In preparation for this review, I conducted an “extensive” “interview” with someone at my school who used to live in Shrewsbury. I asked her about the throngs of people that surely use the amazing 15 to get to the booming metropolis of Worcester. “Oh yeah, no one uses the bus,” my source said. “I think I rode it once, maybe.” Hmm…this may not be as packed of a route as I thought it would be.

The center of the shrews.

Since we were going to Shrewsbury, what better street to take than Shrewsbury Street? There were a ton of businesses along this wide road leaving the Central Hub, but we also saw a park and some apartments between them (as well as the latter above almost every store). It started to get more suburban, so the businesses got parking lots and the apartments became houses, then we merged onto the eight-lane behemoth of Belmont Street.

Oh boy, rainy night pictures are the best! This is UMass Medical Center.

We turned onto Plantation Street next, then South Road, taking us into the UMass Medical Center. Leaving the cluster of huge medical buildings, we took Lake Ave down to Belmont Street again, which went on a really nice lit-up bridge over Lake Quinsigamond. This took us into Shrewsbury, which was a mess of random shopping plazas and suburban businesses. And guess what the road was. That’s right, Route freakin’ 9! OF COURSE!!!

I wish the rain wasn’t there so this awesome bridge could be appreciated!

We deviated into the newest plaza there, Lakeway Commons, which seemed to have been built very recently. There were a few more businesses along Route 9, and we went by one last plaza as we merged onto Maple Ave. This plaza, Fairlawn Shopping Center, is the terminus of some weekday trips. You know, because a half-vacant shopping mall with a Hooters in it is a place where everyone wants to go!

Next to a Walgreens.

Going up a slight hill, we ran past a bunch of suburban houses. They were broken by the intriguing-sounding UMass Medical School Center for Mindfulness and a park right next to it. There was a complex with various Shrewsbury municipal buildings, including town hall, then we ran by suburban businesses on either side of the road that continued as we merged onto Main Street. Oh…this is Shrewsbury Center, huh? Nope, I can’t say this is doing it for me.

Okay, the church is rather nice.

Main Street turned to houses as the center abruptly ended. We turned onto South Street, then Julio Drive, which took us to “Southgate at Shrewsbury,” a retirement community. This apartment development was the last stop on the route, and from here, Nathan and I called up an Uber to take us to Grafton Station.

And we never got to see the center of shrews!

WRTA Route: 15 (Union Station Hub – Shrewsbury Center via Shrewsbury Street and Route 9)

Ridership: I wasn’t expecting huge numbers for this one, and they didn’t disappoint. The 15 gets 334 riders per weekday and 83 per Saturday, which is basically what you would expect for a suburban route like this. We did the last outbound trip of the night at 7:50, and it only had one other person!

Pros: Well, at least some Shrewsbury residents seem to use this thing! It’s a direct connection to Worcester, but I could see the 15 getting bidirectional ridership because of the malls it serves. The UMass Medical School is a big destination as well, and this is the most direct route there. Finally, the 15 is every hour, six days a week, which is a fine frequency.

Cons: On weekdays, three trips per day terminate at Fairlawn Plaza, and I’m not sure what the rationale is for making it those specific trips. They just seem random, and since two of them are in the afternoon, Shrewsbury Center only gets a bus every two hours from 1:20 to 5:20. Also, this is obvious, but the route doesn’t get very high ridership…

Nearby and Noteworthy: Shrewsbury Street in Worcester seems like an up-and-coming neighborhood, with a ton of great-looking restaurants lined up along it.

Final Verdict: 6/10
The 15 is basically in the same boat as the 2: it doesn’t get particularly high ridership, but it’s still worth keeping around. It’s nothing spectacular, but it gets its job done. Truth be told, I was hovering between a 5 and a 6 – I settled on a 6, since it’s no worse than the 2 in any significant ways.

Latest MBTA News: Service Updates

Let’s just keep on going around the loop we started with the 31! The 16 is the eastern side of the two-route loop, and it’s got a few more deviations up its sleeve. Let’s take this back into Worcester.

The bus at the Lincoln Mall.

We headed out from the Lincoln Mall onto Lincoln Street, running past some suburban businesses and industrial buildings. They continued after a roundabout, but we soon turned onto the woodsy Lake Ave. It took us under I-290, after which we pulled into a clinic. It was a well-planned deviation, however, as we used it to get onto the wide Plantation Street.

Nathan and I were up front talking to the really nice driver, so we’ll have some interesting front-view pictures for this review!

We were more or less in the woods (aside from Plantation Towers Apartments, which a few trips deviate into) until a huge parking garage came out of nowhere. This was a sign that we were getting close to the UMass Medical Center campus, and sure enough, there were now huge hospital buildings everywhere. We turned onto South Road, entering the campus.

Some traffic on the way to the medical center.

We went around a roundabout back onto Lake Ave, taking us past some businesses and apartment buildings. One of them, Lincoln Park Towers, required a harrowing deviation down a narrow and hilly driveway into the complex. After struggling to make our way out onto the road again, it got more residential, with a ton of dense houses along the lake we were running with.

Stuck at a red light coming out of Lincoln Park Towers.

The road got a median and we entered a park, where we turned onto Hamilton Street. We entered a hilly residential neighborhood here, with suburban houses lining the twisty road. It gained a median, and the homes were slowly getting denser as we got closer to downtown Worcester.

Some houses, with the foggy North High School in the background.

The houses became apartments by the time we got to Billings Square, which was more of an egg-shaped roundabout than a square. There were some nondescript businesses here, and they continued past there on Grafton Street. It got industrial just before we went under I-290, and finally, we used Franklin Street to get around into the Central Hub.

The spires of Union Station await!

WRTA Route: 16 (Union Station Hub – Lincoln Plaza via Hamilton Street and Lake Ave)

Ridership: This end of the loop gets much less ridership than the 31’s section, with 380 riders on weekdays and 157 on Saturdays. My trip showcased the low trend, getting just four people going into Worcester.

Pros: The route serves eastern Worcester, some of which is dense and some of which isn’t. The UMass Medical Center connection is made a lot more useful with the loop arrangement, since riders from the 31 can continue on to the medical center. Just in general, this thing is way more useful with the loop!

Cons: First of all, the 16 has the same weird schedule as the 31, including the random weekday switch from every 40 minutes to every 80 minutes around 4 PM (but this time, it’s in the outbound direction). Also, the Saturday service is just six trips, also every 80 minutes. The 16 has the additional problem of too many deviations, including a few apartment ones that only get served at certain times or in certain directions. It also costs more than double the 31 for the WRTA to run.

Nearby and Noteworthy: This is the closest route to the Ecotarium, Worcester’s local science and nature museum. It looks like a great family experience, although the museum is a 15 minute walk away from the route.

Final Verdict: 5/10
Between the 16 and the 31, the 16 is definitely worse. It suffers from all the schedule problems on the 31, but it also gets less ridership and has more deviations. This isn’t a bad route, per se, but it’s certainly the lesser of the two sides of this loop.

Latest MBTA News: Service Updates

Back in Worcester already? Hey, like I said, it’s a system I’ve barely covered. Today we’re taking a ride on the 31, which runs up to the north side of Worcester through a variety of different neighborhoods. It also forms part of a loop with the 16, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves…

Well…this is dingy.

Beginning at the Central Hub in Worcester, we did the classic WRTA rotary loop before running up Foster Street. There were some huge buildings along here, including a hospital, a parking garage, and a convention center. The architecture got older once we crossed Commercial Street, and it was now a mix of office and retail buildings (with a few urban parking lots thrown in there).

One of the parking lots.

Foster Street became Maple Street, and it suddenly went up a steep hill and made some tight curves around a parking lot. It merged us with Elm Street, which went past various apartments and the Worcester Historical Museum. They eventually turned into dense houses, but it was a pretty nice neighborhood.

Rainy weather does not a good picture make.

We came along to a park and, suitably, turned onto Park Ave. We continued alongside the beautiful park, which had a lovely lake in its center, but once it ended we were graced with…Price Chopper. Well, we got to see the athletic fields of Worcester Polytechnic Institute after that, and then we went by yet another beautiful park!

It would be even nicer if it wasn’t so dismal out!

That park was about it for the nice scenery, though. Suddenly, we were bombarded by a ton of industrial buildings and suburban businesses, and the road split into two one-way sections. We were now on Gold Star Boulevard, but it sure didn’t earn a gold star in urban planning, ’cause it was insanely ugly!

The Greendale Mall.

After twisting under I-190, we passed the Greendale Mall, which is virtually inaccessible in the route’s other direction because of the insane road patterns. Soon after that, we rejoined the inbound route on West Boylston Street, which went over a railroad track and twisted around next to it. There was an endless freight train on the track, while the other side of the road had some more gross industrial scenery (plus a few businesses and an actually nice-looking library).

It’s a bad picture, but I simply had to showcase this Halloween-themed store!

Beyond the vast expanse of a grassy hill was Quinsigamond Community College, which looked like a haunted mansion in the foggy rain. We continued up West Boylston Street for a little more, still going by those suburban businesses, until we turned onto Mountain Street East. This was a nice break, as the road quickly became lined with houses.

The creepy community college!

We went by a golf course eventually, while simultaneously passing the aptly-named “Fairways” apartment development. In fact, we were all of a sudden surrounded by apartment developments! We turned onto Clark Street, which went down a hill past a school, then Tacoma Street, which originally had office parks before the Great Brook Valley apartment development. And boy, it lasted forever.

Apartments as far as the eye can see.

It took a seriously long time to get out of Great Brook Valley, but we finally did and turned onto Boylston Street. This road had some houses and businesses on one side and a big industrial building on the other. We headed onto Lincoln Street at a recently-built roundabout, and this took us down to the Lincoln Mall, where the 31 officially becomes the 16.

Some auto shop.

WRTA Route: 31 (Union Station Hub – Lincoln Plaza via Grove Street and West Boylston Street)

Ridership: In its pre-loop form, the 31 got pretty good ridership: 475 riders per weekday and 238 per Saturday. My trip got a decent 13 riders.

Pros: The route serves as a nice direct trip to northern Worcester, as well as a crosstown trip from there to Lincoln Plaza. The WRTA only recently combined this with the 16, but it was a great decision – I like how people have the option to take a bus from one point on the loop to another.

Cons: These mostly lie in the schedule. On weekdays, it’s generally every 40 minutes, but for some reason it becomes every 80 minutes in the inbound direction only past 4 PM! The Saturday service is also every 80 minutes, leading to a measly six trips throughout the day.

Nearby and Noteworthy: The bulk of the route is pretty boring, but I like the section closer to Worcester. It serves some really nice parks!

Final Verdict: 6/10
The 31 does its job, nothing more, nothing less. It’s generally a good route, but the schedule is iffy, particularly on Saturdays. Time to continue the loop on the 16!

Latest MBTA News: Service Updates

Who knows how many people actually use a bus to an airport that gets two flights per day, but luckily, the 2 serves other stuff on its way to Worcester. If it was just an express from the airport, I’ll bet it would be empty most of the time!

Coming out of the fog.

We left the Worcester Regional Airport terminal and looped around onto Airport Drive, taking us into the woods for a stretch. We reentered civilization by turning onto Pleasant Street, which was lined with dense-ish houses and even a few businesses. I’ll just briefly point out that outbound buses have an extra deviation here via Sunny Hill Drive before serving the airport – it’s just a residential neighborhood.

A blurry house.

We went by a country club and descended a hill past more homes. Another outbound-only deviation is a by-request jog onto parallel Mower Street, which is in more of a “neighborhood” than Pleasant Street is. The two roads rejoined quickly for Tatnuck Square, which had some (mostly boring) businesses and a connection to the 6.

This store was an exception – it looked awesome.

There were some residual businesses of Tatnuck Square for a little while, but it eventually went back to being mostly residential. Aside from a few religious buildings, Pleasant Street was all houses until a retail block at the intersection with Richmond Ave. We arrived at Newton Square soon after that, which really only had a single pizza joint as far as businesses go. It also was a roundabout…not a square!

A gas station.

After Newton “Square” and its connection to the 3, Pleasant Street ran along Newton Hill and its surrounding park. Once that park ended, the pleasant (ha!) suburban houses ended, and we were all of a sudden in the city. There were now dense apartments, a ton more businesses, and a few rather tall buildings along the road.

Some random parking lot.

The buildings got more consistently dense the further we went, and then we were in downtown Worcester. The street became Front Street, and we ran along City Hall and its corresponding park, amidst tall-ish buildings everywhere. Finally, we meandered our way around into the WRTA Central Hub.

Getting ready to head out again.

WRTA Route: 2 (Union Station Hub – Tatnuck Square via Pleasant Street)

Ridership: With an average of 359 riders, the 2’s weekday ridership is decent. On weekends, though, it drops down to 88 people on Saturdays and just 60 on Sundays – three people per trip! My inbound weeknight ride actually had just one other person, but hopefully buses were busier going out.

Pros: It’s a mostly residential route, but the 2 is a good connection for the western neighborhoods of Worcester. It has a sensible schedule, with service every hour on weekdays and every 50 minutes on weekends.

Cons: Based on the fact that very few people take the 2 to the airport, the WRTA proposed only serving the airport based on its fixed flight departures, and I think that’s a great idea. As for other cons, it’s really just that this thing gets low ridership. On weekends in particular, there are very few people using the 2.

Nearby and Noteworthy: I gotta say, that Tat-Nooks place looked really cool. It has limited operating hours, but it seems to sell a lot of unique stuff.

Final Verdict: 6/10
Although its weekend ridership is really low, the 2 seems like a crucial route. It runs directly along one of the main roads of western Worcester, and it’s actually the only bus that serves the area on Sundays. It’s not a hugely high-performing route or anything, but it’s also necessary and should stick around.

Latest MBTA News: Service Updates

This is our final foray on the Main Street corridor here in Worcester, whose other routes we’ve already reviewed. The 19 is one of two key routes on Main Street, the other being the 27, and they combine to run every 15 minutes in theory. In practice, the 19 is one of the most consistently late bus routes I’ve ever seen.

Apricot, I guess.

We went north up Foster Street, but we had to go south, so we looped around using a rotary to the east of the Commuter Rail tracks (with a great view of Union Station). We were only on Foster for a bit before turning onto Franklin Street, which took us into downtown Worcester. After picking up more passengers at City Hall, it was a left on Main Street.

Look, 7/11!

There were tall buildings and businesses along Main Street, but they got a little shorter and sparser as we left downtown. It was still an urban street, though, with a ton of apartments between businesses and some parking lots. Eventually, the apartments became houses and the businesses actually got more frequent.

A block of retail.

Fat Tony’s!

Weird picture, but I just love the lighting!

Fog galore…

WRTA Route: 19 (Union Station Hub – Webster Square – Clark University via Main Street)

Ridership: The 19 is one of the busiest routes on the WRTA – 4th-busiest, in fact, with 1,025 riders per weekday. Its ranking goes up on weekends, with the route becoming 3rd-busiest on Saturdays (617 riders) and 2nd-busiest on Sundays (261 riders)!

Pros: It’s amazing just how busy the bus routes on Main Street get, at least for RTA standards. The three routes on Main Street get a combined 2,663 riders per weekday, and though not all of those are on the main trunk, it’s still gotta be a big chunk of that! Indeed, the 19 essentially just serves the trunk, since the Coppage Drive section is mostly by-request, as it should be. It’s straight and direct, and it runs a fantastic half hourly schedule on weekdays, with hourly service on weekends. Speaking of weekends, the route does a good job covering for the weekdays-only 33 during those times, going to Spencer on Saturdays and Leicester on Sundays.

Cons: There is sooooooo much wrong with the 19. First of all, like I discussed in my 27 review, there’s no coordination between the two routes going outbound, which is unfortunate. Also, the 19 has a really erratic schedule to Coppage Drive, with inbound trips only running at rush hour and a few other random times. Speaking of an erratic schedule, I know the route runs every half hour, but not quite – certain trips are offset by five minutes, which makes the timetable a lot harder to memorize. Also speaking of an erratic schedule, it doesn’t freaking matter, because the 19 never follows it. Its on-time performance is supposedly around 79%, which is one of the worst on the WRTA and absolutely abysmal for an RTA in general, but the 19 seems to be always late! When we did the route in the evening rush, it was supposed to be coming on the :15 and the :45. Instead, buses were so late that they were showing up on the :00 and the :30! So yeah, clearly it’s a problem.

Nearby and Noteworthy: There are tons of businesses along Main Street, plus Clark University. Coppage Drive is just industrial, but you get some almost-rural town centers on the extended weekend route.

Final Verdict: 5/10
The 19 is like a mini version of the MBTA 1 bus. It serves a ton and a lot of people rely on it, but it’s always late and unreliable – it just chugs along doing its thing at the pace it wants to go. This could partly be attributed to the really tight interlines with the 23, where buses show up at Union Station at the exact same time they’re supposed to depart for their next trip. Ideally, to both improve outbound coordination with the 27 and help reliability, the routes could be deinterlined and the 19 could leave ten minutes earlier for each trip. That would give it a longer layover, meaning more recovery time, plus it would coordinate it with the 27! It would require another bus, but maybe the interline could be kept and the 23 could be padded out as well, to make it more useful.

Latest MBTA News: Service Updates