Well, here we are. The last PVTA route. This took way longer than I thought it would, but we’ve finished the second-busiest RTA in Massachusetts. Our final route is quite possibly the most scenic one on the whole system: the 39, the one Amherst route that doesn’t serve UMass.

The bus ascending a hill at Mount Holyoke College.

But this is no ordinary 39 review: no, we’re going to be looking at the 39’s express service. Four trips per weekday run “express” service from Mount Holyoke College to Smith College, and it’s a completely different route from the normal “local” service, which we’ll be looking at later on. For now, let’s start at Mount Holyoke on an express trip!

Some foliage and fields.

We headed out of Mount Holyoke and went up College Street for a bit, running through the tiny downtown of South Hadley. We turned onto Hadley Street next, and it quickly turned to houses, which quickly turned to farmland, which quickly turned to woods. We crossed over a small river, and soon after, we were seeing a mixture of houses and farmland.

This is AMAZING!

Soon we curved north and entered Hadley, where the street became Hockanum Road. This is where the views got incredible: there was farmland on both sides, with one end running flat towards the Connecticut River and the other side rising up towards mountains. I was sitting on the mountain side, and the views were some of the best I had ever seen on a bus.

Another one!

We came pretty close to the Connecticut River, but there was a layer of trees blocking the view. We curved away from it pretty quickly, running through woodsy hills before the street turned into Lawrence Plain Road and emptied out into flat fields. We eventually joined up with Bay Road and went over the tiny Fort River.

Those mountains still look awesome.

Bay Road was now a mixture of houses and farmland, but once we joined up with Russell Street and the B43, we got a taste of some of the horrible suburban businesses that plague that route. It didn’t last for too long, though, as we soon went over the Connecticut River into Northampton.

Oh…well, we’ll go over the bridge once we get through all this traffic.

We went under I-91, then it was mostly dense houses, aside from the Sheldon Field Park-and-Ride. We passed a cemetery and soon the road curved, taking us past a post office and under the Amtrak tracks. After going through lovely downtown Northampton and all of its charming and wonderful businesses, we turned onto Elm Street and travelled for just a bit more before arriving at Smith College.

The 39 with an articulated B43 bus in the background.

Sam and I waited at Smith about 25 minutes to get the local trip back, which would take us to Hampshire College. Once the bus showed up, we went the same route as the express for a while, going back into Hadley over the bridge and merging onto Bay Road. However, whereas the express heads onto Lawrence Plain Road after the Fort River crossing, the local trips stay on Bay.

So much corn…this is like a mountainous Kansas.

The scenery along Bay Road was awesome, too – it was more farmland and houses, with some great mountain views in the background. The bus window was open and some absolutely wonderful smells were wafting in. Manure, anyone? It was also a really quick trip, and we pulled into the Hampshire College campus in no time. We meandered through it for a bit before ending at the main building where the other Hampshire College buses loop around.

The bus at Hampshire.

PVTA Route: 39 (Smith/Hampshire/Mount Holyoke)

Ridership: The 39’s ridership is quite low, getting only about 8 passengers per trip. I’ll bet that’s averaged out, too – there are probably certain trips that get lots of people and certain trips that are practically empty. Both of my rides were quiet, especially the express trip, which only had three other people on board.

Pros: This is a very very important route, despite the low ridership. It’s crucial for connecting up important colleges without forcing people to transfer at UMass, allowing for a direct trip from Smith to Hampshire Colleges. Oh, and the views are incredible.

Cons: I’m not completely convinced this route needs to run all the time. I mean, every half hour on weekdays is probably okay, but does it really need to run on weekends with its anemic 90-minute headways? Correct me if I’m wrong (and I don’t have access to data to back me up with this), but it seems to me that weekend service isn’t all that necessary. Something that I can complain about definitively, though, is the coordination with the 38. Going towards Mount Holyoke College, the 39 offers a perfectly-timed transfer with the 38 at Hampshire. Heading the other way, though, the 38 arrives five minutes after the 39, meaning Mount Holyoke students can’t get to Smith.

Nearby and Noteworthy: Who cares about the colleges? The ride itself is incredible!

Final Verdict: 6/10
The 39 is a very important route to the Five-College Consortium, but it could be run a lot more efficiently. The bad timing with the 38 means that it can only connect with Mount Holyoke College in one direction, and this could easily be fixed by shifting the 39 five minutes ahead. As for the weekend service, maybe the route does get well-used, but the idea of a bus that runs every 90 minutes getting well-used is hard to believe.

Latest MBTA News: Service Updates
Well, I’ve had an awesome time reviewing the PVTA. This has been a great and unique system, and I had a blast riding all of it. I’m still in the midst of the school musical and I’ve yet to have time to sit down and start Downtown Crossing, but I promise it will eventually come.

One of the great things about the Amherst area is the Five-College Consortium, allowing students to take classes in five great colleges, all in relatively close proximity to each other. One of the most important connectors between them is the 38, which serves four of the five! That’s awesome!

The bus coming into Haigis Mall.

We left Haigis Mall at UMass and headed down Massachusetts Ave to North Pleasant Street. This took us past some final UMass buildings, around a park, and into Amherst Center, where there were businesses everywhere. We continued south from there on South Pleasant Street, but we didn’t get too far before looping around the Amherst Town Common in order to serve Amherst College.

Looking out over the common.

We returned to South Pleasant Street, which became mostly residential as we left Amherst Center. Eventually it became West Street, but it was still almost entirely houses, aside from a few businesses at the intersection with Pomeroy Lane. At a certain point, the trees and houses gave way to fields and farms, signifying that we were close to Hampshire College.

Here we are!

We headed into the college, running on a windy road through the fields. We made a little deviation to serve a main building, then we continued our leisurely path through the campus. After looping around the Eric Carle Museum, we turned onto Bay Road, passed Atkins Farms, and came back onto West Street.

A few more Hampshire buildings.

As we continued south through the Holyoke Range, the scenery could only be described as woodsy and hilly. We passed some place called The Notch and its accompanying visitor’s center, then we had a brief section in Granby, where houses started to show up again. The road was now called Amherst Road, and as we entered South Hadley, we started to see some more woods and fields.

I have no idea where I took this, but trees!

The road curved west, then made a sharp turn south and became Woodbridge Street. There were houses for a bit before we came into downtown South Hadley, where there were some nice businesses and a common. Normally the route would turn right into Mount Holyoke College here, but there was a detour, so we headed down to Morgan Street and used that to make a small loop to the stop at Mead Hall.

The bus looking tall and mighty at Mount Holyoke.

PVTA Route: 38 (Mount Holyoke/Hampshire/Amherst/UMass)

Ridership: It’s lower than I was expecting, but the route gets about 790 people per day. My trip had about 25 people, with a decent split between those going to Hampshire College and those going to Mount Holyoke College.

Pros: This is a crucial route for the Five College Consortium, connecting four out of the five schools. It’s fast, too, running straight as an arrow down mostly woodsy roads when it’s not deviating to serve colleges. Finally, it has a good schedule for the ridership it gets: weekday service is every half hour, Saturday service is every 40 minutes, and Sunday service is every 80 minutes.

Cons: Things get a little complex when it comes to school breaks, with different schedules pertaining to very specific, sometimes random times. For example, there’s an “End of December” schedule that operates only from December 26th-29th! Also, it really doesn’t seem necessary for the route to deviate into Amherst College, since it’s so close to the main road, but I guess it’s not that big of a deal.

Nearby and Noteworthy: UMass, Amherst College, Hampshire College, or Mount Holyoke College…take your pick!

Final Verdict: 8/10
This is a really solid route. It’s straight, it’s direct, it’s frequent when it has the most ridership, and it gets a good amount of people. Just keep in mind that on December 26th-29th, the 38 only operates five trips per day. DON’T SAY I DIDN’T WARN YA!!!

Latest MBTA News: Service Updates

It’s so weird imagining a deviatory loop getting busy, and yet here we are! The 34 and 35 run a crazy figure-8 loop around the UMass campus in opposite directions, and we’re about to see how many deviations are possible within it!

The 34 coming into Southwest.

We headed down Massachusetts Ave for a bit, passing mostly parking lots and Haigis Mall. We turned onto North Pleasant Street next, running past the three UMass stops that most other routes serve: the Studio Arts Building, the Integrative Learning Center, and the Graduate Research Center. After all that, we made our way onto Eastman Lane at a roundabout.

A pond along Eastman Lane.

We went by some housing for a bit, then it became woodsey until the UMass Police Station. There, we turned onto East Pleasant Street, then deviated into Olympia Drive. Also, within that deviation, we had to make another deviation onto Mather Drive! This whole thing was to serve UMass Admissions, a housing development, and a fraternity.

A forested road.

We returned to East Pleasant Street, but then turned off it pretty quickly onto Orchard Hill Drive. This was another deviation, this time to serve the Orchard Hill residential area. We passed lots of big dorm buildings as we made our way through the deviation before making our way back onto East Pleasant.

They call it Orchard HILL for a reason!

It was all residential along here now, with normal, non-student housing. We came pretty close to Amherst Center, but we swung around onto North Pleasant Street before we could get there. This took us back up into the UMass campus, where we did that exact same section past the three main stops that we had done before.

Somewhere in the campus…

This time, however, we made a left at the roundabout, going down Governors Drive. We passed a lot of UMass engineering buildings, as well as the UMass Transit bus garage. Soon after that, we had to do a deviation to serve a parking lot – Lot 12, to be exact. Yay.

Hey, a 35 is making the deviation too!

We came back to the main road, which was now called Commonwealth Ave. It took us past the Mullins Center and the huge athletic complex around it, as well as the dorms for the UMass Honors College. We turned onto Mass Ave again briefly, then headed down University Drive. Here, we made a loop via Stadium Drive, which served more athletic facilities, some parking lots, and the UMass Child Care Center. Finally, we went back up to Mass Ave and arrived at the stop where we had started, Southwest.

A 35 at the Integrative Learning Center.

PVTA Routes: 34 (Campus Shuttle/Northbound) and 35 (Campus Shuttle/Southbound)

Ridership: These routes both get pretty good ridership – 844 people per day for the 34 and 1,120 people per day for the 35. On a trip-by-trip basis, though, certain ones can be empty, while others can be packed. It all depends on the time of day.

Pros: Both routes run every 15 minutes on weekdays, a good frequency for a campus shuttle. Weekend service is much less frequent, with no 34 service and a 35 every 45 minutes, but I doubt it needs to run more often than that. The routes are very useful for connecting further-out parts of campus, such as Southwest and Orchard Hill, and since they go in both directions, you shouldn’t have to suffer through too many deviations to get to where you want to go.

Cons: That being said, the routes are still very deviatory. Most of the time the deviations do get people, but they can feel a little annoying and unnecessary sometimes. Also, the morning section of the 35’s schedule has a really bad typo where some trips lose time at certain places…it doesn’t make any sense.

That third timepoint is looking a little strange…

Nearby and Noteworthy: I mean, they’re literally entirely within the UMass campus, so that’s all that’s nearby and noteworthy.

Final Verdict: 7/10
I can’t bring myself to give a route with so many deviations higher than a 7, but the 34 and 35 still do their job great. They run frequently, and they can reliably get people to basically wherever on campus they want to go. What more do you need? The route can even travel back in time, if the schedule is to be believed!

Latest MBTA News: Service Updates

You thought Harvard’s shuttle system was confusing? Well, yeah, you’re right, but here’s a college shuttle that may be able to give Harvard a run for its money. I’m talking about the OWL, the PVTA’s shuttle within Westfield State University!

Why’s it stopping all the way over there??

“Where are you going?” the driver asked accusingly as Sam and I got on. Great, one of these drivers. I said, “WellIwriteablogaboutpublic-transportationandI’mtryingtofinishthewholePVTAandthisisoneofthelast-routesIhavetodosocouldwejustridearoundthanks.” “Uh, sure, you can ride around,” the driver said. Nailed it.

Coming out of Scanlon Hall.

We headed down Western Ave, passing houses and a few WSU buildings, then we headed down into the university’s South Lot. After looping around the very busy parking lot, we returned to Western Ave and went the other way. We went by Scanlon Hall without stopping and eventually made our way into the university’s Administration Building. Since the actual stop was in an impossible-to-get-to part of the parking lot, we just sorta stopped on one of its main roads, briefly blocking traffic. Finally, we came back to Western Ave one more time, passing a stop for the Athletic Complex, and returned to Scanlon Hall.

That was quick!

PVTA Route: OWL (Westfield State University Shuttle)

Ridership: No stats on this one, either, but my trip was very quiet, with only about five people the whole time. Maybe the trips when classes end are busier?

Pros: I like that the route times with class start and end times. That’s very clever. Oh, and it’s free.

Cons: The route has very frequent service, with a bus every 13 minutes. Oh wait, this trip has a 14-minute gap. Hang on, here’s one with an 8-minute gap! Why is there a 40-minute gap in the middle of the day? Wait, wait, there are certain trips that don’t serve South Lot? And here’s one that doesn’t serve the Administration Building! WHY IS THIS SO RANDOM????

Nearby and Noteworthy: Westfield State University. That’s it.

Final Verdict: 2/10
I swear, this bus just does whatever it wants, whenever it wants. It only has four stops, how the heck is it this confusing? Not to mention, each stop has a certain amount of layover time, and that always seems to be random, too! Also, why is the PVTA stuck with this thing when WSU has its own bus that literally does the same route? Sure, it only goes from Scanlon Hall to South Lot and it runs every two hours, but it could easily just replace the OWL! This is ridiculous.

Latest MBTA News: Service Updates

When I reviewed the R10 over the summer, it was on its school vacation routing, where it runs all the way to Westfield State University. During the school year, however, the R10 terminates at Westfield Center and they run a shuttle route, the R10S, from there to the university. I wonder what it’s like!

Okay, that destination sign is distinctly blue!

The first thing to mention about the route is that it’s free! That definitely gives it some points from the cheap side of me! So, we left the Olver Transit Pavilion and headed into the Park Square rotary. Surely we would get to go directly to the univer- oh, we’re deviating into Stop & Shop? We’re really gonna do this? Alrighty, then…

Hi, parking lot.

After that whole kerfuffle, we returned to Park Square and actually made it onto Court Street, heading out toward the university. It was mostly houses, with a few breaks for Westfield City Hall, Baystate Noble Hospital, a cemetery, and an elementary school. The street eventually became Western Ave, and after a bunch more houses, we pulled into Scanlon Hall of Westfield State University. That was a quick one!

The bus’s rear end.

PVTA Route: R10S (Westfield Center/Westfield State University)

Ridership: I haven’t got any online ridership statistics for this one, but from my experience, the route gets very low ridership. Maybe it’s different at certain times of the day, but I never saw more than three people on this thing.

Pros: It’s free! Also, it provides half hourly service from Westfield State to downtown Westfield. And…Stop & Shop. Sigh…

Cons: Does the route really need to serve Stop & Shop? I mean, we’re talking about college students here – I think they should be able to perform the 5-minute walk from Olver to the supermarket. Plus, if that deviation was eliminated, the route could easily run every 20 minutes instead of every 30, which is a much better frequency for a college shuttle (even though this seems to get low ridership anyway). Also, the time required for the Stop & Shop deviation means that the R10S can’t coordinate with the inbound R10. Oh, that’s just great, isn’t it?

Nearby and Noteworthy: This route exists solely to get people to Westfield State, so I guess that’s about it.

Final Verdict: 4/10
This route has a lot of potential to be a really convenient free shuttle for college students. However, it doesn’t run all that frequently, it doesn’t connect with the inbound R10, and it has to make that stupid Stop & Shop deviation. I have a solution, though, and it assumes that the Stop & Shop deviation is required for some political reason – you see, it turns out that the route really doesn’t have a half hour cycle time, it’s just some good ol’ fashioned PVTA padding. The route can complete its trip in about 16 minutes, 18 if you include Stop & Shop, meaning that it could still be effectively run every 20 minutes. That would allow for coordination with the R10 in both directions, too! Here, I made up a schedule:

Okay, the header got a bit messed up for some reason, but you get the idea. I figured that the trips that don’t connect with the R10 could still serve Stop & Shop, since the ones that do connect need to be right on time. That being said, this whole 20-minute thing would work way better without the Stop & Shop deviation at all, and if it could be eliminated, that would make this schedule optimal.
UPDATE 9/11/2020: I guess this route has been eliminated?? I’m not sure if it’s because of COVID or if it’s permanent, but the PVTA specifically said “eliminated” and took it off the website. Hmm…

Latest MBTA News: Service Updates

What, you thought I was done with the PVTA? Nope, I still have to do the school year routes! Sam and I took Peter Pan out there recently so that I could truly complete the system. Let’s start things off with the P11, an express route from Springfield to the Holyoke Community College!

Our last bus from Springfield!

We boarded the bus at Union Station, but before it can get onto the highway, it has to do a little loop through Springfield. Thus, we went down Dwight Street first, running by the backlots of downtown Springfield. We soon turned onto Harrison Ave, making a pretty busy stop along there, then we turned onto Main Street, running down the city’s main drag.

Our last time seeing this “beautiful” “skyline.”

We went under the Union Station tracks, coming close to the station again, but we kept on going. After a post office and some office buildings, we merged onto Plainfield Street, then immediately took an on-ramp to I-91. Express time!

A street seen from the highway.

We had somewhat urban views for a bit, including of the PVTA garage, but soon it got woodsey. I-391 split off from the highway just before we crossed the Connecticut River, offering an amazing view as always. The woods continued on the other side.

Lovely!

We went over I-90 and its corresponding interchange, then the sight of the huge Holyoke Mall let us know that we were almost there. Thus, we took Exit 15, then turned onto Lower Westfield Road and Homestead Ave. It was fairly industrial near the highway, but it soon turned residential.

Coming out of the interchange.

We passed a school, then a few businesses when we turned onto Westfield Road. Next, we turned onto Doyle Drive, taking us on its windy woodsey path towards the Community College. We went by the Kids Place, then made our way onto Campus Road. Finally we arrived at the main campus of Holyoke Community College, and in typical PVTA fashion, the route was very very early. Hooray!

Hey, that’s red!

PVTA Route: P11 (Holyoke Community College/Springfield Express)

Ridership: The ridership on the P11 is great. It gets about 600 riders per day, which doesn’t sound like a lot, but since the route doesn’t have too many trips, it averages out to about 30 people per trip. That’s right on par with mine, which did indeed have about 30 people, all going from Springfield to the community college.

Pros: This is a really fast way of getting from Springfield to Holyoke Community College – the trip is scheduled to take about 20 minutes, and since this is the PVTA, the bus is likely to be early! The schedule for the P11 is good too, with a bus every hour on school days only, from 8 to 5. There are additional trips at 5:30 and 9:30 PM on Mondays through Thursdays, which I don’t entirely understand, but I’m sure they serve some purpose.

Cons: The timetable is set up really weirdly: why is Harrison Ave in Springfield the main timepoint, rather than Union Station? It’s not a huge deal, but it makes the schedule hard to read, at least to me. Maybe the ridership is bigger from Harrison Ave than Union Station.

Nearby and Noteworthy: It’s basically meant to serve Holyoke Community College exclusively, so I guess that’s that!

Final Verdict: 8/10
The P11 serves its purpose very well, transporting students to the community college in the fastest possible way. It gets a lot of riders per trip, and I’m pretty sure that college students get a free ride? I might be wrong about that, since I can’t find any information on it anywhere. I guess it doesn’t really matter either way, since this route is still great!

Latest MBTA News: Service Updates

A little over 3 months after I left Amherst, we’re finally finishing my summer tenure with the PVTA! And what better way to end that summer with a summer-only UMass route? Yes, today we’ll be looking at none other than the 36, a route which kinda defies logical explanation…

A bus on the route, but I can’t remember for the life of me where this was.

This route starts in the weirdest place: the Atkins Farms grocery store. It doesn’t go into Hampshire College, which is right next to the grocery store – it just kinda starts at the grocery store. I guess it makes sense in a way, but it’s just such an odd place to start. It also deviates right into the parking lot, unlike the other routes around here, which just go past it on their way to Hampshire College.

Hanging out in the Atkins Farms parking lot.

We looped our way out of the parking lot and made our way through what is apparently the only double roundabout in Massachusetts! Wow, if that isn’t the coolest thing ever, I don’t know what is (note: slight sarcasm, but just a tinge of nerdy seriousness!). We headed up West Street, which was basically just woods and farmland for a while.

The long and winding road.

Eventually, houses started to line the street, and there was even some suburban retail with parking lots at the intersection with Pomeroy Lane. It went back to being residential after that, and it was like that for quite a while. We did pass quite a beautiful view of some rolling hills at one point, though.

I love this view!

The road was called South Pleasant Street now. We eventually went by Amherst College, and soon after that we were in Amherst Center. There were businesses everywhere for a little while, but as we got further away from the center, they gained parking lots in front of them.

Foliage in front of Amherst College.

Unlike other UMass routes, which go directly to, you know, UMass, the 36 has a different agenda in mind. Thus, instead of continuing down North Pleasant Street, we merged onto East Pleasant Street, which does in fact go east of the campus. It was mostly houses for a while, aside from a few fringe UMass buildings at a certain point.

There was some foliage, too!

Soon after those fringe buildings, we had to make a deviation onto Olympia Drive. We looped around a little complex up there consisting of the UMass admissions building, a housing development called Olympia Oaks, and a fraternity. After all that, we returned to East Pleasant Street for a bit before turning onto Eastman Lane outside of the UMass police and fire stations.

The police station.

We headed down a woodsy hill, then we passed some student housing. It got more and more abundant as we came into the campus proper, where we turned onto North Pleasant Street at a roundabout. We headed through the campus, but Sam and I got off at the southernmost stop, the Studio Arts Building, while the bus continued on to go back to Atkins Farm.

The bus at UMass.

PVTA Route: 36 (Olympia Drive/Atkins Farm)

Ridership: Darn it, another route without online ridership statistics? Alright, I guess I’m on my own, then. The 36 never seems to get that many people, but it gets enough – my trip had maybe 10-15 people who rode.

Pros: I guess it connects the residential areas around UMass to Atkins Farms? I mean, I honestly don’t know what this thing does, but it gets passengers, so who cares? It runs every 45 minutes, but only during school holidays – not a bad schedule, given the ridership.

Cons: I guess it’s mainly a question of “Why does this route exist?” It has to be said that the 36 doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. I mean, it’s sort of covering for the 34/35 and 38 routes, which don’t run over the summer, but only small sections of them? I dunno.

Nearby and Noteworthy: Atkins Farms is the main place this route serves, I guess. UPDATE: I’ve gotten a LOT of comments on this post and on Facebook about how amazing Atkins Farms is. I hear their cider donuts are incredible!

Final Verdict: 6/10
It’s good, I guess. I dunno, the 36 really just does its thing! It has its little loop around UMass and its little deviation to Olympia Drive and its little trip down to Atkins, and I guess that’s enough to give it a few riders. Sure, why not?

Latest MBTA News: Service Updates

Here’s another lost PVTA bus! The R14E was a rush hour-only (mostly) express route from Springfield to, as the name suggests, the Agawam Industrial Park. It’s gone now, but I rode it over the summer before it was cut, so we can see what it was like.

The bus at Union Station.

From Springfield Union Station, we headed down Dwight Street, which was generally urban, with buildings and parking lots. Next, we turned onto Harrison Ave, going through the heart of downtown Springfield and over the Memorial Bridge into West Springfield. We went around a rotary and merged onto Route 5, beginning the express portion that gave this route its “E” designation.

Crossing the Connecticut River.

The highway was mostly woods, and we moved quickly down it. We went over the Westfield River, and soon after that, we reached another rotary and merged onto Route 57. This highway allowed for some views of the surrounding buildings, mostly houses, but we soon left it on the Main Street exit. After some suburban businesses with parking lots, we deviated into the Heritage Nursing Home facility – one of this route’s functions was transporting its workers.

A building within the complex.

We now went south down Main Street, which was mostly houses with a good smattering of businesses as well. We also went by a school and a few churches. Next, we turned onto the residential Elm Street, which became Silver Street. There was a shopping plaza and some other suburban businesses at the intersection with Suffield Street, though.

“Guns and Gear, LLC.”

It started to get a little industrial from there, with a few stretches of houses here and there. Once we made our way onto Bowles Road, though, it was all industrial. We just passed lots of random weird corporate buildings and offices before just kinda turning around and laying over at the end of the street. Sure!

What a weird place to end!

PVTA Route: R14E (Springfield/Agawam Industrial Park)

Ridership: I wish I could find ridership numbers online for this one, but I can’t. I took the last trip at 6:30, and it only got about three riders – I really want to know if the other ones got more people.

Pros: This was a fast, convenient way of getting to the Agawam Industrial Park and the Heritage Nursing Home – the express portion was awesome.

Cons: The times for the route were really weird: 6:35, 1:30, 3:00, and 6:30. I mean, maybe those had something to do with the hours of the industrial buildings, but they seem to miss out the evening rush entirely!

Nearby and Noteworthy: Lots of industrial buildings, I guess, if that’s your cup of tea.

Final Verdict: 6/10
I dunno, I’m kinda ambiguous about this one. It was fine, I guess, but the schedule times and ridership numbers were questionable. Still, it was a lot better than what the route is like now – now they stick this thing along the regular R14, with trips at 6:15, 2:15, 3:15, and 4:15. What’s the point of running it with the local route, though? All it does is take ridership away from the normal R14 trips. It really isn’t helping anyone to run the route this way, and it takes much longer. Whereas the express trips could go out to Agawam and back in 55 minutes, the new local trips take 63, making it harder to interline or do another trip. Yeah, it’s kind of a mess now…

Latest MBTA News: Service Updates

Oh no oh no oh no OH NO OH NO OH NO! NOT ANOTHER ONE! NOT ANOTHER DEVIATORY MINIBUS SHUTTLE THING! All I can say about the Ware Shuttle is…beWare!!! Ha!

OH MY GOD WHAT IS THAT??

This was quite possibly the worst minibus, and indeed the worst BUS, I’ve ever been on in my life. The vehicle that the shuttle normally uses was out of service, I guess, so they had to use this horrible piece of trash. The seats were falling apart, the heat was blasting, the smell was disgusting, and…did somebody say JIGGLY WHEELCHAIR LIFTS?

EWWWWWW!!!!!!

We made our way out of the Ware Walmart and went onto Palmer Road, traversing the one section of the route where the bus can actually move quickly and doesn’t have to deviate. It was mostly residential, but we also passed a church, a few businesses, and a school. After approximately three minutes of relative happiness, it was all crushed by another deviation.

WHAT IS THIS???

Yes, we were getting our obligatory senior center deviation out of the way early…but what kind of senior center is this? The Ware Senior Center was by far the most decrepit senior center I’ve ever seen. I mean, is this even safe for its visitors?? No wonder the bus has to deviate to it; I hate imagining some poor old lady trying to walk across that uneven parking lot!

Right into another one…

We returned to what was now called West Street for literally one block before turning onto Homecrest Ave, then deviating into the Ware Big Y. Sigh…yeah, this route really lays on the deviations. Luckily, once we came back onto West Street, we could make the trip into Ware Center deviation-free, passing some businesses and later, dense houses.

Coming into Ware Center.

We turned onto Main Street, running right down the main drag of Ware. Just like Palmer, this was a boring and pretty run-down town, but it did at least have more occupied retail buildings. We turned onto South Street, which went over the Ware River and past some old factories.

Okay, no idea what the heck is going on here…

Deviation time! We turned onto Monroe Street, which, after a few twists and turns, led us to Valley View, a small housing development. Great. We came back to South Street and proceeded through a residential area for a few blocks before…oh, now we’re doing a hospital deviation? Sigh…alright…

The Mary Lane Hospital entrance.

From here, we made our way up Chestnut Street, a mostly residential road with a random horse stable along it! We turned onto Maple Street next, which got pretty industrial as it became Knox Ave and came up alongside a train track. We then turned back onto Main Street, going over the Ware River and coming back into the center.

An industrial/mountain view, I guess?

Next, we turned onto Church Street, which did indeed go by a church, but it was mostly lined with dense houses. At one point we had to deviate to serve the Church Street School, a senior housing building, and soon after that, we turned onto Highland Street. We didn’t stay on that for long, though, since we had to do another deviation, this time to serve the Highland Village Apartments.

Leaving the development.

After coming out of the apartment complex, we did a really weird deviation that doesn’t appear on the route map or schedule or anything! Basically, we turned north onto North Street, going away from Ware Center, and it was essentially just houses and woods. We turned onto Sheehy Road next, then Pond Brook Park – the whole area was really weird and desolate, and all we were serving was a few mobile homes. I have no idea what this was all about, but…uh…we did it!

WHY???

After that madness, we just came back down North Street and continued with the route like nothing happened. We went by the Hillside Village Apartments without deviating, Thank goodness! It was nice to be able to pass an apartment complex without having to go and serve it. So, we were now in a residential neighborhood full of dense houses, then we turned onto Cottage Street, Smith Ave, and Convent Hill Road, serving…HILLSIDE VILLAGE APARTMENTS? I’m sorry, was it really necessary for the bus to go past the development for three blocks, then just circle around and serve it anyway? That was just a horrible, dirty trick!

Can we go somewhere now?

We came back to Ware Center for the third time of the trip, turning once again onto Main Street. We left the downtown and it got residential pretty quickly, but there was still the important Ware Gun Shop among the houses. It’s so weird seeing that kind of thing, coming from the city and all.

Some houses.

We turned onto Eagle Street, then Ware Brook Drive – it was a deviation to serve the Warebrook Village housing development. I do love me some deviating! We returned to Main Street after that, then made our way down Vernon Street to come back to West Street. On the way back, we had to do those same annoying deviations to Big Y and the disgusting Ware Senior Center.

Hello darkness, my old friend.

From there, we made our way back to the Ware Walmart…except this trip was continuing on to the Palmer Big Y! Awesome, let’s get going! Oh…we’re 16 minutes early? Sigh…time to hang out at Walmart. PVTA Syndrome never goes away…

I already covered the trip from Walmart to Big Y in my Palmer Village Bus review, so we’ll just admire this monstrosity at Walmart one more time.

PVTA Route: WS (Ware Shuttle)

Ridership: There are no online ridership statistics for the Ware Shuttle, but I know that on my trip, the ridership was lower than that of the Palmer Shuttle. You may recall that the Palmer Shuttle got about seven riders, so…yeah, that’s quite bad.

Pros: It serves Ware. That’s really about it.

Cons: THE DEVIATIONS ON THIS ROUTE ARE INSANE! It feels like you’re going somewhere the whole time, like maybe you might actually be making some progress on the route, but you’re not – the route’s maddening loop around Ware is only 1.5 miles from north to south, yet it takes about 45 minutes to do the whole thing (an hour and 15 minutes if you continue to Palmer)! Also, did you know that walking from Hillside Village to the Mary Lane Hospital takes about half the time of the bus? I’m sure a lot of people would use that connection, too!

Also, the route’s schedule is pretty bad – not as bad as the PV, but still pretty bad. The first three trips are great, with consistent hourly service, but once the route starts getting extended to Palmer every other trip, it falls apart. Basically, it runs about every hour and a half when trips run to Palmer, and about every hour when they don’t, but it’s not at all consistent. Coordination with the Palmer Shuttle isn’t great, either, but that’s mostly because the PV’s schedule is so nonsensical.

Oh, by the way, why the heck did we make that weird trailer park deviation? That made no sense!

Nearby and Noteworthy: Eh, Ware’s a pretty boring town. At least Palmer has trains!

Final Verdict: 2/10
This route is evil. Pure evil. It has so many deviations within a really small radius, so all it does is lead to insanely long rides for everyone. And everyone is barely anyone, because this route’s ridership is really low! I mean, it exists, which is why this isn’t a 1, but still, it’s really low. Oh, that bus was so bad! I really hope the one they normally use is better, because geez Louise, I couldn’t take it. This route sucks.

Latest MBTA News: Service Updates