good ridership, and it runs frequently for an RTA route. The one problem? No darn Sunday service! I don’t think the system needs it on all routes, but this is definitely one where it would make a lot of sense.
Latest MBTA News: Service Updates
40th Street (MFL)
40th Street is a station of transition. For example, it’s the last underground stop on the Market-Frankford Line before it goes onto its elevated structure further west. It also marks the point where the tall college buildings of University City turn to the row houses of West Philadelphia proper. Finally, 40th Street is a big personal transition for me: this is my first SEPTA review. Why did I choose this specific station to start out with? Well…it’s the easiest and most convenient one for me to get to from my dorm. Yeah.
One of the station’s striking entrances.
I’ve seen enough SEPTA entrances during my limited time in Philly to know that these are awesome. There are four entrances to this station on the four corners of Market and 40th, and they all have this sleek, modern style. The staircases are like waves beckoning riders underground to the trains, while the elevators are…well, they’re normal elevators, but that’s fine.
Technically a picture of the “bus stop”, but it’s a little hard to see.
Before we head underground, though, let’s talk about the surface stops here, of which there are three: two on Market, and one on 40th. They’re all just signs with, as far as I can tell, no directional signage from within the station. Heck, I didn’t even notice that there’s a stop on 40th when I was here! Also, aside from the routes here that get signage at their stops (the 30, the 40, and the Market-Frankford Owl), this is also the terminus for Trolley routes on Sunday nights when they get diverted from their tunnel. Any information about that anywhere? Nah!
The Great Glass Elevator.
So, back to the main station. The staircases would be normal staircases were it not for an elegant “40” mosaic as they round a corner. Nice touch. As for the elevators, there are two of them, diagonally across the intersection from each other. They’re glass and they don’t smell that bad, so aside from their weird, hard-to-push buttons, I like ’em!
Down in the eastbound mezzanine.
When we arrive at the mezzanines (separate ones for each direction, so you can’t cross over), we find something that I am going to constantly harp on SEPTA about in my station reviews: they use the space terribly. The mezzanines are long and spacious, but there are only fare gates and machines on one end of them. That means that when you’re coming in from, say, the southeast corner of the intersection, you have to walk all the way across the station just to get in! I wouldn’t be complaining about this so much if there wasn’t so much space to use. Why not add some fare machines on the east side and convert those exit-only turnstiles into gates?
The platform.
Things get much better on the platform. This is a clean station, and even though a lot of the infrastructure like the ceiling is painted black, it doesn’t feel dingy. There are a bunch of benches and plenty of wastebaskets all along the station. Huge fans were set up on either end of the platform to make it a little cooler, an amenity that I’m sure is needed. There were a few quirks, like the brown liquid gushing out onto the tracks from a pipe, or the fact that the platform is about two full car-lengths longer than the average train, but it was great other than those minor issues!
Yeah, I found out about the car-length thing the hard way.
Station: 40th Street (MFL)
Ridership: This stop gets above-average ridership for the El (that’s what practically everyone calls the MFL, since it spends a lot of its route elevated – it’s a heck of a lot easier to say), with about 5,731 passengers per weekday. I was here in the evening rush, and it seemed to lean more towards local riders than commuters coming from UPenn and its various institutions around the station – that might change once school really kicks into gear next week.
Pros: This is just a nice station to wait at. The platform is clean, it has a ton of benches all along it, and there are gigantic fans to keep the place as cool as possible (which isn’t that cool, but they’re trying). The whole thing feels modern but it also has character, especially with the beautiful staircase entrances.
Cons: It mostly comes down to that darn mezzanine! That extra time spent walking over to the fare gates adds up, and there’s a ton of room to put new ones in. The bus stops are also super basic (I know SEPTA doesn’t have a lot of shelters in the city, but this is a major rail transfer! Come on!) and signage to them is practically nonexistent. Heck, the trolley signage is literally nonexistent!
Nearby and Noteworthy: As I walked to the station along 40th Street, I was fascinated by the storefronts; there are a ton of restaurants here, mostly geared towards college students.
Final Verdict: 7/10
Yes, I really am giving this rather nice station a 7. I know what the rest of SEPTA is like. I know what I’m up against. I’m prepared to give low scores if I have to (and a lot of the time, I will have to). What can I say? 40th Street is good, but it’s not that good. Is it better than most SEPTA rapid transit stations? Absolutely. But I have standards. I’m sticking to my guns. It’s a 7, and if I can’t find a single station that’s worthy of an 8 or higher, then so be it. Happy to be here, SEPTA!
Latest SEPTA News: Service Updates
RIPTA: 61x (Tiverton/East Bay Park and Ride)
The 61x takes everything you would expect from a decent express bus…and throws it out the window. You’ll see what I mean, but when an “express” bus is only 5% express, you know there’s probably something wrong.
The bus in Providence.
Sam and I boarded at the Rhode Island Convention Center, the start of the route’s Downcity Loop. That meant that we got to experience the whole local section, first running down Sabin Street and then turning onto Empire Street. Next, we headed up Weybosset Street, going by businesses this whole time. Also…the bus had luggage racks? Not as weird as the 59x using a tourist trolley, but it was definitely out there.
This is a thing, I guess!
Weybosset Street curved to the left as we went through a financial district with office buildings, and then we pulled up to Exchange Terrace Stop X – where all the express routes board. Now, the reason the stop is placed here is because it’s super easy for buses to pull straight out and get onto I-95. Does the 61x do that? No, it…loops around onto Memorial Boulevard, going in the opposite direction. Uhhh…
The good ol’ Providence skyline.
We made our way over to Washington Street, going over the Providence River before entering…the East Side Transit Tunnel? We’re really going through there on this express bus, huh? Because, you know, the 60 (which parallels this route closely) just goes straight onto the highway. No? Okay, tunnel it is.
Out on the East Side.
We came out amongst the many businesses of Thayer Street, but it turned to very nice houses as we made our way onto Waterman Street. A lot of the houses did have small offices in them, though. There was more retail when we hit Wayland Square, then it went back to being residential before we sailed over the Henderson Bridge into East Providence.
Going over the bridge.
We stayed on Henderson Expressway until its bizarre, incomplete terminus at North Broadway, onto which we turned. This was mostly residential, but when we got to the “bowtie” of what is more or less “downtown” East Providence, we got to take Broadway’s underpass instead of having to loop around! That was a true adventure, let me tell you.
On the other side of the underpass on regular Broadway.
After going under I-195, we turned onto Warren Ave for a bit before…oh, miracle of miracles! We took an on-ramp onto 195! It was time for an express section, baby! WOOOOOOO! WAIT, WHY ARE WE TAKING AN EXIT…oh, and now we’re just on Route 114, which is just a faster-than-average road, running with the 60. Why does the 60 have a longer express section than we do???
At least we got a nice view…
We were more or less in the woods for a while, with only a few random houses and industrial buildings appearing alongside the road. At some point we passed into Barrington and ran alongside the beautiful Hundred Acre Cove. Across from the Barrington High School, we stopped at the White Church Park and Ride. Sadly, it did not get a deviation, as a bus would likely not fit into it.
The park and ride, complete with a water view!
From this point, the road became more of a real road, with actual buildings along it. They started out as houses, but soon we passed some businesses in Barrington Center. They were a little too car-oriented for my liking, but Maple Ave, a side street, looked a lot more pedestrian-friendly. There were just a few more houses before we went over the Barrington River…and then the Palmer River! They’re very close to each other. Now we were in Warren.
That’s a bike path over there!
There were some dense residences, and then we were in Warren Center. This was awesome – there were tons of charming businesses along Main Street. Soon after the downtown, it was time for us to begin our independent section by turning onto Franklin Street. We went by the Warren Park and Ride (again, no deviation; very disappointing), and then it was mostly houses. Once we turned onto Metacom Ave, though, suburban businesses lined the road.
Another park and ride.
We entered Bristol, and in between a lot of houses lining the road, Metacom Ave just had whatever it wanted alongside it: more businesses, some industrial buildings, a gym. We even got to see some farmland before the street started to curve southwestward. There was a stretch of shrubby forest before we joined the 60 again at Roger Williams University, then we crossed over the BEAUTIFUL Mount Hope Bridge.
Amazing!
We curved onto the residential Boyds Lane after crossing the bridge, eventually going under Route 24 and finally deviating into a park and ride! And after that, there was an even better revelation: we left the 60 by curving onto a highway on-ramp! An express section!!! Even better, this one was for three exits instead of one! Wait…oh…that’s still not a very long express section, is it?
Another view!
At least we got to cross another beautiful bridge, this time crossing the Sakonnet River into Tiverton. We took the second exit on the other side, taking a left onto Fish Road. After about a second, we arrived at the Fish Road Park and Ride, the final stop on the route. How were Sam and I going to get home from this desolate park and ride in the middle of Tiverton, RI? You’ll have to wait and see…
Mmmm…artsy.
RIPTA Route: 61x (Tiverton/East Bay Park and Ride)
Ridership: So, the route got six riders in total. How many actually rode on the unique section? Just one. Hmmm…
Pros: Even though only one person rode to the Fish Road Park and Ride, the lot had a good amount of cars when we arrived on the first trip of the evening, so it seems like there’s some sort of market for a bus to Tiverton. Of course, the route only runs three times a day in each direction (three in the morning and three in the evening) with no weekend service, but the town probably doesn’t need anything more than that.
Cons: How useful is this route? Not very. In fact, unless you’re coming from the East Side (which two people on my trip did), it’s slower than the 60! Maybe the route is meant to serve East Side riders only, but it’s just hard to call it an “express” when it barely runs express at all.
Nearby and Noteworthy: I mean, it serves Warren Center, which is really nice, but…just take the 60! It’s so much more frequent!
Final Verdict: 3/10
It’s a decent way for East Side commuters to get down to areas served by the 60. Aside from saving those people a (admittedly hilly) walk, though, that’s about all the 61x does. Even if people are coming from Tiverton, they basically have to use the park and ride, but it’s only five extra minutes of driving to get to the Portsmouth Park and Ride, which is also served by the faster 60. And yes, that’s a small lot, but there’s plenty of existing parking space near it for expansion. This route isn’t useless, but it’s not all that useful beyond just a few people. Now, if it could be extended to Fall River, that would make it useful!
Latest MBTA News: Service Updates
VIDEO: Nathan’s Tour of the Beautiful Montachusett Area
Hi! Welcome to the new website! This is a work in progress, so feel free to give me feedback in the comments. But enough talking, here’s that video I promised. It was filmed a while ago, but I only recently got around to editing it. Enjoy!
RIPTA: 58 (Mineral Spring/North Providence)
We previously reviewed one of RIPTA’s only crosstown routes. The 29 was a pure crosstown, darting in and out to serve as many places as possible while cutting across practically every southern RIPTA route. Now, this one is a little different. The 58 is trying to be a crosstown, but it’s also trying to be a radial route to Providence. It doesn’t work.
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| Peeking out from behind a car. |
Now, the 58 doesn’t actually begin at Kennedy Plaza. It starts south of the plaza, at the Rhode Island Hospital. This is a preliminary step to creating the Downtown Transit Connector, but that’s still pretty far off, so it’s just…a one seat ride to the hospital at the moment, I guess. The route was “detouring” to the building’s front door (although it usually doesn’t), and from there, we did a loop to get onto Eddy Street.
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| A big ol’ parking lot. |
There was some undeveloped land for a bit after we went under I-95, but then we entered the up-and-coming Jewelry District. We went through another piece of vacant land north of that, then we turned onto Dorrance Street. This took us into downtown Providence proper, and we were soon picking people up at Kennedy Plaza.
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| When you’re alone and life is making you lonely, you can always go downtown. |
From the Plaza, it was a left onto Kennedy Street, and we crossed the Woonasquatucket River on this. After doing a very slight deviation to serve Providence Station, we headed out onto Park Row, going over the Moshassuck River. We were now on the East Side as we turned onto North Main Street, passing green space on one side and dense houses on the other.
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| Crossing a river. |
We went over the Moshassuck River a second time when we merged onto Mill Street, passing a few different types of buildings as the wide road split into two when it went under I-95. We passed a post office and went over the Northeast Corridor, then we went by some big box stores before the neighborhood turned to be mostly residential. At Hopkins Square, a triangular-shaped park, we took a left onto Branch Ave, beginning our independent section.
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| I can see Walmaht! |
Branch Ave went under Route 146, then it was mostly residential, but we also went by an old factory converted into shopping…sorta. Our independent section ended when we merged with the 50 on the industrial Douglas Ave. And, just like the 50, we had to do a wonderful deviation into Shaw’s via the residential Lubec Street.
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| Part of the Shaw’s shopping complex. |
Well, that was a great deviation. We came back onto Douglas Ave afterward, but we left it soon by turning onto Mineral Spring Ave, going independent again. It’s worth noting that we took a left on Mineral Spring, as most service does, but on one trip, the route takes a right and just kinda…ends at Route 146. Yeah, I don’t know.
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| Some suburban development. |
Mineral Spring Ave was suburban businesses for a while, and in the middle of that is where Saturday service just…kinda ends. Well, weekday trips go on for much longer, but the road became lined with houses instead of retail. At least, that was until Centredale, the downtown of North Providence. Weirdly, though, instead of serving the main street, we instantly used Centredale Bypass to get onto Waterman Ave out of the center. Oh well…better than deviating?
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| At least we got to see a few Centredale businesses. |
Waterman Ave was a little weird. There was reasonable density along it, but it tapered off almost immediately past the road, devolving into woods within two blocks or less on either side. Entering Smithfield, we came up alongside a huge old factory, turned onto Esmond Street, and crossed the Woonasquatucket River.
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| A typical street out here. |
Esmond Street consisted of more houses until it entered the woods for a little while. We left the forest by turning onto Putnam Pike, a road full of suburban businesses. It took us over I-295, and right after that, we pulled into our final stop: Smithfield Crossing, one of the more upscale strip malls in the RIPTA service area. Exciting.
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| Starting the trip back. Once again, a car blocks the bus. |
RIPTA Route: 58 (Mineral Spring/North Providence)
Ridership: The ridership on the 58 is most certainly low. There was just one single person who took the bus on one of its independent sections – everyone else could’ve used a different bus. That means that it’s basically just a whatever-comes-first situation, and the 58 is infrequent enough that it’s often not going to be the one that comes first.
Pros: I appreciate any efforts to create crosstown services in Rhode Island, because there aren’t enough of them. The 58 tries its best.
Cons: Unfortunately, that’s not good enough. The 58 is trying to be a radial route into Providence at the same time, and all that ends up doing is making it circuitous and duplicative of other routes. It doesn’t help that it only runs every hour, Monday through Saturday, especially when the routes it’s paralleling are much more frequent.
Nearby and Noteworthy: Hey, Smithfield Crossings did actually seem like a nice mall. The bus only goes there on weekdays, though!
Final Verdict: 3/10
I don’t see much value in the 58 as it currently stands. Instead of this pseudo crosstown service, why not have a real crosstown service? I think it would be great to have a route running down Mineral Spring Ave from Pawtucket to North Providence, and then on to Smithfield Crossing. That way, the 73 could also be eliminated and its resources could go somewhere else. Maybe something like this, although it might be worth it to, say, deviate into Shaw’s along the way. Just a thought.
Latest MBTA News: Service Updates
I’m sad to announce that the MBTA Jamboree is cancelled. We just didn’t get enough responses to be able to make it work. Thanks to everyone who filled out the survey, and hopefully we’ll be able to do something like it another time.
Join us for the MBTA Jamboree!
Many of you ride the T almost every single day. But you’ve never ridden it like this before. On Saturday, August 18th, we will be embarking on a huge tour of the entire system, and YOU can join us! Here’s the rundown: everyone will be split into teams, and we will all be given a list of challenges worth various point values. Some of them will be easy, like utilizing the Winter Street Concourse or riding the SL3 on its Chelsea busway section. Others will be harder, such as riding all five rapid transit lines in 30 minutes or maintaining a continuous hum between teammates on the ride from JFK/UMass to North Quincy. Ever wanted to sing “Sweet Caroline” in unison with other people at Park Street? That’s a challenge, too!
- Friday, August 10th – all form responses due
- Monday, August 13th – all participants are notified of their teams and everyone’s contact information. The list of challenges is released, and it is up to the teams to do however much preplanning they want to do.
- Saturday, August 18th – all participants will meet at 9:30 AM at Park Street. The day will finish at around 6:30 PM. We will have lunch in the middle of the day. If you don’t think you can stay for the whole day but you still want to come, submit a response anyway, and we’ll try to make accommodations.
RIPTA: 29 (Cowesett/Kent County)
Okay, so we have this bus system, see? It’s pretty good for getting into Providence, see? But what if you wanna get across to somewhere other than Providence? Let’s just create a route that runs across the entire system in the south! It’ll be a beast. It’ll take forever to do a trip. We’ll call it the 29.
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| And there it is! |
Okay, turned out it had to make a layover first. But it eventually came back, and it was time to go! We ran up Bald Hill Road through the woods for a tiny bit before turning onto Ginsu Way, then Quaker Lane. This served two purposes: turning the bus around after serving Cowesett Corners, and serving the Kent County Courthouse.
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| Waiting to make a left turn on Bald Hill Road. |
We returned to Bald Hill Road, although it was now called Quaker Lane, then we turned onto Cowesett Ave. This was lined with suburban businesses with parking lots, but there were dense houses once we turned onto Main Street (as well as some smaller retail buildings). We crossed the Pawtuxet River and passed more houses on the other side, but things were getting denser as we got closer to Arctic Center.
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| A hilly intersection. |
We came into Arctic Center proper, where Main Street became lined with businesses on both sides. We also joined the 13 here. The center was quick, though, and soon we were just passing dense houses again. Now, the 29 usually has a deviation right around here, but because of bridge construction, it became a jog instead. Yes, it’s time for a crazy detour route!
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| Some houses on a dead-end street. |
Thus, instead of just going right over the Pawtuxet River, we turned onto Maple Ave, a hilly street lined with dense ol’ houses. It reached its end and we turned onto Fairview Ave, which allowed us to go over the Pawtuxet River and arrive at Phenix, a little downtown centered around a common. What was the timepoint named after? The Phenix Hotel. Interesting.
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| An old factory getting redeveloped. |
We turned onto Main Street, which went by some industrial buildings, some businesses, and some houses (so basically everything!). Crossing the Pawtuxet River on the bridge we were supposed to take the other way (it was only open in one direction), we returned to the main route by turning onto East Main Street. We then went around a roundabout onto Providence Street, once again crossing the Pawtuxet River and going by a redeveloped factory.
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| Going over the river. |
After that, there were some houses, but it turned to suburban businesses quickly. We merged onto Toll Gate Road soon, then we turned onto Bald Hill Road. Yes, that’s the same Bald Hill Road that Cowesett Corners way back at the beginning of the route is on. Yes, what takes 25 minutes by bus is only a four minute drive. Wonderful.
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| Gritty Bald Hill Road. |
This huge street had a ton of suburban businesses with parking lots along it, and practically nothing else. It even got itself an unnecessarily wide median! We took this thing over the Pawtuxet River yet again, then under I-295. From there, it was time to deviate into the Warwick Mall. But wait…the Warwick Mall stop is way down at the opposite side of the parking lot. Would we have to deviate all the down there? Yes. Yes we would.
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| Stilllllllllllll going. |
After that mess, we came out from the mall and made our way back onto Bald Hill Road, heading in the opposite direction. We went under I-295 and over the Pawtuxet River again (for the last time!), then we had to deviate into the Rhode Island Mall. Turned out that was easier said than done, thanks to Bald Hill Road’s big median I mentioned before. We had to enter the mall parking lot north of the mall, then curve our way around to the actual stop.
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| Going through the mall. |
Were the deviations done yet? Nope, we now had to do one to CCRI! So we went down East Ave for a bit, then we turned onto the road up to the community college. After making the stop outside of the most brutalist building ever, we had to go allllllllllll the way to the end of the parking lot, then take a road down a hill through the total woods.
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| Peak brutalism. |
We finally turned onto Commonwealth Ave, then onto…Toll Gate Road. The same Toll Gate Road we were on before all this deviating. So…from that point to here was quite literally 22 minutes by bus…or a 9 minute walk. And just for fun, let’s do it from Cowesett Corners to here! 53 minutes by bus…ten minutes driving. Even walking is faster, at 41 minutes! Yes, I know this whole area is ridiculously unwalkable, but I’m just saying, it’s faster than the bus.
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| Leaving the college. |
Luckily, the route would be a lot straighter from here. We passed Kent Hospital, and soon after, we went under I-95. There were some offices before we came to a roundabout, marking our entrance into the village of Apponaug. We looped around its “downtown” via Post Road, but I’ve never found it to be a very interesting place. It’s mostly just suburban businesses and houses.
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| Well, at least there’s a Walgreens! |
We merged onto West Shore Road, going under the Northeast Corridor and heading into a mostly residential area. It was houses galore until we hit some suburban businesses at the intersection with Buttonwoods Ave, a transfer point for…oh, the 8x! Interesting! We were joined that route for a bit as the scenery went back to being residential, but once the businesses came back, the 8x turned onto Strawberry Field Road. Meanwhile, we merged onto Sandy Lane.
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| A generic side road. |
There were a few apartments along here, but nope, it went back to being houses once again. This was until Warwick Ave, a commercial street that was also home to the 3 – excuse me, the 3B. We briefly joined it on Warwick Ave, but we left it on Church Ave soon after. This went back to being residential.
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| Water! |
Church Ave ended and we turned onto West Shore Road, joining the 3A. It was still mostly houses, but there was some retail sprinkled throughout the neighborhood. We curved around toward Narragansett Bay, getting brief views of the water down the side streets. We were just entering a cute village called Conimicut when we turned onto Beach Ave, travelling for one block before reaching the final stop at a little park.
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| Out of service? Darn it! |
RIPTA Route: 29 (Cowesett/Kent County)
Ridership: According to that ridership report I found from ten years ago, the route got less than 100,000 people in 2008. Assuming it still ran six days a week like it does today, that’s about 333 people per day – not a lot of people. I actually think that’s somewhat similar to what the ridership is like now, though; my ride got 25 people, and based on the number of trips this route has per day, it would add up to around 300-350 riders.
Pros: Well, you certainly can’t say the 29 doesn’t serve a lot! This gigantic route cuts across West Warwick and Warwick, which is a much longer distance than it sounds like because Warwick is a gigantic town. The 29 is also one of RIPTA’s only crosstown routes, and they could honestly use more of them, but this is a start.
Cons: It’s…so…long! You saw my time comparisons earlier in the review! This thing goes all over the place! Also, because a one way trip takes forever, the 29 can only run so frequently – how does every hour and a half, Mondays through Saturdays sound to you? Pretty bad? Yeah, I agree.
Nearby and Noteworthy: Most of the places on the route like the Warwick Mall or Conimicut are already served by routes out of Providence. As for the places that just the 29 serves…well, they’re just not that exciting.
Final Verdict: 4/10
I gotta give it points for being a crosstown route in a very un-crosstown system, and the route certainly serves a ton, but that’s about it. It’s also infrequent and indirect, and those things count pretty badly against it. It’s just hard to use a route that runs every hour and a half and looks like that.
Latest MBTA News: Service Updates
RIPTA: 242 (West Warwick/Coventry Flex)
Gosh, it’s too bad the 13 and the 29 end so far apart from each other. Seems like the only way to take each of them from beginning to end is to ride out and back. Hang on…what’s this? A Flex bus in West Warwick and Coventry? And it connects the two routes together? Well, this is perfect!
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| Here comes the minibus! |
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| Along the lake. |
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| Departing the parking lot. |
RIPTA: 13 (Coventry/Arctic/Warwick Mall)
For RIPTA standards, the 13 is about as far out as you can get on a local bus. In fact, this route goes so far out that it doesn’t even go to Providence! That’s right, we had to get this thing from the Warwick Mall. Boy, I sure do love that bus stop in the middle of its parking lot.
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| Here it comes! |
Not only is the stop in the middle of the parking lot, though, it’s in the middle of the lot’s south side. And of course, all the mall exits are to the north, so we got to go alllllll the way up Lambert Lind Highway just to get out of there! It became Oaklawn Ave quickly, and it was lined with gross suburban businesses and huge parking lots.
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| Ech. |
Suddenly, we turned onto an on-ramp to Route 2, a pseudo highway, and had a brief express section, but we took the first exit onto New London Ave. This was a much different environment: all suburban houses, save for a brief bit when we went over I-295, a proper highway. At that point, we also departed the town of Warwick to enter the town of West Warwick.
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| Some of the houses. |
With the town change, we were now on Providence Street. The houses were starting to feel a little more urban, and there were some signs of retail and industry. We went over the Pawtuxet River, then we were joined by the 29 at the intersection with Toll Gate Road. There were more and more businesses and industrial buildings between the houses as we continued.
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| The rainy river. |
We went over the Pawtuxet River again, passing some old mills and factories that have been converted to apartments. We merged onto East Main Street at a roundabout, and when that ended, we turned onto normal Main Street. It was still mostly houses, but there was also an apartment building, a pizza joint, and a library.
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| Feels a bit industrial here. |
But soon, the street became lined with businesses. Why? Because we were now in Arctic Center! We left the 29 by turning onto Washington Street, where it still felt town center-y for a few more blocks. Once we left the downtown, the road turned back to being lined with suburban houses.
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| An unfortunate gap between two buildings in Arctic Center. |
We merged with West Warwick Ave, marking our entrance into Coventry. There were now a few other types of buildings along the road, mostly businesses and industrial buildings. We curved along the Pawtuxet River for a bit before Washington Street left its shoreline. Soon after going by a cemetery, a police station, and a historical house-museum, we turned onto South Main Street outside of a shopping plaza, crossing the Pawtuxet River again.
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| A narrow side street. |
It was more suburban houses along here until we merged onto Tiogue Ave. This wide road featured anything but houses, and everything along there had to have a parking lot. The route misses a Stop & Shop just before the merge, but it makes up for it by deviating into an…Ocean State Job Lot. Huh. Yeah, that’s an interesting one to deviate into.
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| A house at the end of a short street. |
We returned to the main road, which was getting increasingly middle-of-nowhere. We wouldn’t be on it much longer, though, because we turned off into Woodland Manor, an apartment complex. The bus had to wait for a small layover before it could actually serve the complex, and that was a little weird, but we got off in the middle of the complex, ending the trip.
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| Back to the mall! |
RIPTA Route: 13 (Coventry/Arctic/Warwick Mall)
Ridership: I finally found some sort of document that kinda shows RIPTA ridership! It’s from 2008, so it’s horrendously outdated, but it’s the best we’ve got. It shows the 13 as getting around 225,000 riders over the course of the year, which works out to…wow, 616 people per day? Really? That’s pretty weird, considering my weekday trip only got four people, and none beyond Arctic Center. Now I’m confused.
Pros: The 13 serves a very underserved part of Rhode Island. It only connects to the Warwick Mall, but out where the 13 goes, there’s probably a lot less demand to go to Providence. If one does want to go to Providence, service from the Warwick Mall is fairly frequent, and passengers shouldn’t have to wait too long there.
Cons: This thing never comes. It runs every 50 minutes at rush hour, but then at all other times…every hour and forty minutes. So, basically, completely unusable. Heck, if it was every two hours, at least the timing would be consistent! And the ridership (at least in 2008) is nothing to sneeze at, making the infrequent schedule even more annoying! Then again, my trip only had four people, so maybe ridership has gone down?
Nearby and Noteworthy: Arctic Center is the best thing you’ll get, but even that won’t last you for longer than about half an hour, unless you get something to eat.
Final Verdict: 3/10
There are two ways to go with this one: either the ridership is as high as it is, in which case the route is way too infrequent for its own good, or the ridership is lower, in which case the 29 duplicates a lot of the inner (and seemingly busier) section of this route – not a soul went on the 13’s independent section on my ride. I dunno…I think I need proper ridership numbers to really give a verdict here.
Latest MBTA News: Service Updates
MVRTA: 41 (Lawrence – Lowell)
Isn’t it sad how the only bus that runs in Lowell on Sundays isn’t even run by the Lowell bus system? Yes, today we’re checking out the MVRTA 41, doing its multi-jurisdictional trip from Lawrence to its milltown cousin to the west!
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| Tight quarters here at Buckley. |
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| Some of the businesses of Lawrence. |
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| Lovely. |
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| A little shopping area next to the river. |
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| This is pretty! |
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| Bear in mind that the civilization was all on the other side of the road. To the left, it was just water! |
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| Going over the Merrimack River, not the Concord! |
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| Much better than Buckley! You can also tell I was here a while ago because the footbridge to that building hasn’t been built yet in this picture. |
UPDATE: An anonymous commenter sent me a ridership report with 2017 numbers, and they have indeed gone up – WAY up. The route got 281,547 passengers that year, or about 771 riders per day!
MVRTA: 75 (Lawrence Special Employment Service)
It’s time for Part 2 of our duo of weird commuter shuttles! Now we’re doing the MVRTA 75, which will take us from the scary land known as Raytheon to the Buckley Transportation Center, another scary land. Well, at least it’s civilization.
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| Obviously I wasn’t about to get a bus picture at the off-limits Raytheon. Here’s a selfie I took to confirm that we were actually on this thing! |
“WE HAVE TRANSFERS!” someone from the back of the bus shouted as we stepped on from the LRTA. Okay, I was already feeling on edge because we probably weren’t supposed to be here in the first place, but this calling attention to us from the back wasn’t helping. “Who are you?” someone asked us as we sat down. “I’ve never seen you before.” “I write a blog about public transportation,” I responded. He asked how long I had been doing it for, and I said five years. “Blogs aren’t that hard to run,” he quipped, “I’ve been fixing computers for 25 years.” Okay. Thanks for the insight.
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| Leaving Raytheon. |
We made our way out onto Lowell Street and crossed I-93. We passed IRS, the other deviation this bus makes, but it does it before Raytheon. After that, it became just a bunch of suburban houses. “I do stand-up comedy,” the guy in the back was telling another passenger. “I put the FU in fun!” Oh boy, we were in for a ride.
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| Some development near I-93. |
We turned onto Beacon Street, which went through a woodsy golf course and descended down a slight hill. “Do you feel it?” asked Mr. Comedian. “We’re in the Himalayas!” It returned to houses soon, both regular and in the form of a development. None of these people could actually use the bus, though, because this was a no-stop zone. “What do you say to a cheese when you take its picture? Cheese.” Ohhhh boy.
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| Travelling through the “Himalayas”. |
We went under I-495 and entered Lawrence soon after, where the houses started to get denser. Once we turned onto Mount Vernon Street, the no-stop zone ended, but though the houses were closer together, it was still definitively suburban. “If April showers bring May flowers, what do May flowers bring? Pilgrims.” Lord have mercy.
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| Hi 32! |
We turned onto South Broadway, where things started to feel more urban. There were now some apartments along here, and various businesses came up along the street. “I got fired from the Pepsi factory for doing Coke.” Is there any way off this bus?
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| Dense apartments on a side street. |
We went over a level crossing with a basically abandoned railroad track, but we still had to do the railroad stop anyway. The buildings were even closer together and urban-feeling on the other side, save for a few suburban ones with parking lots, such as a Dollar Tree. “Why do they call it a Dollar Tree? Money doesn’t grow on trees.” Okay, these are definitely getting worse.
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| Welcome to “Halloween Headquarters”! |
Eventually, it was time to cross the Merrimack River, where there was a nice view of a big waterfall coming down. There were a bunch of old factories on the other side, as well as a few more businesses. “When someone has your back in Lawrence, they probably do. A knife in it!” ARE WE FREAKING THERE YET????
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| Crossing the river! |
We turned onto Common Street, which had some workplaces and offices with big parking lots out front. We were almost at Buckley, but we got off just before so I could get a picture of the bus signed as the 75 before it went out of service. “WE BUILT THIS CITY!” sang our friend in the back. “WE BUILT THIS CITY ON WEL-FARE CHECKS!” And with that, the ride was finally over.
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| The rare 75! |
MVRTA Route: 75 (Lawrence Special Employment Service)
Ridership: I think the MVRTA got rid of some PDFs when they transitioned to their new website, because now the only ridership data I can find is from 2006. Oh well, how was this route doing twelve years ago? It was getting 6,172 people per year, or about 26 per day, or about 6-7 per trip. Yeah, that’s about what we saw on our ride, so ridership seems stable.
Pros: It’s great to have this public transit connection from Lawrence to the two huge office parks of IRS and Raytheon. Unlike the LRTA 11, this one is only useful for trips to and from the office parks because it runs one-way, two trips in each direction – but that’s okay, considering how specialized this route is to begin with.
Cons: Ridership on this route is pretty darn low. I mean, the MVRTA recently eliminated their other commuter route to Haverhill without much warning (a huge relief for me, but a pain for anyone who used it!), presumably because it didn’t get enough people. Will this route go the same way? Six people per trip isn’t a lot!
Nearby and Noteworthy: Scary office parks. That’s it.
Final Verdict: 5/10
Well, it does its job, and that’s about it. It’s only serving a few people per day, but they certainly rely on the route to get them to work. It’s not too efficient, and it’s not trying to be. I’m glad these 26 people have a way to get to their jobs at the big scary office parks in Andover. As for me, I’m never going back. Not even for the jokes.
Latest MBTA News: Service Updates
The Great Race to Chelsea: The Video!
The Chelsea video is finally here! The T added a new branch of the Silver Line to Chelsea in April 2018, the SL3. How does the new route stack up time wise against the other ways of getting to Chelsea? Miles, Jordan, Nathan, and a host of other characters race to find out- but not without their fair share of challenges and drama along the way. Enjoy!
Watch the video here.