PVTA: R42 (Northampton/Williamsburg)
Wow, this route taught me about the existence of so many new neighborhoods and towns! Williamsburg! Haydenville! Leeds! All that and more on the R42!
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| This is about it for Williamsburg Center… |
Sam and I just took the route out and back in, but I’ll be covering the inbound direction because the bus makes an extra deviation going towards Northampton (although going out, it serves Salvo House, which a lot of other routes do). Out in Williamsburg, we used some residential side streets to turn around, then arrived back at the main stop at Williamsburg Center. It wasn’t much: a library, a post office, and a few businesses. The town only has 2,500 people, after all!
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| An open area. |
On the way out of town, there were some industrial buildings and a few straggling business. We crossed over the Mill River and the road was paralleling it closely, offering a quaint forest view. It was incredibly scenic and relaxing, but eventually a redeveloped mill broke the peace. We were in Haydenville.
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| A bridge over the river. |
Like Williamsburg Center, there wasn’t much in Haydenville, either. It consisted of houses, a few businesses, a post office, a library, a church, and a really really fancy hotel. Beyond Haydenville, it was mostly residential, aside from a huge beautiful golf course.
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| Another bridge in Haydenville. |
It became pretty rural after that, with a few spread-out houses and industrial buildings. As we entered Northampton, we passed a cemetery, then an extended care facility on the other side. The street was now called Haydenville Road, but we turned off of it onto Leonard Street. This was a quiet residential neighborhood, continuing as the road made a 90-degree turn, becoming Front Street.
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| A cemetery. |
We came around a bend and the street became Florence Street. Up on a hill, we got a decent view of Leeds Center, although this was the least exciting of any of the previous town centers – it was basically just a few old buildings. The bus only deviates to Leeds Center going inbound, unless someone requests to serve it on the outbound trip.
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| Trying to get a view of Leeds Center… |
Next, we passed the Leeds Elementary School and some more houses, then we merged into North Main Street, where there were a few businesses. There was a brief section of woods and a field, after which we turned into the VA Hospital. This deviation took us up a curvy hilly road up to the hospital, where we looped around and came back.
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| Entering the hospital. |
After a roundabout next to Look Memorial Park, North Main Street became entirely residential until Florence Center, where we did a strange little “deviation” of sorts around a common. We entered the center proper next; retail abounded. The street became Locust Street beyond the center, then we passed a field, a recycling center, and another hospital.
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| Coming into Florence Center. |
We merged onto Elm Street, which had one side occupied by houses and another side occupied by a park. After Northampton High School, the scenery became a somewhat dense residential area. Eventually, we started going by Smith College buildings, a sign that we were almost into downtown Northampton – then voila, we made it!
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| The bus at Northampton. |
PVTA Route: R42 (Northampton/Williamsburg)
Ridership: This is a pretty bad route for ridership – only 238 passengers per day. Riders per trip is similarly poor, with only 11 people on average. The main ridership hubs for the route are generally the major stops – Florence Center, VA Hospital, Haydenville, and Williamsburg.
Pros: This is an important route, and people definitely rely on it. It’s not like it’s an urban city route – in fact, it’s one of the most rural buses on the PVTA – but the people who ride this have no other option, and there are more of them than, say, a typical GATRA route. Also, the schedule is decent – every hour on weekdays and Saturdays. There’s no Sunday service, but the R44serves the VA Hospital on Sundays, still sending a bus to probably the R42’s busiest stop. Oh, and finally, the R42 is a really scenic ride.
Cons: The ridership is still low, there’s no denying that. It’s also kinda strange that the route leaves on the :50 from Northampton, missing the pseudo-“pulse” of key routes by 10 minutes. Finally, it’s kind of annoying that this route serves Salvo House on the outbound. I know it’s an important residential building, but so many routes serve it. Plus, it takes seven minutes just to loop around back to downtown Northampton on the R42’s outbound journey. Really?
Nearby and Noteworthy: This is the only PVTA route that serves Look Memorial Park, a big scenic park in the northwest area of Northampton. There seems to be a lot of fun stuff to do there.
Final Verdict: 6/10
Okay, I’m not gonna say that this route is efficient or anything, because it’s certainly not – 238 riders per day is still miserable, and I’m not gonna deny it. Sometime I might propose an idea I had to serve Salvo House without having all the other routes deviate to serve it, but for now, all I’ll say is that it’s really annoying. The R42 is an important route, though, and it serves as a lifeline to residents of Williamsburg and northwestern Northampton. Plus, you can’t beat the scenery on this ride; it’s lovely.
Latest MBTA News: Service Updates
Northampton (Amtrak)
Huh…y’know, this station is practically identical to Greenfield, and yet…yeah, I just don’t like it nearly as much. Why could this be? Well, we’ll have to take a look and find out. Here’s Northampton Station!
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| Well, this platform looks familiar. |
Yeah, this is the exact same platform as Greenfield. It’s small and wooden, with a few benches and a wastebasket, and that’s about it. But whereas Greenfield worked because the station melded with its rural setting perfectly, Northampton is right in the city. And it’s hard to appreciate a charming wooden platform when you’ve got a big truck growling behind you the entire time.
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| Parking? Ha, that’s a joke. |
Ready for the stupendous parking at Northampton? Alright, here we go: 10 short-term parking spaces; no long-term parking spaces. You know, short-term parking for a day trip – on a once-a-day service. I think this bothers me more than it did at Greenfield because there’s a whole parking lot to work with, yet most of the spaces are flat-out reserved for other places.
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| This is about the extent of Northampton’s “bike parking.” |
This one bothers me even more: there’s essentially no bike parking. Sure, there are the really sketchy bike racks seen above that just aren’t attached to anything, and four proper ones wayyyyy at the end of the parking lot where they can’t be found. I wouldn’t normally be too upset about this, but this is Northampton – it’s probably one of the biggest bike cities in western MA, and the station is located near multiple bike trails. Come on!
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| “Union Station.” |
The station happens to be located right next to the old Northampton Union Station, but that’s been taken over by restaurants. It’s too bad the station can’t be taken over by, you know, trains, but after laying dormant for years, I doubt the station will ever see train service again. There’s also a nice bridge the tracks pass over further down the bike path.
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| The southbound Vermonter coming in. Photo credit to Sam. |
Station: Northampton
Ridership: Ridership at this station has far exceeded the 2009 projection of 10,000 riders per year – in 2016, 17,332 riders boarded here. That’s about 47 riders per day, or 23 passengers per train. This will come back in the “cons” section…
Pros: It has really basic amenities. I mean, the platform’s high-level, so it’s accessible, and there are benches and a wastebasket. But…like…that’s kinda it.
Cons: No bike parking. Hardly any car parking. A tiny wooden platform that can barely handle the riders that use it. For a Commuter Rail station, this would be somewhat acceptable, but Amtrak generally has a higher standard than this.
Nearby and Noteworthy: Once again, Northampton is a lovely town. Still…probably not the best idea to use the once-a-day train to get here.
Final Verdict: 4/10
Apparently MassDOT is planning on rebuilding this station to have a longer platform and more amenities. This is great news, because currently, this place is too basic for the amount of ridership it gets. Once it gets redeveloped, I doubt I’ll have the chance to revisit it, but I certainly hope they can do better than this.
UPDATE 2019: This station does get three trains a day now, thanks to the new Valley Flyer Amtrak service up to Greenfield.
Latest MBTA News: Service Updates
PVTA: B43 (Northampton/Hadley/Amherst)
The B43 is one of the backbones of UMass transit…even though it’s not actually run by UMass Transit. Providing a crucial connection between Northampton and UMass (plus Smith and Amherst Colleges), this route can get absolutely packed during the school year. During the summer, unfortunately, I’m stuck with the reduced schedule, but the route still gets its fair share of riders.
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| The bus laying over at Smith College. |
Most Northampton routes start at the Academy of Music, but the B43 goes just a bit further to Smith College. This does twofold: it provides direct service from Smith to UMass and Amherst College; plus, it means the bus doesn’t have to loop around Northampton via Salvo House, which a lot of routes do. After leaving Smith, it was a short ride to downtown Northampton.
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| A Smith College building. |
We picked people up at the Academy of Music, then proceeded past the many businesses of Northampton. After going under the Amtrak tracks, Main Street became Bridge Street and we passed the Northampton Post Office. There were houses beyond there, as well as a cemetery.
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| Sheldon Field. |
Next up was the Sheldon Field Park and Ride, a small free lot where people can park their cars and take the bus to UMass. It continued to be mostly residential past there, then we went under I-91. After that, we went onto a beautiful bridge over the Connecticut River with an incredible view.
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| Gosh, I love this river… |
We were in Hadley now, and the street was called Russell Street. It was wide, and it went by a multitude of suburban businesses with parking lots…and also farmland. It was a strange mix. We passed West Street, which had a gigantic median, then we entered “Hadley Center,” for what it’s worth. It was mostly just more generic businesses…
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| Some sort of developing shopping center? |
Gosh, there isn’t much else to say about the Hadley section of the route. We went over a rail trail, and the businesses with parking lots just kept on coming. Eventually, we turned off Russell Street in order to serve a Walmart. We continued across Maple Street and made our way around a side lot for the Hampshire Mall, arriving at the shelter.
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| In the midst of serving Walmart. |
It was at this point that I encountered the PVTA’s main quirk for the first time: buses are always early. We had arrived at the stop seven minutes ahead of schedule, so we just had to wait for a while before being able to go again. When we could finally leave, we returned to Russell Street and continued past basically the same scenery we had been seeing for a while.
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| A gas station. |
As we entered Amherst, the street became Northampton Road. Next, we turned onto University Drive, going by more businesses, a few clinics, and a post office. Eventually, it became pretty woodsy, but that didn’t last long as we entered the UMass campus.
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| Some UMass buildings. |
We turned onto Massachusetts Ave, which gained a huge median, heading right through campus. We made our way into Haigis Mall, the B43’s main bus stop for UMass. After stopping there, we returned to Mass Ave, which curved south to become North Pleasant Street.
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| A side street. |
There were a few straggling campus buildings, then we made our way around a park and entered Amherst Center. There were businesses everywhere, and they only got denser as we continued south. We continued south of the center, then looped around Amherst Common and arrived at Amherst College, the B43’s final stop.
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| The bus in Amherst. |
PVTA Route: B43 (Northampton/Hadley/Amherst)
Ridership: I was actually surprised by how low the ridership of this route is. That’s not to say it’s bad – 2,226 riders per day is nothing to sneeze at – but based on the crowding this route experiences, I would’ve thought it would’ve been higher.
Pros: This is a crucial route connecting three of the five colleges, plus Northampton. In particular, a lot of people use this to get from Northampton to UMass, to the extent that the route uses 60-foot articulated buses during the school year. It has a good schedule, too, running every 20 minutes on weekdays, every half hour on Saturdays, and every hour on Sundays. The “reduced” schedule for vacation periods reduces all those frequencies to hourly, and although it’s inconvenient for me, it does make sense based on the lower summer ridership.
Cons: When we had to wait about six minutes at the Hampshire Mall, it seemed like a ridiculous awful calamity. I’ve been on a lot of PVTA routes since then, and honestly, the B43’s wait isn’t that bad. Sure, the padding really should be at the end of the route, but it’s not terrible in this case. I will say that the crowding for the route can apparently be insane during the school year, and the fact that it boards front-door-only doesn’t help that.
Nearby and Noteworthy: This is the easiest way of getting to both the Hampshire Mall and Northampton from UMass. I can’t say I like the mall, but Northampton is great!
Final Verdict: 8/10
The B43 is essential to the colleges it serves, but that does result in it getting a lot of passengers. It would be a lot better for boarding if the route used an honor system like the rest of the UMass routes – Five College students and staff are already subsidized to ride for free, and they probably make up most of the ridership, anyway. Still, this is a fast, frequent, important route, and it generally does a good job of fulfilling its functions.
Latest MBTA News: Service Updates
UMass Boston Shuttle: 2 (JFK/UMass – Library)
Finally, our last Boston-area route before I can switch entirely to the PVTA! Funnily enough, it’s a route serving a different UMass – UMass Boston. This will finish our reviews of the university’s small shuttle system.
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| This was a nice bus. |
Due to a Red Line shuttle, JFK buses were boarding at another section of the busway. We got on the 2 and left the busway down Mount Vernon Street. The wide street passed by offices and parking lots. Next, we went by a housing development and a school, then a few apartment buildings.
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| Always construction at UMass… |
We entered the UMass campus and navigated our way through many construction sites, eventually making our way into the Clark Athletic Center. After that deviation, we came back to University Drive, then turned onto Columbia Point. We turned again, going by the Massachusetts Archives, then turned once more onto Columbia Point.
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| More construction. |
We went alongside the water for a bit, then we turned into the Campus Center. After making that stop, we returned to Columbia Point, but this time we took it a little further than before. The next stop was the JFK Library, where we got off to let the bus make its way back to JFK Station.
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| The bus at the Library. |
UMass Boston Shuttle Route: 2 (JFK/UMass – Library)
Ridership: This route gets a good amount of ridership all the time. It doesn’t get as packed as, say, the 1, but you’ll still get a good amount of university commuter students, and especially people going to the library. That’s a big tourist attraction, and this is the way to get there directly.
Pros: This is basically UMass Boston’s “catch-all” route, serving as a slower, more deviatory version of the 1. Just because it’s deviatory doesn’t mean it’s bad, though – it still serves an important purpose. It’s also the only UMass Shuttle route to run on weekends, which makes sense, since it’s the one that serves everything.
Cons: It runs every 20 minutes, which is ebbing toward the infrequent side for a college shuttle. I’m not saying it needs to run more often, but you could easily take a bus off of the oversaturated 3 and throw it on this to double the frequency.
Nearby and Noteworthy: The JFK Library for sure. It’s not quite in that A-list range of Boston landmarks, but it’s still a great museum with a fantastic view of the city.
Final Verdict: 8/10
The 2 works really well as a way to serve basically everything at UMass Boston and connect it to the Red Line. It’s not as fast or as direct as the 1, but that’s not really its intent. Plus, one can use it to get to the JFK Library, so it serves an important tourist function too. (its freeness also helps with that – yay!) It does seem like weekday frequency could be increased by just taking a bus off the 3, though…I mean, the 3 is just run so ridiculously inefficiently, they have the resources to halve the headways for the 2.
Latest MBTA News: Service Updates
PVTA: R44 (Florence Heights via King Street and Bridge Road)
You know it’s a bad route when it reminds you of the GATRA. We’re not talking about the “empty, deviatory minibus” side of GATRA today, though…no, the R44 harkens most to the “somewhat less empty, deviatory full-sized bus” side of GATRA. It reminded me a lot of something like the 8. However, the 8 was a standout route only because the rest of the GATRA is so subpar – the PVTA is a legitimate bus system. Let’s see how the R44 stacks up.
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| The bus on its way to Florence Heights. |
The route starts out with – of course – a deviation. It’s to serve the Florence Heights housing development, and Sam and I got there by walking from Florence Center. Once on the bus, we headed up the woodsy Florence Road, where houses hid behind the trees. They started to get denser as we continued further north, then we turned onto Pine Street and crossed over Mill River.
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| The river. |
Pine Street passed by some industrial buildings, then we turned onto Park Street, going through a lovely residential neighborhood. After passing a cemetery, we curved onto Main Street, the main drag of Florence Center, which reminded me of a typical suburb of Portland, OR, for some reason. It was a reasonably nice downtown.
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| Florence Center. |
The street became Locust Street, but we didn’t stay on it for much longer, turning onto Straw Ave outside of an apartment building. After crossing the Northampton Bikeway, we turned into Meadowbrook Apartments, a slowwwwww deviation with lots of speed bumps. Still, it was also well-used, with a few people getting on at each stop.
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| Trundling through Meadowbrook Apartments. |
It took a while to get through here, but we finally turned onto Bridge Road, leaving the complex. The road took us past a field and a cemetery, then a bunch of houses and more housing developments. Next, we turned onto Cooke Ave, then Hatfield Street; both took us behind various buildings of Hampshire Plaza. As you would expect, we eventually made our way into the parking lot for the mall.
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| Inside the mall. |
After serving the mall and its Big Y, we headed out onto King Street, which became lined with lots of suburban businesses with parking lots. We didn’t make it too far down the road before yet another deviation, this time into Kingsgate Plaza to serve Stop & Shop. We left that mall, and it started to get a little more industrial, with auto shops and gas stations coming up in between some of the businesses.
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| Anddddd…another mall. |
There were a few houses lined up, then it all of a sudden got urban. We turned onto Main Street, and we were right smack in the middle of downtown Northampton. We didn’t get too far, though, before yet another deviation – this time, we turned onto Crafts Ave, taking us down a hill and past a few more businesses.
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| A side street in Northampton. |
Now we were on Conz Street, which went through a mostly residential area. At Walter Salvo House, we pulled into the front drive of the apartment building, then made our way around it on Fruit Street. This narrow residential road took us to Old S Street, which we took up a hill back into downtown Northampton.
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| Pulling into Salvo House. |
We turned back onto Main Street, once again passing by tall-ish businesses. We went by the Academy of Music stop, but we were on the other side of the road so we didn’t use the actual shelter. After that, we turned onto West Street, taking us past a mixture of houses and Smith College buildings.
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| An office building. |
We went over Mill River, then the road became Chapel Street and we passed a big office building. Beyond there, it was a mixture of houses and fields, until we made an unexpected turn onto a narrow hilly road. This led us up to the last stop: Hampshire County House of Corrections. That’s right – the route ends at a real, proper prison. Needless to say, Sam and I stayed on the bus…
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| This is just so weird… |
PVTA Route: R44 (Florence Heights via King Street and Bridge Road)
Ridership: In terms of average daily ridership, the 44 is below average for the PVTA, with 415 riders per day. It gets worse when you use other counting methods, though – it’s far below average for passengers per trip, carrying only 16, and dead-last for passengers per hour, with only 13.
Pros: There’s no denying that the R44 definitely serves a lot. It acts as kind of a Northampton circulator, serving housing developments and malls that no other buses serve. The schedule is also reasonable, with hourly service seven days per week.
Cons: Riding this thing from beginning to end is just miserable. It’s such a deviatory route, and it doesn’t help that for some reason, the worst buses in Northampton Garage always end up on this thing. Honestly, it would work far better as a loop, allowing for more efficient trips from the Florence area to Northampton.
Nearby and Noteworthy: Hampshire County House of Corrections all the way, baby! Or maybe, like, Stop & Shop or something…
Final Verdict: 5/10
This route serves a lot, for sure, and even though the ridership is low and the costs are high, it’s still important for the city of Northampton. Honestly, though, it would make a lot more sense as a bidirectional loop. The distance from Hampshire County House Corrections to Florence Heights is so small that you could have the same frequency with the same amount of buses. Take a look:
The loop takes about 41 minutes driving, so with padding, you could easily keep the hourly service with two buses, just like it is now.
Latest MBTA News: Service Updates
Logan Airport Shuttle: 22/33 (Serves Terminals A & B or C & E to subway station and to Rental Car Center)
The 22 and the 33 are the Logan Airport shuttles that everybody takes. Linking the Blue Line station and the Rental Car Center to the airport, they can often be quite busy – that’s why there are two routes to even out the crowds better. We’ll be looking at both today.
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| The 33 at Airport Station. |
From the Blue Line station on the 33, we headed down Transportation Way, paralleling I-90 with a park on the other side. We rounded a curve, and alongside a huge elevated interchange, we pulled into the Rental Car Center…and waited. And waited and waited and waited. This was where a bunch of people were getting on, carrying huge suitcases, and we just sat there to let more and more people board. By the time we left, the bus was packed.
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| Airport scenery… |
From there, we navigated a mess of roads to get up to the departures level. Since it was a 33, we were able to run “express” past Terminals A and B, then we pulled into C. Most of the passengers got off here, so we had to wait for everyone to drag their luggage off the bus. Finally, we left and made our way to Terminal E, the final stop of the route.
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| The 22 at Terminal A. |
From there, Jordan and I had a race to Terminal A where he used the elevated walkway and I took the 11 – he won, and he wasn’t even trying. From here, we got on the 22 and rode it around to Terminal B, stops 1 and 2. We went through an “express” section, skipping Terminals C and E, making our way down Service Road, and arriving back at the Blue Line station. Jordan and I stayed on to the Rental Car Center, but it was basically the same thing as before, except this time we used the upper level instead of the lower.
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| The bus at the Rental Car Center. |
Logan Airport Shuttle Routes: 22/33 (Serves Terminals A & B or C & E to subway station and to Rental Car Center)
Ridership: It can be anywhere from completely empty to completely packed – it really depends on the time. From my experience, most people usually get on at the Rental Car Center – probably because the shuttle is the only option from there, whereas the Silver Line is a much faster alternative to the Blue Line, unless there’s traffic, when it’s a nightmare.
Pros: If you use the Blue Line to get to the airport, you can expect a bus (or two, or three) to be waiting there to take you where you’re going. It’s also the only way of getting from the Rental Car Center to the terminals, so these routes are definitely important and they should run as frequently as they do. It’s good that there are two routes, so that passengers don’t have to sit through all four terminals. Plus, the way they run drop off/pick up only speeds things up even more. However…
Cons: These. Buses. Are. So. SLOWWWWWWWWWW. It’s like the drivers are contractually obligated to always go 5 MPH or less! I mean, you do not want to cut your flight close with these, because I can assure you, you won’t make it. It is absolutely crucial for airport shuttles to be quick, especially these ones that a lot of people use.
Nearby and Noteworthy: The airport. Yeah.
Final Verdict: 6/10
These are definitely important routes, there’s no doubt about that. But if you’re coming from the Blue Line or the Rental Car Center and you have a flight to catch, it’s crucial that the last-mile shuttle bus trip is fast…and it’s not. I don’t know why they go so slow, but they always do, and it drags them down and ruins their efficiency.
Latest MBTA News: Service Updates
PVTA: Northampton Academy of Music
Being a big hub for the PVTA, one would imagine that Northampton would have a relatively substantial terminal. No? How about a moderately substantial terminal? A single shelter, huh? Well…okay, that works too…
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| Huh. |
Yeah, it’s basically just a shelter, and a dingy one at that. I kinda hate waiting in there, what with the garbage everywhere and the pungent stench. Inside, there’s a map with route schedules and a screen that provides real-time information. Finally, there are some newspaper boxes outside the shelter.
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| A rather nice street clock with the plaza behind it. |
I’m not really sure if this counts as the “station” or not, but the shelter is located next to a plaza where a lot of people choose to wait for the bus. It has folding chairs and some rather nice foliage – it seems like it would be a nice place to wait. However, it seems to attract some…questionable people. Finally, behind the shelter, there are some bike racks, a wastebasket, and a recycling bin.
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| Voila! |
PVTA Station: Northampton Academy of Music
Ridership: Northampton is one of the PVTA’s principal hubs, so this place usually sees a good amount of people waiting for the bus. The routes serving Northampton aren’t that busy aside from the B43 and the B48, but the point is that people definitely use this stop.
Pros: It definitely provides some basic amenities – the bike racks are convenient and the real-time information is a nice touch. The plaza has the potential to be nice, but it’s usually…not.
Cons: This just isn’t a great place to wait for the bus. Everything feels dingy and dirty, and every time I visit it I think I like it less and less. This is a hard one to express in words, but it’s just…not a pleasant place to wait at.
Nearby and Noteworthy: Northampton is a lovely town. It’s like a combination of Cambridge and Portland, OR – it has the weirdness and attitudes of both cities, the northeastern charm of Cambridge, and the rebellious spirit of Portland. The downtown is really walkable, with lots of unique and interesting businesses. I love it!
Final Verdict: 4/10
When I first went to this place, I was alright with settling for a 5. However, I’ve done a lot of riding since then (believe me, I have so many PVTA reviews to do), and upon subsequent visits to this place, my rating has dropped to a 4. I think you have to actually go and wait there to understand what I mean when I say it’s not a pleasant place to wait, but…yeah, it’s not.
Latest MBTA News: Service Updates
WRTA: Westborough Shuttle (Westborough MBTA – Computer Drive (Commuter)/Westborough Local)
Ohhhhh, we’re in for a good one here…if “good” means “REALLY REALLY TERRIBLE.” I don’t even know where to begin with this one. Uhhh…okay, so it’s split into three “routes” that only run at certain times: a “commuter” route at rush hour, a “downtown commuter” route that barely runs at all, and a “local” route that runs midday from McDonalds to the Westborough Country Club (it sounds ridiculous just to say it). This is all done with one bus, keep in mind, so the timetable is just a complete mess. Luckily, there are two trips in the afternoon that do both a “local” and “commuter” in one trip, so we’ll be taking a look at one of those. Let’s check out the Westborough Shuttle.
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| First there’s a bit of a story… |
So Nathan and I were taking an Uber from Worcester to the Westborough Country Club, but we were running late, and unfortunately we just missed the bus. Clearly all hope was lost…until we realized we could walk to Westborough Station and beat the bus by about half an hour. Oh good, great, you know it’s a great route when you can walk from end to end and beat the bus by a significant amount of time…
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| The bus…from above. |
Of course there was no sign at the train station, but luckily the bus arrived early. As is common for these minibus shuttles, Nathan and I were the only ones on board. We left the station parking lot and took Smith Parkway to Otis Street, where there were a few huge office parks for a bit. The street led us to Route 9, which we merged onto.
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| Route 9. |
Route 9 was lined with those classic…Route 9 buildings. Basically, there were just a lot of businesses and shopping centers with parking lots everywhere, interspersed with random bouts of marshland and forest. After going through an interchange with Route 135, the road narrowed from six lanes to four and the businesses and parking lots got smaller.
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| A side street. |
The reprieve was short, though – after a mobile home park, the street widened again and all those huge businesses and parking lots were back in full force. The road did eventually get narrower once more, and after a brief section of woods, we exited off of it. Now it was time for quite possibly the most clustered bunch of deviations I’ve ever seen on any bus route…
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| It’s gonna be like this for a while. |
We headed down Research Drive, which closely paralleled Route 9. After going by the BJ’s Corporate Office, the street became West Park Drive and curved away from the highway. It took us into the woods, where a few office parks hid behind the trees. We went down this road to the end, then turned around and came back up.
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| Oh boy, how exciting! |
After going by that BJ’s again, we turned onto Friberg Parkway at an intersection with a very office park kind of pond next to it. This street took us past, surprise, more office parks. We curved around and then turned onto Connector Road, which was woods for the most part, aside from a few of those office park hotels you see in these kinds of areas.
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| A bit of a break! |
Connector Road took us over Route 9 and around onto Computer Drive, past a small shopping plaza. As we came down alongside the highway again, we passed more office parks, as well as that BJ’s again on the other side. Next, we turned onto Technology Drive, which looped around past – sigh – more office parks.
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| The Westborough water tower, I guess? |
We came back onto Computer Drive, running back along Route 9, and passing that stupid BJ’s one last time. We merged onto Route 9 and headed back the way we came just a bit before taking the first exit and pulling into the McDonalds parking lot. That’s right – the Westborough Shuttle deviates to serve McDonalds. This was also the start of the “local” route.
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| A road off of Route 9. |
We travelled down East Main Street, passing some housing developments and a post office, then it became mostly residential. It wasn’t long, though, before we made that most classic of minibus shuttle deviations: one to the Westborough Senior Center. There were a few houses and offices when we returned to East Main Street, then it became some really uninteresting businesses with parking lots.
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| What a great shopping plaza… |
After going under the Commuter Rail tracks, we turned into a modern outdoor mall sorta thing: Bay State Commons. It didn’t have any big-name businesses, though, aside from a Roche Bros. We then returned to East Main Street, which became West Main Street as we travelled around a rotary. This was downtown Westborough, and the street was lined with retail buildings.
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| A street in downtown Westborough. |
There were some relatively dense houses on the other side of downtown, as well as a municipal building and a library. Soon after that, we passed the Westborough High School, which all inbound trips deviate to serve at all times of the day. The driver said he had never ever picked anyone up at the school, even during school hours. After some more houses, we finally arrived at the Westborough Country Club, which the bus literally deviated to serve. Oh yeah, that’s the perfect place to end a bus.
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| The bus at the scenic country club. |
WRTA Route: Westborough Shuttle (Westborough MBTA – Computer Drive (Commuter)/Westborough Local)
Ridership: In early 2016, the route got a massive 26 people per day…meaning less than 1 person per trip. Oh, that’s some great ridership. The driver gave an even more telling report: no one uses this route except on the commuter trips. Very telling indeed…
Pros: Well, if you really want to find something good to say about this route, you could at least say it’s frequent – literally, this thing runs every half hour middays. Every. Half. Hour. For a route that connects McDonalds to the Westborough Country Club. I’ll just let that sink in.
Cons: Literally. Everything. Uhhh, let’s start with a simple one: the schedule makes absolutely no sense to look at. Give it a shot. See if you can make heads or tails of it. Also, the route really doesn’t serve anything that anyone would want to take the bus to. Other than that, literally every trip has problems:
- Morning Commuter Trips: I guess there’s nothing inherently wrong with these, but the way they’re written on the schedule is ridiculous. Why are all the trips shown as “outbound”? This is inconsistent from the evening commuter trips, which are actually written somewhat coherently.
- Midday Local Trips: Let me just repeat the route’s destinations: McDonalds to the Westborough Country Club. Every half hour. And all the inbound trips deviate to serve the high school. This is ridiculous.
- 2:05 and 3:15 Local/Commuter Trips: These trips are just stupid. Why does the route feel the need to serve the Commuter Rail station in the early afternoon? And why does it have to do the ridiculous office park loops even though no one is out of work; ergo, no one uses this bus to the office parks at this time.
- 4:20 Local Trip: So the bus has 15 minutes to kill at McDonalds before heading out on a Commuter trip. Does it A) take a layover like any normal bus route would, or B) do a completely pointless 15-minute round trip to Bay State Commons? Based on this schedule so far, I think you can guess which one it is.
- Evening Commuter Trips: These trips actually get people, heading to the Commuter Rail from the office parks, so it’s important that the bus times with the train. But no…the driver said he has to leave early so that he can get the commuters to the train on time, because the schedule doesn’t give the route enough time to get there. He said the commuters have missed the train before…with an early departure!
- Evening Downtown Commuter Trip: This one is just shown really stupidly on the schedule. The trip has three timepoints, but the schedule makes it look like it goes outbound to the second one, then inbound to the third! There’s an “MBTA Station” timepoint in the “Inbound” column…USE IT.
Yeah, I know it’s pretty deviatory, but this route actually serves busy malls that people would actually want to go to. Not to mention the trip takes about 28 minutes, so it would be an hourly service – a much more realistic frequency for a route like this. Also, get rid of that stupid combined local/commuter trip! What a waste of time!
Latest MBTA News: Service Updates
PVTA: 31 (Sunderland/South Amherst)
Finally! Our first PVTA review! As you may know, I’m doing a Summer Transportation Institute at UMass, so it makes sense that the first review out here would be of one of the system’s UMass routes. The 31 is actually one of the busiest routes on the PVTA (Pioneer Valley Transportation Authority), and even in the summer, it had a good amount of people. Let’s take a look!
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| The bus at Sugarloaf Estates. |
We started at Sugarloaf Estates, a housing development in Sunderland. From there, we made our way down Old Amherst Road, passing houses with farmland just behind them. There were a few small businesses as the street curved south, then we merged onto normal Amherst Road, passing a few more apartment complexes.
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| Coming onto Amherst Road. |
There were some businesses with parking lots continuing south, then we got some really beautiful scenery with farms, woods, and the occasional house. We eventually got to a point where there were a few industrial buildings, businesses, and houses, then it was farmland and woods again. It continued like that for quite a while until we finally turned onto Meadow Street, where there were some houses and yet another apartment complex.
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| A field. |
This street took us to North Amherst Center, which consisted of a few historical buildings and businesses. Here, we turned onto North Pleasant Street, taking us past lots of houses and more apartment complexes. There was one last farm and a few more houses, then we came into the UMass campus, and the scenery changed dramatically.
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| One of the housing developments. |
We went through a roundabout, then there were university buildings everywhere. Some were old, some were modern, and some were awful brutalist constructions. We made stops at the Graduate Research Center, Integrative Learning Center, and Fine Arts Center, the three main stops at UMass. Along the way, we got a nice view of the campus pond with the tall library in the background.
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| An earlier bus at UMass. |
The street curved to the left and we more or less left the UMass campus, but there were still a few straggling university buildings. Next, we turned onto East Pleasant Street, going around a park, with a few businesses on the other side. Soon there was retail on both sides of the street, and we came into lovely Amherst Center.
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| Amherst Town Common. |
South of the center, we went by Amherst Town Common and Amherst College, along with a few houses. We got an absolutely amazing view of rolling fields and hills for a brief moment, but after that it was mostly residential. Eventually, we turned onto East Hadley Road, which took us past more houses before we got to the route’s terminus: Boulders Apartments. The bus slowly looped around the complex in order to turn around and head up back to Sunderland.
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| Man, I love this view! |
PVTA Route: 31 (Sunderland/South Amherst)
Ridership: Like I said, this is one of the busiest routes on the PVTA – third, to be exact, with 5,114 riders per day! An even better figure is the passengers per trip, for which the 31 is number one, with a whopping 67 riders per trip. Since it was summer, ridership was a little lighter than that, but there were still about 30-40 passengers on my ride!
Pros: It may not seem like it based on a lot of the scenery I described (the route does pass through a lot of farmland), but this route serves a lot. Not only does it go by lots of apartment developments for off-campus students, who absolutely need this route, but it’s also one of the many buses plying the busy route from UMass to Amherst Center. Also, the schedule for the 31 is great – it’s every 15 minutes on weekdays, while on weekends and summer weekdays, it’s every 45 minutes.
Cons: This is a really minor thing, but I wish the route was better coordinated with the 30, the other key player on the UMass to Amherst Center route. On weekends, both routes run at different frequencies, so it’s harder to do, but on weekdays, they both run every 15 minutes with a 6 minute gap, then a 9 minute gap. It doesn’t seem like it would be that hard to coordinate them a little better…
Nearby and Noteworthy: I’ll have plenty of opportunities to talk about Amherst Center, but this is one of the main routes that serves it. Amherst Center is awesome – there are lots of interesting businesses and great restaurants everywhere, and for the most part, it’s very walkable.
Final Verdict: 9/10
The 31 is just great. It’s a well-used route, it’s frequent, it serves a lot, and it’s actually a really pretty ride at certain points! It may experience crowding during the school year, I imagine, but at least the all-door boarding can mitigate that to some degree (UMass routes are free). I still wish it could be better coordinated with the 30, though…it would be so easy to do!
Latest MBTA News: Service Updates
Westborough
Westborough, Westborough, Westborough…it’s a modern Commuter Rail station with a ridiculously high footbridge. That’s about its only notable feature…
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| Yup, that’s a huge footbridge. |
Westborough has a sizeable lot, with 448 spaces, but according to this page, the lot fills up pretty early on in the day. There are also some bike spaces – the T’s website claims 4, and unfortunately I don’t have any pictures to confirm, but there were definitely more than 4 bikes when I was here. Up by the station, there are some newspaper boxes and old honor boxes.
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| The station…from above. |
Most of the platform is low-level, and it’s what you would expect from any modern Commuter Rail station. There are shelters on each side, even though I can’t imagine many people going outbound from here, and other than that, it’s mostly just benches and signs. The big wall on the outbound side is interesting, to say the least.
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| The outbound mini-high platform. |
The station’s mini-highs are also standard. They’re sheltered, and they have benches, maps, schedules, wastebaskets, and signage. One annoying aspect of Westborough is the siren that’s supposed to go off whenever a train is coming in – when we were here, it went off all the time, regardless of whether there was a train or not.
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| Somewhere in the bowels of the footbridge. |
I honestly have no idea why Westborough’s footbridge is so high, but it is. It’s definitely a notable part of the station – long ramps curve around and around to get up to the top, passing through little mezzanines with benches in them. Luckily, there are also stairs. Of course, we can’t forget that the footbridge is showing its age, with a lot of rust. This place is only 15 years old!
UPDATE: Thanks to Skull for commenting – the bridge was built this tall to allow double-stack freight containers to pass through towards Beacon Park Yard, which is now closed.
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| A train coming in. |
Station: Westborough
Ridership: This is only the sixth-best station on the Worcester Line in terms of ridership, but it’s the Worcester Line, so Westborough still gets a bunch of people: 759 inbound riders each weekday. You can imagine that the 448-space lot may not be enough to hold them all…
Pros: Westborough has all those classic amenities of any modern Commuter Rail station. It’s accessible, there’s plenty of shelter, and the station has lots of seating. And the footbridge, for all its problems (which we’ll get to), is at least very unique.
Cons: Yeah, but everything else about the footbridge is pretty bad. Why is it so high? How is it rusting so much, so quickly? It seems like it would be an absolute pain to have to use it every day. Also, the parking doesn’t seem sufficient, and that’s including the fact that they expanded the lot in 2006. Additionally, the tracks pass right through Westborough Center, but no, of course there can’t be a station there. Finally, there’s that incessant siren that never seems to shut up.
Nearby and Noteworthy: There are some shopping centers north of the station, but they’re a mile away and it’s not a pedestrian-friendly walk. Oh, also, there’s this:
It seems to be part of some office park, but I have no idea what it could possibly be used for or what its significance could be. But it definitely stands out!
UPDATE: See Adam Gaffin’s comment for a truly brilliant explanation of the former company that occupied this office park. It was an insane place!
Final Verdict: 5/10
Westborough basically gives you everything you would expect from a modern Commuter Rail station, but slightly worse. The parking seems to be insufficient, the siren is just never-ending, and the footbridge, although it’s unique, is slowly falling apart and really high up. Sure, there are a lot of “fine” things about Westborough, but it has some substantial problems that drag it down.
Latest MBTA News: Service Updates
Greenfield (Amtrak)
Welp…I’m officially jealous of Greenfield. Their bus system, the FRTA, only gets about 155,000 riders annually, yet they get this absolutely amazing terminal! Some of the T’s antiquated hubs can get that much in a week! Oh well…as long as we’re out here, we’ll take a look at Greenfield Station and the John W. Olver Transportation Center.
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| The Amtrak platform. |
We’ll start with the Amtrak station, since it really isn’t much. Serving the Vermonter once a day, the stop is little more than a wooden mini-high platform with benches on it…and yet, I really like it! It has this amazing woodsy smell and a surprising amount of character, especially for such a new construction.
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| I’ve got a publicity shot for you, FRTA! |
My gosh…this building is just beautiful. The architecture is so modern, and yet it somehow captures the rural nature of Franklin County perfectly. Did I mention it’s net-zero? There’s a gigantic solar array set up to the south of the building to generate electricity.
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| The bus boarding area. |
The bus boarding area is great, with benches underneath the shelter of the building, along with wastebaskets. There’s also a bike shelter that had a surprising number of bikes in it, considering how middle-of-nowhere the FRTA usually is. This outdoor area even has a little picnic table alongside the tracks! Unfortunately, car parking is limited to only a few half-hour short-term spaces.
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| WOAH. |
And now we get to…the inside. Ohhhhhh my gosh, the inside. Where do I even begin? There are lots of benches, both waiting-room style and in table formations. Along the wall, there are some lovely paintings, as well as a bunch of charging stations, including chargers for every type of phone.
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| This is AMAZING. |
Further down the terminal, there are television screens showing live bus departures (they unfortunately weren’t working when we were here). Beyond there, you’ve got a ticket machine and a ticket booth, as well as schedules for every FRTA route, and every route that the FRTA connects to. I mean, come on, how many amenities can a place have?? It’s also worth noting that the paper for the FRTA schedules is WAY better than the paper for the PVTA or MART schedules. Take that!
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| Of course I always have to get this shot! |
Oh man, this place has some nice bathrooms. They’re modern, functional, and squeaky-clean! Heck, the doors to the bathrooms even have an accessible door-opening button! Outside the bathrooms, there’s also a set of water fountains.
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| The atrium. |
Moving towards the front of the building, we get to the atrium. This area has more benches, more artwork, and stairs and an elevator up to the second floor. The upper level has FRTA offices, the Franklin Regional Council of Governments, and, apparently, a meeting room!
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| The front of the building on Olive Street. |
Station: Greenfield (Amtrak)
Ridership: Assuming most FRTA ridership comes from this hub, I’d estimate that about 500 people use it every day for the bus, give or take. As for Amtrak, the station got 5,885 riders in 2016, meaning about 16 riders per day. Peter Pan and Greyhound buses also serve the hub, but I can’t make any assumptions about their ridership. Still, I think one thing is clear: very few people use this place.
Pros: Uhhhh…everything? I mean, my gosh, it’s all so perfect! The building’s exterior is gorgeous, the Amtrak station has a ton of old-timey character, the bus boarding area works great (aside from a rather tight loop for full-sized buses), and the inside is just unspeakably amazing. From the multiple types of seating to the incredible chargers to the impeccably clean bathrooms, I have not a single complaint about the customer experience here.
Cons: One thing: there’s no long-term parking! That’s a big problem for Amtrak passengers who are going long distances, probably for a few days.
Nearby and Noteworthy: I didn’t get the chance to explore downtown Greenfield, but I’ve heard good things about it, and Google Street View makes it look like a nice little town center.
Final Verdict: 9/10
Yes, the short-term parking is definitely a problem, but that’s not the true reason this place is getting a 9. No, it gets a 9 because it just doesn’t feel necessary. I mean, look at T stations like Sullivan with more bus routes than the entire FRTA system and more ridership in a week than the FRTA gets in a year, yet they’re decrepit, disgusting, and falling apart. Why does Greenfield get the big, beautiful, expensive hub that’s going to be used by so few people? Oh well…as a station, it’s near-perfect and I absolutely love it. I just wish it was in a place where it was more necessary.
UPDATE 2019: This station gets three Amtrak trains a day now, thanks to the new Valley Flyer Amtrak service up to Greenfield.
Latest MBTA News: Service Updates
WRTA: 11 (Union Station Hub – The Fair Plaza via Vernon Hill and Greenwood Street)
I’m not trying to stereotype, but…are all WRTA drivers really mean? I mean, Nathan and I tried to go to the end and back from Walmart on the 11 twice. The first time, the driver wouldn’t even let us on, so we ended up on the 1 instead; we were able to do it the second time (with a lot of sass), but we got a lot of flak for it. Here is the fruits of our labor…
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| The bus at the end of the route. |
At its terminus, although the route loops through The Fair Plaza to turn around, it doesn’t actually let passengers off in there – they have to board at street stops. I’ll, uh, save this for the “Cons” section. Anyway, we headed up Greenwood Street, which was mostly residential aside from a few offices here and there.
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| The stop where passengers have to get on; the mall is behind me. |
Next, we turned onto Spofford Road, which was entirely residential. This led us to Upland Gardens Road, taking us through Autumn Woods, an apartment development. We turned onto Upland Street after that, which went up a steep hill past trees and houses.
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| A residential side street. |
Upland Street eventually led us back to Greenwood Street, which was industrial for a little while. Soon, though, it became a dense, varied neighborhood. There were apartments, businesses, and other different kinds of buildings all along the road. After a school and some more retail, we turned onto the wide McKeon Road, then Tobias Boland Way.
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| Going over train tracks on McKeon Road. |
This took us to Walmart, where we picked up some passengers. Next, we turned onto a road in the middle of its parking lot, serving the second stop in the complex. After that, we made our way around the back of Walmart, back up to McKeon Road, over Route 146, and up Providence Street.
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| Looking down a hill. |
We went under some telephone wires and past a residential development, then it became mostly dense apartments, which continued as we turned onto Upsala Street. As we went over a hill, we also passed a school in between the residences, then we turned onto Vernon Street. This took us on a downward slope past dense houses and a few businesses.
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| Another hill! |
We passed the Vernon Medical Center and a church soon after, but it was still mostly dense apartments. After going over I-290, the road became Green Street, and it was suddenly almost all retail. We went under the Commuter Rail tracks, then made our final turn onto Foster Street, which took us to the WRTA Central Hub.
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| The bus that wouldn’t let us on, back at Walmart… |
WRTA Route: 11 (Union Station Hub – The Fair Plaza via Vernon Hill and Greenwood Street)
Ridership: This is one of four contenders in WRTA’s “1,000 Riders Club,” boasting the fourth-highest ridership on the system, with 1,108 per weekday. On my ride, there was strong ridership from shoppers, as well as local residents in some of the neighborhoods.
Pros: The 11 serves a lot of southern Worcester, including some very dense residential areas and some desirable shopping areas. It also does so with surprising frequency for WRTA standards, running every half hour on weekdays and every hour on weekends. It’s also great that the ridership turnover is so good, with people getting on and off along the whole route.
Cons: I’m not one to suggest a deviation, but directly serving The Fair Plaza would be way more convenient than the current street stop…not to mention the route goes in there to turn around! I mean, come on, really? Common sense! Put a stop in there! I’m also a little dubious about the every-hour schedule on Saturdays; I could see it getting pretty crowded with headways like that.
Nearby and Noteworthy: This route takes about the same amount of time to get to Walmart as the 4 (maybe a few minutes slower at most), but it’s a lot more frequent.
Final Verdict: 8/10
Despite the mean drivers giving me an initial bad impression of the 11, it ended up being a great route! It’s generally frequent, although it perhaps could stand to run more often on Saturdays, and it serves a lot of Worcester. Although come on, put a darn stop in The Fair Plaza already and stop inconveniencing people!
Latest MBTA News: Service Updates
FRTA: 23 (Sutherland/Greenfield)
I still have more WRTA routes to cover, but I figured I’d start interlining the PVTA stuff in between them to vary it up a bit. Except…what’s this? Yes, my first PVTA review isn’t even a PVTA review, but an FRTA review! This is a system I’ve been wanting to ride for ages, and it absolutely met my expectations.
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| Arghhh, not a minibus! |
FRTA has always struck me as a transit system that thinks it’s way better and more important than it is. They have these sprawling routes that never run, hardly get any passengers, and go into the middle of nowhere, yet they all have fixed stops, shelters at stops to serve literally a single store, and, on a few of the routes, full-sized buses. Not to mention the agency has a beautiful website, a gorgeous modern transit center (which we’ll get to in another post), and an upcoming smart card system. Geez, all this for, like, six middle-of-nowhere routes?
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| The inside of the bus. |
The point of the 23 is to connect to the PVTA’s 31 (which, again, we’ll get to in another post) and take UMass commuters to Greenfield. The route used to go all the way to Amherst proper, but now it’s cut back to Sugarloaf Estates, a housing development in Sunderland. Sam and I got on the minibus from the 31, and with a few passengers on board, we were off.
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| The entrance to the development. |
We headed up River Road, which quickly became South Main Street. It was lined with houses set far back from the road, as well as some businesses and farms. Pretty soon we arrived in Sunderland Center, which was basically just a bunch of mismatched businesses with parking lots. It wasn’t much of a town center…
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| Sunderland Center. |
Past the center, it was again a mix of houses and farms. After going by a particularly large specimen of the latter, we entered the woods, which really was just trees aside from a few houses hidden behind long driveways. Next, the street became Montague Road, and the houses started to appear a little more often…then it was pure woods again.
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| Wow, it’s pretty out here! |
It became farmland after that, with huge fields stretching out before fading back into woods. Soon, the houses came back, but they were still far apart and set far back from the road. As we entered Montague, the street became Sunderland Road, and there was lots of farmland for a while.
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| A tiny side road. |
The name of the road changed again, this time to Main Street, although the farmland and woods didn’t exactly suggest anything “main.” However, eventually the houses became denser, and we arrived at Montague Center. What did it consist of? Uhhh…basically just a single tiny market, a common, and a library. It wasn’t much.
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| Welcome to the Montague Village Store! I’m impressed by the shelter, though… |
We turned onto Center Street, taking us out of the center past more farms, then we turned onto Federal Street. The scenery was mostly the same, aside from a random auto shop in the middle of the woods. Later on, there was another anomaly: a store selling tractor equipment. Wow, we were really out there…
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| Turning onto Federal Street at a cool-looking intersection. |
The pattern of farms, houses, and woods continued on, with one particularly long stretch of forest featuring a railroad bridge over the road. We also entered Millers Falls along this section. After some more houses, we went over a different set of railroad tracks, then curved around past a restaurant and an industrial building.
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| Making a turn. |
As the houses suddenly became dense, we entered downtown Millers Falls by turning onto Main Street. This was a proper town center, although by “town center” I mean something like the lonely main street of some wild west town. Next, we turned onto Franklin Street, going through a rather nice dense residential neighborhood.
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| Some houses. |
We turned onto Newton Street at the end of Franklin, then we headed south down Bridge Street, looping around back to where we started. We turned back onto Main Street but continued on it this time, until it became Millers Falls Road. The houses thinned out and we once again entered the forest.
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| Goodbye, Millers Falls! |
We reentered Montague and went through a brief industrial area surrounding the Turners Falls Municipal Airport. Next,we entered a residential neighborhood, but pretty soon after we arrived, we turned onto Cross Street in order to deviate to serve the…Turners Falls High School. Come on, FRTA, it’s summer! Don’t pull a GATRA on me!
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| No no no no NO! We don’t need to serve this! |
We returned to Millers Falls Road, continuing through the first generic suburban residential area on the entire route. Eventually, the street curved northward and became Unity Street. It took us past Scotty’s Convenience Store, which is considered a major timepoint in the schedule, plus it gets its own FRTA shelter!
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| Making a turn. |
Union Street curved down a hill, then we turned onto the residential Park Street. It merged into 7th Street, then we turned onto L Street, going by more houses and even some apartments – it was pretty dense! Next, we turned onto 3rd Street, then A Street, the main drag of downtown Turners Falls, and it was really interesting. A lot of the businesses were…hipstery! I never thought I would see anything like it out here! It seemed like a really nice downtown.
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| Looking down Avenue A. |
There were more varied businesses as we continued down the street, as well as a park and a post office. After going by a little shopping plaza (another major timepoint), it became industrial, then we merged onto Montague City Road. It was residential again, but one side of the road was occupied by a huge golf course.
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| The golf course. |
The course was eventually replaced by woods, but houses still occupied the other side of the street. It stayed residential for a while until we passed a sizeable hospital, another major timepoint. After some more houses, we went onto a really shaky, rickety bridge over the Connecticut River, taking us into Greenfield. It was a great view, but it was really hard to get a picture because the bus was shaking up and down!
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| Man, I love the Connecticut River. |
The houses continued on the other side, although we also passed a recycling plant and some industrial buildings. The road briefly became Cheapside Street as it went under two separate railroad bridges and alongside the Deerfield River. Next, it turned into Deerfield Street, where we went by some industrial buildings, including the FRTA garage, where a New Flyer Midi appeared to be sitting!
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| The garage. |
Eventually it became residential again and we were paralleling the Green River. The occasional business mixed in with the houses, and then it got a bit industrial as some train tracks occupied the right side of the road. Finally, we went under them and curved around into the Olver Transportation Center, which we’ll be covering…next post! Or…two posts from now! Or something…
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| The bus in Greenfield. |
FRTA Route: 23 (Sutherland/Greenfield)
Ridership: I can only find ridership data from when the route went to Amherst, and at that point it got 11 riders per day from two trips – so about five per trip. Since they cut it back to Sunderland, the route gained two extra trips per day, and mine had five other people going out and three coming back. Honestly, for a rush hour-only minibus route that runs through the middle of nowhere…that’s not bad!
Pros: The 23 serves an important purpose in that it connects towns in Franklin County to UMass for students and workers. The transfer to the 31 is easy and free, and many of the route’s riders use it. FRTA is changing the route to take a completely different road to Montague, skipping out on Millers Falls, which makes sense – it will speed up the run and get riders to where they’re going faster. There are other routes that already serve Millers Falls.
Cons: Not much – sure, the ridership may be pretty low, and the route’s subsidies are high, but it’s still an important lifeline for UMass commuters.
Nearby and Noteworthy: I really liked Turners Falls, from what I saw of it! This definitely isn’t the easiest way of getting there, though; buses on other routes run there every hour throughout the day.
Final Verdict: 8/10
Wow, it’s actually a good route! Or, at the very least, an important one. I definitely can see why they only run this thing outside of rush hour, but when it does run, it gets well-used by people coming from and going to UMass. Plus, the ride is beautiful!
Latest MBTA News: Service Updates
WRTA: 1 (Union Station Hub – Mount Saint Ann via Providence Street)
The 1 used to be the shortest, stubbiest little route, and I always wondered how the heck it could possibly get ridership. Ever since the demise of the 22, though, the 1 has been rerouted to cover some of the lost service, as well as extended to Walmart for…some reason. Sure, why not?
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| The bus at the busy Central Hub. |
We headed down Grafton Street after going around a rotary. The street went under the Commuter Rail tracks and paralleled the elevated I-290. Soon, Grafton Street went under the highway and got pretty industrial, but a block later we made a sharp turn up the hilly Waverly Street.
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| A little parking lot. |
We soon turned onto Providence Street, going further up the hill and passing dense triple-decker apartments. As we approached Dorchester Street, we went by Worcester Academy and some retail, then we turned onto Dorchester. This took us even further up the hill…and then back down, very steeply.
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| Woah!!! |
Alongside Worcester East Middle School, with a park on the corner, we turned onto Grafton Street. There were a few businesses at a complicated intersection where we merged onto Massasoit Road, then turned onto Heywood Street. Now the residences were a little further apart, and there were more single-family houses in the mix.
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| A side street. |
We passed a few housing developments, then outside of the Worcester Senior Center, we turned onto Providence Street again. After going by a field for a bit, we turned onto Holcombe Street, which was a steep road going back up the hill. Next, we turned onto Granite Street, continuing to ascend alongside more triple-decker apartments.
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| Along Granite Street. |
Eventually, we arrived at the Holy Name High School, and it turned out that this was a deviation to serve it. Now the bus had to turn around, and it struggled to make it around the very sharp bus loop. We retraced our steps all the way back to Providence Street.
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| This is all the bus has to turn around?? |
We continued alongside that field from earlier, as well as more apartments – including some buildings. The road went by another school, then after some pylons, it grew a lot wider. We crossed Route 146, then turned onto one of its service roads, Tobias Boland Way. This took us to our final stop: Walmart.
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| The bus at Walmart. |
WRTA Route: 1 (Union Station Hub – Mount Saint Ann via Providence Street)
Ridership: Back in its short state, the 1’s ridership was pretty bad: 265 people per day. Admittedly, our trip only had about 7-10 people on board, so it hasn’t increased too much since then.
Pros: The 1 definitely serves a purpose, and many of the residential neighborhoods it covers are dense. The schedule is generally sensible, with service about every hour, seven days per week.
Cons: It’s not quite every hour – the times shift by five minutes every once in a while throughout the day. Also, the route is really indirect, and it’s definitely not the fastest way of getting to Walmart. Speaking of Walmart, why doesn’t the route do the same loop that the 4 and 11 do? It’s really unclear that it doesn’t serve the stop along the loop, as Nathan and I found out when a bus passed us by because we had no idea it wasn’t coming our way.
Nearby and Noteworthy: Still, there isn’t much of note along the rest of the route, so…I guess I’m gonna have to say Walmart here.
Final Verdict: 6/10
The 1 is a fine route, serving local residential areas once an hour. It does have a few problems that could be ironed out, like the weird five-minute shifts or the fact that it loops around at Walmart differently. Still, these are relatively easy fixes.
Latest MBTA News: Service Updates
WRTA: A (Northbridge Walmart – Shoppes at Blackstone Valley via Fisherville)
Alright, take the B. Give it a bunch of extra deviations. Make it have a significantly worse schedule and way fewer riders. That’s the A!
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| The bus at Walmart, with an actual sign! |
Leaving Walmart, we went down a hill out of the parking lot and turned onto Main Street. There were some houses for a bit, then the street became an isthmus on a pond, and it was beautiful! Next, we made a deviation via Border Street, D Street, and North Main Street in order to serve New Village, a housing development.
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| Within the New Village. |
Returning to Main Street, we went by a pond and a factory. Past that point, there were a few houses, a fire department, and another huge factory. However, whereas the B goes down Church Street, we stayed on Linwood Ave, which took us past a few churches, some more houses, and a middle school.
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| Some industrial building. |
Further down the road, there was a great view of a pond, as well as two more schools (a Christian school and a high school). Finally, we deviated to serve Linwood Mill Apartments, a rather small apartment building housed in a mill. And then…we turned around. Yup, that whole little adventure was just a long deviation.
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| Nice view! |
On the way back, we turned onto Cross Street, going by an elementary school and a church. Next, we went back onto Church Street, rejoining the B and passing mostly houses. Unfortunately, it wasn’t too long before we arrived at the A’s crazy cluster of deviations. It was insane.
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| A residential side street. |
So first we headed into the Northbridge Senior Center and looped around that, even though the Senior Center already has its own bus. Next, we returned to Church Street, continuing onto Church Street Extension. It took us down a hill, where we turned onto Commerce Ave and served the Tri-County Medical Center. Despite the fancy name, it was really just a little clinic.
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| Some scenery on the way down to the medical center. |
Returning the way we came, it was time for another deviation into Whitinsville Plaza. From there, we headed north on Providence Road, past lots of houses and two cemeteries. There was a short industrial area, then some woods and more residential areas.
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| One of the cemeteries. |
After going over the Blackstone Canal, we came into Rockdale, which played host to businesses, some triple-decker apartments, and a huge old factory. We paralleled the Canal beyond there, then the road curved inland and we went by some more houses and a few farms and businesses. There were a few more businesses in Fisherville, which is where we finally left the B by turning onto Main Street.
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| Planes…okay! |
There were some dense houses and businesses, then we crossed over the Blackstone Canal again and passed by a nice park. Beyond there, it was mostly residential, with the occasional business, church, or school breaking up the houses. There was a much higher concentration of retail at the intersection with Depot Street…but no one could get off there even if they wanted to, because we were now in Sutton, where the A’s “closed-door” section begins.
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| A housing development. |
With the street now called Providence Street, it got industrial, with sizeable factories and warehouses persisting until after we crossed over a train track. There was a bit more industry after that, but once we got to Milford Center, there was a healthy dose of retail. We bypassed the center itself, though (the 4 covers that, and we were still on our closed-door section), by means of the residential Canal Street.
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| Some monstrous telephone wires. |
We headed up North Main Street from Milford Center, (going by Miles Street!!) which was mostly residential with a few businesses here and there. Eventually, the road became very wide as we passed through an interchange with Route 146. On the other side, we went up onto a hill and drove through the gigantic sprawl of the Shoppes at Blackstone Valley. Finally, we arrived at the WRTA stop on the other side of the mall.
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| A minibus in Proterra territory! |
WRTA Route: A (Northbridge Walmart – Shoppes at Blackstone Valley via Fisherville)
Ridership: Ready for the astronomical number? Ten people per day. Hooooooooooo boy…the route has exactly ten one-way trips, so that means one person per trip. Last I checked, this is, um, awful ridership!
Pros: I guess it connects to the rest of the WRTA at Blackstone Valley…? Not that anyone’s making that transfer.
Cons: Like…everything. First of all, the schedule is such that the route is an absolute pain to ride: every hour and 40 minutes. Also, because of all those deviations, the A takes 40 minutes to get to Fisherville – the B goes to the same place in 20. Not to mention that essentially the entire unique section of the A is closed-door, aside from the Shoppes at Blackstone Valley.
Nearby and Noteworthy: Geez…I dunno, nothing more than some small town centers and the Shoppes at Blackstone Valley.
Final Verdict: 1/10
Nope, nope, nope. I see no reason why we should keep this around. It would be one thing if the route was serving a lot of unique areas, but it doesn’t – the whole thing is basically just a slower, more deviatory version of the B. So…why not just have the B?? It gets over double the ridership, and I’m sure the majority of the A’s riders could use the B almost just as easily.
Latest MBTA News: Service Updates