What the heck is the 21, MVRTA? Deviations, weird headways, and PVTA Syndrome…oh my!

Oh, and it goes to a senior center. Even better!

We left the North Andover Mall onto Winthrop Ave, but we soon turned onto Waverly Road, the first cross street we came across. It’s worth noting, though, that the northbound routing goes a slightly different way in order to serve the YMCA. It’s only a short spur, as the two directions come back together with our next deviation into “Doctors Park,” a small medical center.

Hanging out in Doctors Park.

There was just one small problem: we were seven minutes early. Alrighty, then, time to wait! With the departure time of 6:16 reached, we headed out onto Haverhill Street, which was lined with houses for a while. After we went under the Commuter Rail tracks, though, there were large suburban office buildings everywhere.

Some houses in the residential section.

We soon turned onto North Main Street, joining up with the 32. We were with it for about 30 seconds before having to make a deviation into Frye Circle, a housing development. It’s strange that this small hilly development was chosen for the deviation, rather than – I dunno – the large, not hilly development right across the street.

Inside Frye Circle.

We returned to North Main Street and the 32 for another 30 seconds, but then it was time for another deviation! In my 32 review, I expressed delight that the route doesn’t have to serve Shawsheen Plaza – well, the 21 does. After looping around its parking lot, we returned to North Main Street.

Weeee!

We turned onto Railroad Ave, taking us alongside the Commuter Rail tracks past an apartment building and some businesses. After going by the station, we crossed the tracks onto School Street, which went through a cemetery to Central Street. We took that up to Andover Center, where we turned onto Main Street amidst lots of charming businesses.

Some of the awesome buildings in Andover Center.

After going through the Center, it was time for a lot of craziness. We turned left onto Punchard Ave, left onto Bartlett Street, right onto Chestnut Street, right onto Whittier Street, and left into the Andover Senior Center. After that it was right on Bartlett Street, right on Chestnut Street, right on Chestnut Court, and…oh, last stop? In this weird housing development? Alright, time to run back to Andover to get the Commuter Rail!

This is a weird terminus…

MVRTA Route: 21 (Andover Shuttle)

Ridership: The 21 received 19,208 riders in 2015, making it the least-used local MVRTA route. Wanna know how many people per day that is? 74! And that means that the 21 gets a grand average of 3-4 riders per trip. Mm-mm, that’s bad.

Pros: I see this route as primarily being a link from Andover to the North Andover Mall, both a major transfer point and a popular place to shop. Also, most of the route’s deviations make sense, and I like how the MVRTA gave them to this route instead of the 32.

Cons: Still, the deviations have some quirks. Why serve Frye Circle instead of the bigger development across the street? Why serve the Senior Center twice when the route could just do a figure-8 with Chestnut Court. And why give the route so much padding between Doctors Park and the North Andover Mall? Look, right now the 21 runs every 70 minutes, making it completely incapable of timing with other MVRTA routes. If the route was given less unnecessary time to the Andover Mall and if the Senior Center was only served once, this could easily run every hour, which is beneficial in so many ways.

Nearby and Noteworthy: I like the look of Andover Center a lot, but the 32 is the far better choice…or, indeed, the Commuter Rail.

Final Verdict: 3/10
This route has such little ridership that it could probably be eliminated, but I do think it serves at least some purpose. The problem is that the route is done so inefficiently that it’s stuck with this infrequent, non-clockface schedule that could be fixed so easily! Cut the padding and simplify the routing in Andover – that’s it! Every hour! Boom!

Latest MBTA News: Service Updates

Whenever my train gets into Lawrence, I always check the 33 schedule to see if there’s a bus coming to the station to take me to Lawrence. So far, I haven’t been lucky, being forced to do the rather long walk to the Buckley Transportation Center. Still, the 33 has more of an identity than being the only local route to directly serve the Commuter Rail station, so let’s see what else it does!

Geez, Buckley, I have barely any room to even stand!

We went alongside a common on Common Street, but once that ended, it was businesses, apartments, and parking lots lining the road. It ended at a gigantic old mill where we turned onto Union Street, taking us over a canal, past some more old factories, and over the Merrimack River. Once on the other side, we deviated into the Commuter Rail station, referred to on the schedule as the “McGovern Transportation Center.”

Crossing the river.

Heading down Merrimack Street, there was a lot of modern retail development, both in retrofitted factories and in new shopping plazas. We entered North Andover once we went under I-495 and the street turned into Sutton Street. Once we passed through a weird diagonal level crossing with some train tracks, we turned onto Main Street.

The level crossing.

Main Street was the principal thoroughfare of what I’m going to call North Andover Center. It was much more spread-out than your typical downtown, with lots of dense houses in between the businesses. However, it was still really charming, especially with the awesome historical architecture and the character-filled winding narrow road passing through it all.

Some lovely businesses.

It stayed like this for a good while, and even the annoying shopping plaza in the middle of it all had tasteful architecture. Once Main Street curved south past a church, though, we officially left the center and the road became lined with houses. It was totally residential (aside from a library and a church) until we turned onto Chickering Road outside of the North Andover Middle School.

Heading onto Chickering.

There were a lot of woodsy stretches interspersed with random buildings such as suburban businesses, housing developments, and a church. There was even a sizeable section that was all fields and farmland, but it ended soon enough with more retail. We merged onto Andover Street, then we turned onto Turnpike Street, taking us past more suburban businesses (mostly). Finally, we arrived at our boring, drab terminus, the North Andover Mall.

Yup, here we are.

Welcome to the busiest route on the MVRTA! This bad boy takes a direct shot from Lawrence to Haverhill, via Methuen…in which it has to make a bunch of deviations. Okay, the shot is mostly direct.

The bus at the Washington Square Transit Station.

We went down Washington Street through downtown Haverhill, but it ended definitively when we passed under the Commuter Rail tracks. We merged onto River Street, which was lined with apartments and occasional businesses and industrial buildings. It was a mix of all those things for a while until we came alongside the Merrimack River – here, it became all residential.

Back when it was a mix.

There were some suburban businesses and a shopping plaza near I-495. The plaza is directly deviated to by other Haverhill routes, but the 1 gets you there a lot faster, even sans deviation. On the other side of 495, there were more houses as we curved with the Merrimack River.

Houses indeed.

There was a short section of trees, and it marked the point where we entered Methuen. The road was Merrimack Street now, but not much else changed until we went under I-495 and it got industrial. Next, we turned onto the residential Pleasant Valley Street, the start of the 1’s very long deviation, including no less than three mini-deviations within the deviation!

A rugged side street.

We crossed 495 again, passed some industrial buildings and a housing development, and went over the “Loop Connector” highway. Suburban businesses with parking lots started to crop up until they morphed into a big shopping plaza called The Loop. This was our first mini-deviation.

Woo!

Next, we used some shopping mall backroads to go to our second mini-deviation, Walmart. After that, we returned to Pleasant Valley Street, going by a farm of all things, and made our last deviation-within-a-deviation into Target. It was alllllllllllll the way back to Merrimack Street from there.

Coming out of the Walmart parking lot.

Back on Merrimack Street, there were a lot of businesses with parking lots, while houses were mostly relegated to side roads. There were other occasional attractions along here too, such as a church and another out-of-place farm. As we got closer to I-495, Merrimack Street got wider and we went by a shopping plaza. Once we got over the highway, it became East Street.

Seriously, this farm came out of nowhere!

It was all houses until we continued onto Swan Street, where there was a tiny spout of retail. And once it did go back to being residential, the houses were becoming denser, and apartments were beginning to be included. There were some more businesses when we turned onto Jackson Street and entered Lawrence, and now all the residential buildings were apartments.

Stupid sun, washing out my photo!

There were always a few retail buildings mixed between the dwellings, but they really amped up after we went over the tiny Spicket River. We passed a big common and then turned onto Essex Street, the main drag of downtown Lawrence. There were lots of businesses as we ambled down here before looping around into the Buckley Transportation Center.

A different bus getting ready to head back to Haverhill.

MVRTA Route: 1 (Lawrence – Methuen – Haverhill)

Ridership: Like I said, this is the busiest route on the MVRTA, and it experienced a huge spike in ridership in 2015. With 409,174 riders in that year, the route had about 1,121 people per day, or more than all of the MVRTA’s Haverhill-based routes combined. Wowie, that’s good!

Pros: For the most part, this is a straight and direct route that connects the MVRTA’s two biggest hubs. Most of the ridership is concentrated at a few major stops, too, so this thing ends up being quick. It even runs every half hour on weekdays, which is great for an RTA – service is less frequent on weekends, though, with a bus only every hour, but that’s still not bad. I also like that the 1 interlines with the 41, meaning passengers can get a one-seat ride from Haverhill all the way to Lowell!

Cons: I think my only big problem with the 1 is that the deviation to The Loop takes forever. That being said, it’s a huge source of ridership for the route, so it at least has a purpose.

Nearby and Noteworthy: In terms of unique attractions along the 1, it’s really just The Loop. Not much else along this thing aside from cities that are already accessible by Commuter Rail.

Final Verdict: 9/10
Not only is this the busiest MVRTA route, but it’s one of the best. It gets great ridership and connects two large cities for only a dollar – three large cities if you add in the 41 interline! Plus, you can’t beat those weekday half hour headways.

Latest MBTA News: Service Updates

This is the problem with hyper-riding a million routes at the end of the summer: now I’m stuck reviewing a summer-only route in December! Oh well, this is a pretty cool one. The 83 runs from Lawrence allllllllllll the way to Hampton Beach!

The bus at Buckley, with some people all ready to go!

We left the Buckley Transportation Center in Lawrence and headed down Common Street. As the name suggested, we were running along the south side of a common, and we proceeded along the eastern end as we turned onto Jackson Street. The businesses of downtown Lawrence were starting to die down a little, ending almost entirely as we crossed the tiny Spicket River.

There’s a lot going on here!

It became residential for the most part, with dense houses and apartments lining the road. There was still the occasional business, though, particularly at intersections. Things started to get more suburban at the intersection with Swan Street in Methuen: the retail around there was set back from the road with parking lots, and the houses we saw later on were smaller and a little more spread-out.

There aren’t even sidewalks!

Eventually, we turned onto the wide Pleasant Valley Street, which had a strange combination of shopping plazas and…farmland? We deviated into the biggest shopping mall, called The Loop, and I was confused at first. Why was the beach bus deviating into a mall? It turns out that people do actually use it, as a few people got on here – my guess is that they park in the mall and hop the bus from there.

Inside The Loop.

We proceeded down Pleasant Valley Street, which slowly lost its shopping plazas and got narrower. We crossed over Route 213, the “Loop Connector,” then I-495 a few seconds later. It was residential on the other side of that, but once we turned onto Merrimack Street, industrial buildings lined the road.

A wide-open field in the middle of the industry!

We crossed I-495 again, this time going under it, then it was residential as the road came up alongside the Merrimack River. I tried and tried and tried, but I could not for the life of me get a decent picture of the view. The road became River Street as we entered Haverhill, but the residential and river scenery didn’t change at all.

I tried.

We went over I-495 yet again, but after a burst of shopping plazas and suburban businesses, it was right back to houses and the Merrimack River. However, it started to get denser the further we got, including businesses that started to poke in. Once we merged onto Washington Street and went under the Commuter Rail tracks, we were right in the thick of downtown Haverhill, with brick buildings housing businesses on both sides. We pulled into the Washington Square Transit Station for a stop.

Coming out of the station.

We headed onto Emerson Street next, which took us out of downtown Haverhill. It was still quite dense and urban, however, with apartments and businesses on both sides. Once Emerson Street ended, we turned onto White Street, continuing the density.

A few neighborhood businesses.

Once we turned onto Main Street, though, the scenery changed to a more suburban feeling: there were many businesses with parking lots at the intersection. We were only on Main for a block before merging onto Kenoza Ave, which went back to being more dense and urban for a stretch. However, as we curved our way past a park, the apartments started to become houses, and they got more spread-out.

That’s beautiful.

We merged onto Amesbury Road, which went right along Kenoza Lake – the view was fantastic. It was still mostly residential with rather spaced-out houses, but there was a spurt of retail when we went over I-495 for the fourth time. During a brief section of forest, we passed the birthplace of John Greenleaf Whittier, a poet whom I had never heard of until finding out that every town in this region seems to be obsessed with him! Seriously, his name shows up everywhere.

A small marshy pond.

There was a huge variety of buildings as we continued. It was mostly houses, but we also passed through spurts of industry, retail, woods, and farmland. The road became West Main Street when we entered Merrimac, and at that point the homes started to get denser. This led up to Merrimac Square, a charming little downtown that was ironically centered around a roundabout.

Coming through Merrimac “Square.”

There was more building diversity as we continued down what was now called East Main Street. Houses, businesses, a post office, a senior center, and a few residential developments all showed up along the road. And just like that, we left the town of Merrimac – we were now travelling on Haverhill Road, and we had entered Amesbury.

A woodsy little shopping plaza.

There was a section of woods before it got residential again for a while. However, they were broken by a pretty substantial industrial area, after which we turned onto Hillside Ave. This was lined with some dense houses that went on until we reached the one-way Main Street.

What an odd little dead-end street!

Now we were in Amesbury Center, and…wow. I mean, this was just one of the most charming downtowns I have ever seen! Not only was it insanely pretty with its brick buildings and unique and diverse businesses, but it was also expansive, stretching down many different streets. I think it would be an absolute blast to spend some time here!

Ahh, there’s so much more to it than this! This doesn’t capture it at all!

We traversed a small roundabout onto Elm Street, then we made a deviation to serve the Nicholas Costello Transportation Center, housed in the Amesbury Senior Center. We returned to Elm Street, which made lots of curves past dense houses and the occasional business, as well as a cemetery. The charm was bound to end at some point, though, and for us it happened right after our fifth and final crossing of I-495.

Aw man!

Yes, Elm Street became a wide behemoth of a road sporting those suburban parking lot businesses we all know and love. There were more of them after we went under I-95, and although most were boring, there was a kitschy mini-golf place that I got a kick out of seeing. We also entered Salisbury along this section.

Yay! Mini-golf!!!!

After lots of those suburban businesses, we turned onto Bridge Street and arrived at “Salisbury Center.” This was really just a common, a town hall, a post office, and some boring businesses with parking lots. We turned onto Beach Road next, taking us past mostly houses, but also an old cemetery.

Man, Salisbury Center is really popping, huh?

Soon businesses started to crop up, as well as some straggling motels, presumably for the beaches we were heading to. There was a big apartment development in the middle of a marsh, then we arrived at Salisbury Beach. At this point, most of the passengers got off, and the remaining ones continuing to Hampton Beach had to go up to the front of the bus to pay the additional fare of $1. With that out of the way, it was time to head up to the beach!

The goings-on of Salisbury Beach.

We turned onto North End Boulevard, which ran along a very narrow peninsula between the beach and a gigantic marsh. There was certainly nothing spared when it came to using up as much available space as possible, though: small dense beach houses lined the road for what felt like forever. They were ubiquitous, too – there was maybe one business and one church in the sprawl, and that was it.

They’re certainly close to the water!

As we entered Seabrook, NH, I mentally yelled out my classic “LIVE FREE OR DIE!” slogan, because I do that whenever I go into New Hampshire for some reason. There were a few businesses over the border, including the clever “Fireworks over the Border” store – they’re certainly transparent about what they’re selling. The beach houses continued along what was now called Ocean Boulevard, but there were more businesses to break them up now.

This is amazing!

We went over the Hampton River on an absolutely incredible bridge into Hampton. At this point, Ocean Boulevard became one-way, curving eastward toward the beach and past more houses. But nothing quite prepared me for Hampton Beach proper…

WHAT HAVE I GOTTEN MYSELF INTO???????

As I got off the bus, I was assaulted by a wave of…grossness. I mean, this is the quintessential crowded beach that has experienced way too much gaudy development along its main road! As the bus drove away, I started to wonder what the heck I was going to do for an hour and a half. Stay tuned to find out…

Two shots of the bus that took me back; the second one is at Salisbury Beach.

MVRTA Route: 83 (Salisbury Beach/Hampton Beach)

Ridership: In 2015, the route got 3,631 passengers over the course of the year, which averages out to about 55 riders per day (the route has two round trips per day, so it’s more than it sounds like). I wonder if 2017 was a better year, though – I mean, my ride was on a Wednesday, so I had low expectations for ridership, but my trip ended up getting 30 people!

Pros: This is just a really useful summer route. It serves all of the hubs in the MVRTA service area and gives them a low-cost option for getting to the beach. The schedule is clearly meant for day trips, but it works well: the route has two morning trips out to the beach and two afternoon trips back. The ride is also really scenic!

Cons: The 83 runs from July to September, but unfortunately June misses out. I could see the route having some decent ridership in the later part of the month when school ends.

Nearby and Noteworthy: In Hampton Beach, I walked along the overly-crowded shorefront, perused through gift shops full of gaudy souvenirs, and blew 20 bucks at an arcade, winning only a cheesy mug to show for it. In other words, I had a great time!

Final Verdict: 8/10
I like the 83 a lot. This is a great way to get to the beach on a budget, with a (slightly premium) fare of $2.00 to Salisbury Beach and $3.00 to Hampton Beach. It gets good ridership from what I saw, and its schedule makes a lot of sense for day trips. So, uh…take advantage of this route in about seven months when it’s actually running again.

Latest MBTA News: Service Updates