Poor ol’ Gardner is a really isolated city for transit, and there’s no easy way of getting from there to Boston…well, until Wachusett Station opened, that is! And sure, that station still uses the “drive and park” mindset that all modern Commuter Rail stations have, but the MART decided to give people an alternate way of getting there. The Gardner – Wachusett Commuter Shuttle times with trains and is a super quick trip…it’s just too bad that nobody uses it.

The bus at the “Gardner ITC.”

After a rather late departure from the ITC, we turned onto Main Street, going by mostly industrial buildings. Eventually we merged into what can only be described as a gigantic rotary with a Hannaford in the middle. Main Street curved northward at the rotary, but we soon turned off of it, onto Willow Street.

Hello, Hannaford!

Next, we turned onto the residential Connors Street, which took us up to the Gardner City Hall shelter. We picked up one passenger, then turned onto City Hall Ave for a block before coming back onto Main Street. The businesses of downtown Gardner stuck around for a bit, but things got a lot more parking lot-heavy as we continued south.

The view from City Hall.

We got to that Hannaford rotary again, this time going down Timpany Boulevard. We went under some train tracks, then reached another rotary, merging around to an exit ramp that took us onto Route 2. Time for the express section!

Some random businesses.

We were just sailing through the woods for a while with, uh, not much scenery to really talk about. At one point in Westminster, there were a few huge office parks in view, so that’s something? Things got more interesting once the Intercity/MWCC route joined us near a huge pond.

The best highway picture I could get, offering a “view” of Gardner.

There was a road that ran right alongside Route 2 for a bit, playing host to a housing development and some random businesses. Pretty soon after that, we left the highway at Exit 28, which took us to Princeton Road. After crossing Route 2 on a bridge, we made our way into the Wachusett Station parking lot, ending the route at a nice shelter.

Two shots of the bus at Wachusett.

MART Route: Gardner – Wachusett Commuter Shuttle

Ridership: Oh man, it’s so bad…one other person going in towards Wachusett, and no one waiting to go back – and going back was the peak direction! I mean, okay, the trip going back was timed with the 3:30 train from North Station, so maybe the route gets more people later in the evening rush? It’s so new that there isn’t actual ridership data yet.

Pros: I love this route so much. This is just the perfect way of getting from Boston to Gardner – it’s actually somewhat comparable to driving, taking only a few minutes longer when rush hour traffic is accounted for. Every trip on this route times perfectly with a train, and it nabs a decent amount of them, even getting a few midday trains! The route itself is also really fast, getting passengers from downtown Gardner to Wachusett in 15 minutes!

Cons: Why, oh why does nobody use it? Maybe my trip was a fluke? Maybe more people use it later in the rush? Please tell me people use this! I love it so much!

Nearby and Noteworthy: If you want to get to Gardner, this is your bus. Why would you want to go to Gardner? I dunno…

Final Verdict: 4/10 (but the route itself is a 9)
Please leave a comment if my trip was a fluke and this thing actually gets decent ridership! I really really like this route, and it’s absolutely perfect for Gardner commuters. If it does indeed get no one, then I think there’s a good solution to get people: put the route on the Fitchburg Line timetable. I’m not sure if the T would want to do this or not, but I’m sure if they showed that there’s a bus directly to Gardner, and they showed when it leaves, ridership would increase both for this route and for Wachusett Station! Just sayin’…

Latest MBTA News: Service Updates

A route from Fitchburg to Gardner sounds really useful! After all, Gardner is pretty skimpy in the transit department, so something connecting it to a bigger city is a good idea, and one that seems like it would result in good ridership. Is the awkwardly-titled Intercity/MWCC route up to the task? No, no it isn’t.

Oh no, what is this??

Oh great, it’s one of these schedules. Why are there so many route variations? There’s something wrong when no two trips take the exact same routing. Just so that there’s no confusion about where the heck we went, Nathan and I took the 2:21 trip, the first outbound of the afternoon. It skips out on the Leominster deviations that the morning runs take, but it still serves Westminster and runs to downtown Gardner (the next trip appears to terminate at Mount Wachusett Community College, for some reason).

Why, hello there!

I gotta say, with a schedule like that, we were fully convinced that the route would be running a minibus. However, buried in the far corner of the Fitchburg Intermodal Center was the full-sized bus that would be taking us on our trip! It was a surprise to see, but definitely a good surprise – who the heck wants to ride a minibus, ever?

The inside.

I think it’s worth talking about the inside, since it was a pretty unique bus. The seats were nice and cushioned, and there were cords running along the windows to request a stop – all pretty standard. But interestingly, there was no rear door! It was almost like a coach bus in that sense!

Crossing the Commuter Rail.

We set out from the Intermodal Center and headed down Main Street for a bit, then turned onto Water Street. This took us over the Commuter Rail tracks and away from downtown Fitchburg, past a few businesses and over the Nashua River. After that, we went up a hill and went by a mixture of dense residential, retail, and industrial buildings.

Eww…

There wasn’t much of note along here for a while, especially since I’ve already talked about it twice. It stayed with that building mixture for a while, even as we entered Leominster and the street became North Main Street. As we neared Route 2, though, the businesses started to become more abundant, and the parking lots were growing.

At least this one has some snowy hills in the background!

Things got a little weird when we randomly pulled into the lot for a Days Inn and stayed there for a few minutes. I guess the bus was just early, as we were soon back on the road after a layover. However, we left that road very soon, taking an exit ramp onto Route 2. That’s right, we were going express!

That’s a view, I guess.

The highway made its way up a hill and into the woods. Route 2 does kind of skew the definition of a highway sometimes, though – for example, there was just a level intersection with a tiny side street with no traffic light or anything! We got a view of the huge Twin City Plaza (“huge” mostly because of its parking lot), and then it was back into the hilly middle of nowhere.

Oh boy, another mall!

It was starting to get foggy, too. The view out the bus window was mostly a bunch of ghostly trees, while up front the visibility was low – I’m impressed by our driver for managing to navigate this full-sized bus at high speeds down a foggy highway. At one point, the road ran alongside a lake, and the view was just gorgeous.

Wow…

It felt like we had been going for a while, but as we passed Exit 28, we realized that we had only made it as far as Wachusett Station. It had felt so middle-of-nowhere, too! In the industrial area west of Wachusett, we got a view of maybe one building, then later on we saw a few businesses alongside a road paralleling the highway.

A house in the woods.

Alongside another beautiful pond, we left the highway, taking Exit 25 and making our way onto Main Street. We were in Westminster now, and the street was lined with houses for a little while. However, that all changed once we entered downtown Westminster. There were skyscrapers everywhere! People scrambling all over the place! Truly, this was the center of civilization!

Oh…

No, actually the houses just got a bit denser and we saw a few businesses. The biggest sign of “civilization” was a small shopping plaza called Village Square. How exciting! We continued down Main Street, now residential, and passed the Westminster Senior Center, then another interchange with Route 2.

Wow, that is a misty marsh…

Beyond that interchange, the road got really wide, and we were back in the ol’ woods again. There wasn’t much of note along here – we were just speeding along, entering Gardner in the process. After a while, we all of a sudden turned onto Matthews Street, a narrower road that twisted by a few houses.

These woods are scary!

Next, we made our way onto an entry road for Mount Wachusett Community College. We came into the parking lot, but we had to snake around because of these huge patches of snow everywhere. “This school makes so much money,” the driver ranted. “Why can’t they afford to clean up their snow?” There was a shelter way in the back of the lot, but we couldn’t get to it, so we had to come around to a gazebo instead.

Oh dear…sorry, shelter!

We headed out to Green Street from there, just outside of a golf course. We passed some wind turbines, then a hospital. After that, the street was lined with dense-ish houses, then we reached an oddly-shaped rotary and merged onto Central Street.

A shot of downtown Gardner from after we had left the bus.

There were more houses for a bit, but then we passed a park and entered downtown Gardner. It was surprisingly built-up, with multi-story buildings lining the street, housing businesses on their ground floors and (presumably) apartments up top. We merged onto Pleasant Street, taking us up to City Hall, which is where Nathan and I got off in order to catch another bus. The route does continue a little further to the “MART ITC Gardner,” but we’ll be discussing that in another post.

The bus at City Hall.

MART Route: Intercity/MWCC

Ridership: The ridership on this route is pretty lame – in 2014, it got an average of 77 riders per weekday, which is quite skimpy. My ride was really bad, with only one person going outbound and three people waiting to do the inbound trip.

Pros: This is a useful route in two ways: for one thing, it connects Fitchburg to Gardner, as I said; for another, though, it also connects Mount Wachusett Community College and Fitchburg. I don’t know anything about its students and where they live, but I’ll bet a good amount of people commute there from Fitchburg! That could also explain why this route only runs from Labor Day to Memorial Day. Finally, the ride was very scenic – maybe it was just the fog, but there was some absolutely beautiful scenery along here!

Cons: Oh, but don’t think this is a good route. Nooooo, it certainly isn’t. First of all, we just have to talk about that schedule again. I definitely understand why it’s rush hour only, given the commuting nature of the route, but I just don’t see why it has to be so darn complicated! For example, why does it deviate to Monument Square in Leominster in the morning only, and exclusively on outbound trips? Does that deviation really get the riders to justify it? Also, it seems like they could really cut Westminster service all together and run express straight through like some trips do already – at least on my ride, not a soul got on or off there.

Nearby and Noteworthy: Yeah, so like I said, downtown Westminster is just the most bustling place in the world! I’d put in on a Midtown Manhattan level – it’s just crazy. No, actually, this route doesn’t really serve anywhere interesting…downtown Gardner is okay, but it’s kind of run-down.

Final Verdict: 4/10
Man, I really can’t stand that schedule. That’s honestly the biggest problem with this bus, but it’s just such a huge issue! This is a route that means well, but is executed terribly. If the schedule was simplified and the headways were made more even, if possible, you might be able to attract more riders to this thing.

Latest MBTA News: Service Updates

This is a route designed to waste everybody’s time. No matter where you want to go on the 5, there is almost no doubt that you will have to suffer a ride far longer than it should be. How could a route be so inefficient? Read on, dear reader!

The bus, as seen from behind a glass window.

We headed down Main Street from the Fitchburg Intermodal Center, entering downtown Fitchburg. There were pretty nondescript buildings on both sides, and most held businesses. We passed a few parks and a library, then the road curved north with the pleasant Upper Common as a median.

Interesting view!

Soon we turned onto River Street, crossing the Nashua River. The area was industrial, with a bunch of old factories, but there were a few houses that surprisingly made it into the mix. We went by a repurposed factory housing apartments, then crossed over the Nashua River again. After going under the Commuter Rail tracks, we reached a rotary, where we merged onto Daniels Street.

Going around the rotary.

This road went over the Nashua River again, then it curved up a hill, lined with businesses and dense apartments. We passed a church, then turned onto the residential Daniels Street. Next, we turned onto Oak Hill Road, which we “stayed on” for a while, although the street itself made a few turns at intersections.

Some houses in the neighborhood.

At an intersection with a little pizza parlor, we turned onto Franklin Road, returning to the residential nature from before (aside from one other variety store). As the street became Electric Avenue, though, we were suddenly surrounded by suburban businesses and huge parking lots. The principal one was Parkhill Plaza, into whose parking lot we deviated.

A shelter outside the plaza…but it’s on the wrong side of the street!

Okay, now, are you ready for this next bit? All of that…ever since that rotary from River Street…all of that was a deviation! That’s right, now we had to go alllllllllll the way back to that rotary in order to continue the route. Oh boy, that’s just great, isn’t it? I’ll spare you all the pain of having to recount every street we had driven down, so let’s return to that rotary.

Crossing the Nashua River.

From there, we headed back onto River Street, which was rather woodsy as it paralleled the Commuter Rail tracks. We eventually went under the tracks, coming out in a fairly industrial area. Next, we merged onto Westminster Street, which went by all manners of buildings – houses, businesses, industrial buildings, and even a park.

An industrial view.

There was another woodsy section for a little bit, then we passed a huge industrial building right across the street from some houses. Soon after that, we made a little loop around a small park, arriving at our terminus, Waites Corner, right outside of a variety store. We didn’t stay here for long, though, immediately coming back the way we came.

The park at Waites Corner.

Is that it for deviations? Nope! Although we skipped the really long one from before, we did have to make one more near Fitchburg. Just outside of the Intermodal Center, we instead turned onto Water Street, going over the Commuter Rail tracks. Right over the bridge, we turned into the parking lot for Central Plaza, some awful-looking shopping mall. This is where Nathan and I got off, deciding to walk back to the hub, since they’re so close.

The bus at Central Plaza.

MART Route: 5 (Intermodal Center – Parkhill Plaza – Central Plaza)

Ridership: This is kinda tough to judge, since the ridership data in MART’s Regional Transit Plan is from 2014, when the 5 was interlined with the 6. The ridership given is for both routes combined: 154 average riders on weekdays, and 58 on Saturdays. Sad as it may sound, this was apparently MART’s fourth-busiest route. Now that the 5 is its own separate bus, I can’t tell you how much ridership it gets in total, but my round trip got about 10 people.
UPDATE 4/7: I found more recent MART ridership data that shows the 5 all on its own. The route averaged about 187 riders per day in late 2016, which is pretty good, especially given its ridership two years before!

Pros: The route’s long deviation does serve a very dense neighborhood, one that definitely needs a bus running through it. It also seems to get a decent amount of riders, at least based on my ride – the numbers don’t agree, but perhaps ridership has gone up since 2014.

Cons: Oh boy, there are lots of these. Let’s start out with the elephant in the room: why is the long deviation, which is where literally every person on my ride went, only served in one direction? There were a bunch of people who got on there to get to downtown Fitchburg, but they had to ride all the way out to Waites Corner and then come back in! Check this out:

When going from Parkhill Plaza to the Intermodal Center, it takes only five more minutes to walk than to take the bus! You could even walk to the 3 and take that in – only three minutes slower! If this isn’t horrible route planning, I don’t know what is. And the worst part is that no one got on or off at Waites Corner. Well, gosh, why even serve it, then??

The problem is that there have to be sacrifices made to fix this problem. The route takes 48 minutes for a round trip (yet they run it every 50 minutes, which is stupid – just make it every hour, it’s a lot easier to remember), meaning there’s not enough time to serve the deviation on the way back. This makes me think that the only solution would be to eliminate all Waites Corner service, except for the twice-daily Montachusett Industrial Park trips, and just run the route to Parkhill Plaza. That’s where all the ridership was, after all…

Nearby and Noteworthy: Yeah, no, not really. Parkhill Plaza seems like kind of a dump, as does Central Plaza. That one pizza place the route passes has good reviews…

Final Verdict: 4/10
It’s not like this route doesn’t get riders, because it definitely does. The problem is that they’re practically all coming from that deviation! Having to go all the way out to Waites Corner just to get to Fitchburg seems like the biggest pain. Unfortunately, it seems like the only solution would be to just cut most Waites Corner service. The route would be shorter as a result, but maybe it could be interlined with certain trips on the 4 to keep it from needing too much layover time.

Latest MBTA News: Service Updates
This is really late notice, but there’s a mock-up version of a new Orange Line car displayed at City Hall! Tomorrow is the last day to see it, and yes, I am most definitely seeing it tomorrow. Expect a post with pictures! I’ve tried not to look at any, so it’s going to be a surprise!