BAT: Brockton Route 2 (South Plaza/Campello via Main Street)
Wouldn’t it be nice if every transit authority had a photo policy like the MBTA’s? Or even better, if there was a single policy that applied to all authorities? It would certainly prevent annoying instances like what happened to me on the 2 from occurring. This time, the driver’s argument was that I could get arrested for taking a picture of a bus driver. I’m not sure if that’s true (leave a comment if you know), but I was taking a picture of the bus, not the driver! Sigh…whatever.
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| The bus at the BAT Center. |
Pulling out of the BAT Center, we made our way to Centre Street, which went under the Commuter Rail tracks. Once on the other side, we turned onto Montello Street, passing parking lots and vacant brick buildings. Soon after, we headed left onto Crescent Street, then Maple Ave, going through a backlot.
By the time we made it onto Main Street, we had bypassed downtown Brockton – the inbound route takes care of that section of town. However, the inbound and outbound routes were together now as Main Street became more industrial. Side streets were lined with houses, but we were mostly going by either auto shops or small businesses.
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| One of those residential side streets. |
The industrial-ness was broken at one point, with an intersection at South Street. Here, there were a few business blocks and even a post office. We passed a park after that, with a connection to the 8 and Campello Station. However, once past there, the auto shops came back and it felt gritty again. Eventually, we turned off the road to directly serve an apartment building, then returned to Main Street, passing the BAT’s main yard.
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| The yard! |
The auto shops multiplied exponentially after that, and it seemed like at least 60% of the businesses were car-related. In addition, the parking lots increased in size as we continued south, culminating with an almost empty mall – Kmart Plaza. As the bus layed over in the parking lot, I asked the driver if I could take it back up to Campello Station. “You have to pay again to do that,” she said. I wasn’t in the mood to argue, so I tapped my card again, even though it did seem a little unfair…
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| The bus after I got off near Campello. |
BAT Route: Brockton Route 2 (South Plaza/Campello via Main Street)
Ridership: My Saturday ride had about 25 passengers, all of whom got on at the BAT Center. As expected, they slowly trickled off as we headed further away from downtown. The 2’s ridership is about average for the BAT, with 954 riders per weekday, 590 per Saturday, and 199 per Sunday.
Pros: Aside from the meandering in downtown Brockton, the 2 is a straight shot right down Main Street. It goes through a lot of dense neighborhoods, which gives it decent ridership. In addition, the route’s terminus at Kmart Plaza offers a connection to BAT’s thrice-daily route to Bridgewater State University. The 2 gets the schedule that most BAT routes have, running every 20-25 minutes rush hour, every 50 minutes during the day, every 45 minutes at night and on Saturdays, and every 40 minutes on Sundays.
Cons: Even though the schedule can be infrequent, it’s one bus shuttling back and forth outside of rush hour, which seems most economical. Also, the deviation to serve the apartment building seems a bit unnecessary – it’s quite a short walk to the street. Nonetheless, the detour doesn’t add much time to the route, and it seems like people use it, so it’s not that bad.
Nearby and Noteworthy: There might be some gems amidst the constant auto shops, but a lot of this route feels industrial. Um…there’s a Kmart at the end?
Final Verdict: 8/10
Since the BAT has such uniform schedules, I wonder if most of its routes will get similar ratings from me. I can say that as a route, the 2 is straightforward and serves a lot, which makes it a good one in my book. Considering that the apartment deviation is both short and well-used, the subtracted two points are mainly just for the general infrequency of the BAT’s schedule, which can’t be helped.
Latest MBTA News: Service Updates
Brockton
I think downtown Brockton is pretty widely considered to be…well, let’s say a “sketchy neighborhood”. And train stations are usually where the sketchiest parts of sketchy neighborhoods happen to be. I have to wonder, then, if it’s a coincidence that Brockton Station happens to be right next to a police station. Hmm…
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| Some parking along the side of the police station. |
There are two places at Brockton to park, the first one being a strange lot next to the police station. The thing is, I’m not really sure where the station parking ends and where police parking begins, since a lot of it is reserved for police vehicles. Plus, it goes up a slope, so many of the spaces are at an angle, which must make it interesting to park there.
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| This was taken from a moving bus, which explains its awfulness. |
Luckily, there’s a more traditional parking option available in the form of a BAT parking garage. I’m not sure how much of it is considered station parking (if any), but the MBTA website says the station has 266 spaces, and there are not that many in the weird slope lot. Thus, I assume the strange little two-story garage contains the rest of the station parking, and parking for the BAT, as well.
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| A little plaza. |
Next to the police station and outside of the station’s entrance, there’s a small plaza with a few amenities. For example, it has some weirdly-placed bike spaces. I mean…unless it’s normal to park your bike right on the dirt. Also, there are benches, a payphone, and a map of Brockton and the BAT system. This plaza acts as the “gateway” to the Commuter Rail station, with one staircase leading directly to it while another (a block away) requires walking through the police station parking lot. One final exit is via the ramped parking, and that leads to the BAT Center (more on that later).
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| The proper entrance to the station. |
The way you get onto the platform here is reminiscent of Braintree, another Old Colony station. Like that station, Brockton has a center platform that requires crossing one of the tracks to get to. At least there are plenty of lights and signs to inform passengers of the crossing. Once in the middle of the tracks, there is a staircase and a ramp up to the full high-level platform.
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| Up on the platform. |
Although the platform is elevated, there isn’t much of a view. Thus, we’re left with a standard Old Colony station, with benches and wastebaskets under a fairly stark shelter. There are vintage Commuter Rail maps, though, presumably from when the station opened (1997).
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| Mmm…interesting. |
Of course, most of the platform is open. And…yeah, it’s basically more benches and wastebaskets for the whole length of the insanely long station, which is typical for the Old Colony Lines. However, Brockton stands out from the crowd by having insanely robotic announcements that don’t say anything important! Woo!
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| The BAT Center, complete with solar panels! |
Of course, no discussion of Brockton would be complete without talking about the BAT Center, right across the street from the Commuter Rail. Even though they’re technically separated, I’m considering them to be part of the same facility, since they…basically are. Although to be honest, the BAT Center should really be renamed to the BATCave. And for what it’s worth, all of the BAT’s buses should be called BATMobiles. Okay, okay, I’ll stop now…
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| The inside of the BATCave…I mean, Center. |
The inside of the BAT Center is awesome. Just in terms of aesthetics, a lot of it is made of wood, and so it has a great, rustic feel to it all. Of course, its facilities are quite modern, including a countdown screen! Admittedly, it’s pretty unnecessary since most BAT buses leave the hub at the same time, but it’s still nice to have.
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| The businesses in the building. |
The BAT Center also features two cafés, as well as a convenience store! And there are tables and wastebaskets everywhere so people can eat while they’re waiting for the bus! Plus, the Center has a ticket booth, ticket machines, and bathrooms (though their doors remain locked unless you get a key at the ticket booth, which does make sense, considering the neighborhood).
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| The outdoor area. |
Outside, each bus route gets its own specific bay, and for the most part, they all leave the BAT Center at the same time to make transfers easier (it’s a pulse system). The outdoor area also has shelters with more seating, as well as wastebaskets and even more countdown clocks for individual routes! Not to mention, there are speakers for announcements about when the next “pulse” is! I love this place so much…
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| Oh, right, there’s also a Commuter Rail station. Um…that’s fine, too. |
Station: Brockton
Ridership: Unsurprisingly, this is the busiest of the three Brockton Commuter Rail stations, and the third-busiest on the whole Old Colony system, with 778 inbound riders per weekday. And to be honest, it seems to get some degree of outbound ridership, since a few people got off a train coming from Middleborough on a Saturday! As for the BAT…well, this is the main hub of a very busy bus system, so I think you can imagine how much ridership it gets.
Pros: Okay, so the BAT Center, right? Yeah, so it’s got all these cool amenities, like cafés, bathrooms, and countdown clocks! It has a whole bunch of seating, it’s all indoors, and it’s so awesome! Oh yeah, and then there’s also the Commuter Rail station. It’s high-level, which is…standard for the Old Colony. Um…it has that robotic voice, too…
Cons: Okay, all jokes aside, there really isn’t much wrong with the Commuter Rail station, either. It’s what you’d expect from an Old Colony station and nothing more. I guess specific signage to the BAT Center could be nice, but other than that, there are no glaring flaws here.
Nearby and Noteworthy: I mean, there’s certainly a lot nearby (this is downtown Brockton, after all), but it’s only noteworthy in that I wouldn’t recommend spending much time here…
Final Verdict: 9/10
Yeah, I have a weakness for big Commuter Rail hub stations with lots of amenities. It has to be said, though, that most of those amenities are within the BAT Center rather than at the station itself. Indeed, if the BAT Center wasn’t included in this review, the station would probably get a 7 at most (considering it’s average but not bad). However, the awesomeness of the BAT’s hub raises it up that extra two points. What a great place to run buses from! And…the Commuter Rail station is a fine place to run trains, I guess.
Latest MBTA News: Service Updates
BAT: Stoughton Route 14 (Stoughton via Brockton)
As I stood doing nothing in a little room at the Cobbs Corner Mall meant for dropping off bottles and cans, I got quite a few strange looks from passerby outside. Look, I didn’t realize the bus would be this late, okay? About 15 minutes after it was scheduled to arrive, the 14 finally showed up, and as the driver left for another 5 minutes, I stepped into the warmth of the bus.
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| The bus at the mall. |
The inside of the bus was strikingly similar to most other non-MBTA systems around Boston. To be honest, by this point, all of these vehicles’ interiors look the same to me. This particular bus was interesting in that it did have an automatic announcement system, but only once we got to the Westgate Mall, way later along the route.
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| Looking toward the back… |
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| …and the front. |
Once the driver returned, we swerved around through the parking lot until finally exiting onto Washington Street heading south. We then turned onto Sharon Street, which quickly became Central Street once we exited Canton into Stoughton. The neighborhood was mostly residential in the form of both regular houses and a few developments. We also passed the occasional business along the way.
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| The Stoughton Water Works! |
Eventually we reached an industrial section, with a few office parks along the street. However, we also went by a school, a fire station, and the Stoughton Water Works, which was an interesting thing to see. We crossed over a single Commuter Rail track, and then it was residential once more for a bit.
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| The one track. |
As we turned onto Washington Street, the surroundings all of a sudden became fast food restaurants, auto shops, and the like with big parking lots out front – my favorite kind of neighborhood! That said, this is where we finally started getting some riders, so clearly some people like the area more than me. The parking lots did become smaller once we merged onto Park Street and headed through Stoughton Square, coming a block away from Stoughton’s Commuter Rail station (another one which I have yet to visit).
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| The main bus stop in Stoughton Square. |
Leaving the center, the street became residential with increasingly dense houses (and a few businesses scattered around, too). After Park Street made a slight curve to the right, there was a short section of forest, and the houses felt further apart once they came back. We passed through another round of office parks, and then the businesses with big parking lots came back…again.
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| A water tower looms behind the basketball court. |
The road became North Pearl Street, and it did get residential again for a bit. We went by a cemetery, then turned onto Pleasant Street, which crossed over Route 24. Eventually we reached the wide Reynolds Memorial Highway and then turned onto Westgate Drive. The parking lots were back, culminating in a gigantic one for the Westgate Mall. Most 14 trips actually terminate here, but ours was one of the four per day that continue to downtown Brockton, so we headed back down the way we came after stopping at the mall.
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| Woo, parking lots, yay… |
Heading back down to Reynolds Memorial Highway, we rejoined Pleasant Street, now heading eastward towards downtown. The street was a mixture of houses and businesses, and though there was definitely more of the former, the latter was well-represented. The houses got denser as we got closer to the city, and soon everything was replaced by retail. We eventually went under the Commuter Rail tracks and then pulled into the BAT Center, the hub of the system.
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| The bus, now out of service at the BAT Center. |
BAT Route: Stoughton Route 14 (Stoughton via Brockton)
Ridership: The ridership on my ride was local, with everyone seeming to know each other. Overall, it got about 15 riders in total, which seems alright for a Saturday. In 2014, the route got 208 riders per weekday and 160 per Saturday, and it’s one of the lower-ridership routes for the BAT.
Pros: This is Stoughton’s only bus route, and not only does it serve a decent portion of that town, but it also provides a link to Cobbs Corner. Unfortunately…that’s about all the good things I have to say about the 14.
Cons: Yeah, okay, so first of all, the schedule is pretty bad. I’m not saying the route gets a ton of ridership, but every 80 minutes seems a bit ridiculous. Still, I guess the route averages a relatively small amount of people per trip, so the infrequency makes sense. But I’ll bet it would average more people per trip if all of them were extended to the BAT Center! Why terminate at Westgate? That just makes the route so isolated.
Nearby and Noteworthy: There weren’t any attractions that caught my fancy along this route. Stoughton Center didn’t seem like a very interesting place, although if you’re into malls, the 14 has plenty of those.
Final Verdict: 5/10
To be clear, this score is not based on the frequency of the route. The frequency, based on the current ridership, makes sense. Rather, the low score is because of the simple fact that only four trips per day serve the BAT Center. I’m sure this route would get much more ridership if it always went downtown since it wouldn’t just be an isolated stub from Westgate to Stoughton. It might be harder to schedule, but it would be worth it, and I think this route is basically unfinished until that happens.
UPDATE 7/1/19: 7/10
The route has gotten a major upgrade, now running every 40-45 minutes, with every trip servicing the BAT Center. Huge improvement!
Latest MBTA News: Service Updates
716 (Contracted Bus: Cobbs Corner – Mattapan Station via Canton Center)
Typically, one expects MBTA buses to have a certain…level of courtesy. For example, you assume the drivers will have a certain level of safety protocol. You also assume that schedules will be reasonably sensible. And you expect the bus radio to be firmly set in the “off” position. Well…this isn’t the MBTA. Although subsidized by the authority, the long 716 route is run by Joseph’s Transportation, and it’s…different.
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| Case in point… |
The little minibus didn’t have any MBTA signage at all. In fact, it was basically just an advertisement for Joseph’s Transportation! The whole bus was extolling the virtues of using the company for private events or whatever. Yeah, thanks, Joseph’s, I’ll be sure to keep you in mind when I need a ride to my “Bachelor/ette Party”.
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| Gosh, they make it seem like Joseph’s is the best company ever… |
On the inside, it was a pretty typical minibus. The seats had seat belts, and for the sake of safety, I buckled mine up. There was a wheelchair lift in the back, and up front the way they collected fares was with a little plastic cup that you put your money in. Not very high tech, is it?
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| The back of the bus with the wheelchair lift. |
Now, I’d just like to take a few moments to talk about the lovely driver of this route. First of all, there was the bad rap music he was playing over the radio. But okay, I could get over that, since it wasn’t too loud and a lot of these minibus routes have drivers that play music, anyway. However, there was also the fact that our driver was loudly talking on the phone the whole time. Boy, I sure love putting my trust into a bus driver who’s not even paying attention to the road!
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| What’s that I see up front? Why, I do believe it’s our driver on the phone. That’s right, I have photographic evidence! |
Anyway, it’s finally time to talk about the route itself. We looped around to River Street, but bypassed Mattapan Square by turning south onto Blue Hills Parkway. After a bit of woods, we merged onto Blue Hill Ave, which was lined with fairly dense houses. As we got further south, the houses got further apart.
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| A side street. |
Eventually, it got to the point where there would be little patches of forest in between each house. At one point, we went by Curry College, and though it’s advertised as an important stop on the schedule, no one got on or off. Well, to be honest, no one got on or off, anyway. We were basically just speeding down Blue Hill Ave without a care in the world.
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| The sign was on the other side of the bus, so that’s why it’s a bit weirdly zoomed in. |
After that, we were running alongside the Blue Hills Reservation, so there were sometimes stretches of just trees beside the road. We passed the parking lot for the Mass Audubon Trailside Museum at the reservation, then a ski area with fake snow. It was just forest after that, and in the process, the street became Washington Street and we entered Canton.
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| I’m impressed that they created so much snow. It was rather cold that day, admittedly. |
Then all of a sudden, it got pitty. The road grew much wider, and there were gas stations, fast food restaurants, and parking lots everywhere. We then crossed over I-93 at a big cloverleaf interchange, and luckily, things were back to normal on the other side with a narrower road and more houses. I would like to point out that we were supposed to make a deviation onto Royall Street before crossing the highway, but for some reason, we didn’t.
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| A big field…thing. |
We went by a golf course, then upon reaching a convenience store, the street merged off to the right. It was residential once more, and the houses were slightly denser now than they were before. They were occasionally broken by municipal buildings or churches, however, and at one point, we passed through a cemetery.
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| A side street. |
After a little while, we passed the Canton High School and the Museum of American Bird Art in quick succession. From there, we were coming into Canton Center, or at least the outskirts of it. There were lots of businesses along the street, but they still had parking lots outside. We also went by the Canton Center Commuter Rail station, which I have yet to visit and review. Someday I’ll have to come back…
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| Crossing a small river. |
After going over a river, we entered Canton Center proper, which seemed pretty nice. Varied businesses lined the side of the street, and it seemed pretty walkable. Of course, we soon left the center and it was back to houses. They continued up until we were suddenly surrounded by parking lots. Here, we turned into the biggest one, and after some navigating around cars, we arrived at the Cobbs Corner Shopping Mall. It wasn’t a very interesting place…
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| The driver got mad at me when I took this. Look, I’ll stop taking pictures when you stop talking on the phone, okay? |
Route: 716 (Contracted Bus: Cobbs Corner – Mattapan Station via Canton Center)
Ridership: Well, my ride had a whole four people on it in total. But perhaps the bus’s overall ridership is better? Let’s see, it averages out to…89 people per day. Yeah, okay, we’re not really talking about high numbers here.
Pros: Well, it has to be said that the 716 definitely serves a long distance. However, is there a lot to serve along that distance? Not really – aside from Canton Center and Cobbs Corner, there isn’t much to draw ridership along the route. Thus, the 716’s schedule is infrequent, running every hour weekdays and Saturdays, with no Sunday service. Still, it’s sensible, and I understand why they would run it so infrequently. Yup, this seems like a pretty good schedule.
Cons: Hang on…it only runs until 12:30 PM on Saturdays? What? Why?! Having it only run in the morning cuts off potential shoppers from getting anything done in the afternoon. Either run full service or no service at all, Joseph’s, because this half-service thing you’ve got going on makes no sense. Another problem that can’t really be helped is the fact that it’s just one bus shuttling back and forth along the route with no layover time, meaning it can easily be late. That said, it would make absolutely no sense to add a second vehicle to the route, considering its ridership, so the lateness will have to do. But you know what can be changed? The drivers. Get ones that don’t talk on the phone.
Nearby and Noteworthy: There’s Canton Center, which seems like a fine place to spend an afternoon. Oh wait, you can’t do that on Saturdays. Okay, well, the 716 also goes right by some important trailheads into the Blue Hills Reservation, which seems like a great place to spend the day hiking. Just don’t go later than noon if you’re doing it on a Saturday, ’cause this bus can’t help you after that!
Final Verdict: 3/10
Look, it has to be said that this route serves a lot. A lot of woods, that is. I guess at best, it can serve as a slower, less crowded alternative to the Stoughton Line, but it would take so much longer. Other than that, aside from some office parks on the Royall Street detour we didn’t take, Cobbs Corner and Canton Center seem like the only major ridership draws. However, this route’s Saturday schedule is just insulting. If anyone knows the reason for the morning-only thing, please let me know, because it just seems ridiculous. Oh, and finally, there’s the whole phone thing. I’m sorry, but that did not make me feel safe at all. At least the route’s scenery is nice…
UPDATE 11/25/17: I have no idea when this happened, but I just discovered it now: A&A Metro took over the contract for this route from Joseph’s, and now uses a minibus with much better route signage. Also, it actually runs all day on Saturdays now!! The route still isn’t perfect, but it’s a lot better, and worthy of a score increase to a 5/10.
Latest MBTA News: Service Updates
45 (Franklin Park Zoo – Ruggles Station via Blue Hill Ave)
I don’t really have much to say about the 45. I mean, it’s pretty short, exists mainly to serve one corridor, and…I can’t even think of a third thing to properly complete the sentence. Umm…yeah, let’s just get into this.
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| The bus at Ruggles. |
The 45 is one of the many routes from Ruggles that goes down Tremont Street from the station. After traversing that wide avenue for a bit, we turned onto Malcolm X Boulevard (like most of the other routes we were running with), but then made a strange deviation. Although the schedule says that no Saturday trips are supposed to do this, we swerved onto Roxbury Street and headed up a hill.
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| Hey, look! A sort-of view! |
At John Eliot Square, where there were a few businesses, we swung around onto Dudley Street, heading back down the hill past houses and apartments. The street ended at a small park, where we turned onto Shawmut Ave, and then, um, Dudley Street again. We picked up some more passengers at Dudley Square and looped around the complex in order to return to Dudley Street.
We left the retail of Dudley Square behind, going by houses, apartments, and yes, the occasional business. After passing a little common, we merged onto Blue Hill Ave, where the 45’s independent section started. The street was mostly residential, but there was a bit of retail in the mix, too.
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| It wasn’t the nicest of neighborhoods. |
To be honest, there wasn’t much else to talk about along this section. It was pretty much all houses, businesses, and empty plots of land. Eventually, though, after passing a school, the street became almost entirely lined with retail with apartments on top. From there, we merged with Warren Street (and the four buses that run that way), and now Blue Hill Ave had a huge median in the middle.
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| Franklin Park! |
It felt a lot more built-up now, with multi-story apartment buildings on both sides of the road. However, eventually one of those sides was replaced by…Franklin Park! Thus, we soon turned onto Franklin Park Road, and after making a small loop within the park, I got off at the last stop and headed back to Blue Hill Ave.
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| The bus at Franklin Park. |
Route: 45 (Franklin Park Zoo – Ruggles Station via Blue Hill Ave)
Ridership: Ridership for this route is pretty good overall, remaining in the top 40 for MBTA buses both weekdays and weekends. More specifically, it gets 3,453 riders per weekday, 2,095 per Saturday, and 980 per Sunday. My particular Saturday ride had about 15 people in total, and they all got off along the independent Blue Hill Ave section, as expected. No one went all the way to Franklin Park, which I think simply acts as a place for the bus to turn around.
Pros: This is one of those nice, simple routes meant to serve a single corridor (Blue Hill Ave). Probably due to its short length, it also has a mostly great schedule. The 45 runs every 10 minutes during rush hour, (woo!) every 25 minutes during the day, every 20 minutes on Saturdays, and every half hour at night. Wait…I have the strangest feeling I’m forgetting something…
Cons: Oh yeah, it’s every hour on Sundays. WHYYYYYYY? It’s just a single bus running back and forth that spends 4 minutes laying over at Franklin Park and 12 minutes at Ruggles! It could easily be shortened to every 45 minutes, like what is done Sunday mornings and nights, but for some reason the day isn’t good enough for that luxury.
Nearby and Noteworthy: To be honest, this route really doesn’t serve much of interest. At best, the 45 could be used as a quieter alternative to the 28 for getting to Franklin Park, but the latter is slightly more frequent.
Final Verdict: 6/10
Overall, this route serves a good amount and generally runs often, except for the whole Sunday thing. Its schedule is comparable to the 44‘s, and since I gave that route a 6 solely based on its frequencies, I’m doing the same here. Plus, this route gets more ridership than the 44 on weekends, so there! Make the 45 run more often!
Latest MBTA News: Service Updates
Service Change: Italy, Part 5 – Transportation in Rome
It would be great if I could end this series on Italy with an epic post about Rome’s huge public transportation system, but…I didn’t actually get to ride it. Hey, at least I have pictures…
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| A bad tram picture taken from our bus. |
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| Rome’s bus signs were incredibly detailed. |
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| A minibus. |
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| A vehicle on the 70. |
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| This one was red, for some reason. |
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| That’s a lot of parked cars… |
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| Construction for the new Metro Line C near the Coliseum. |
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| Line B’s existing station by the Colosseum. Apparently the vibrations from the subway are damaging the old ruins. |
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| A modern tram and some buses. |
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| A bus with the Colisseum in the background. |
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| A major bus terminal. |
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| Blurry nighttime shot! |
Service Change: Italy, Part 4 – Buses in Assisi
Assisi was like the small-town portion of our trip – but though small towns are usually considered uninteresting, Assisi was anything but. I mean, it’s not often you get to visit medieval villages on the sides of mountains, is it? With narrow streets, old buildings, and panoramic views, this was a really awesome place to visit.
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| For context, here’s a view of the lovely town. |
And as it turned out, Assisi has a bus system! It’s a very small one, with basically only two routes: Lines A and B run together as kind of a figure-8 around the town, operated by a single minibus, while Line C is a shuttle to the train station at the bottom of the mountain using full-sized buses. During some free time, a few friends and I rode the Line A portion of the figure-8, which ended up being a really spectacular trip. First, a few miscellaneous bus photos.
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| A full-sized vehicle on Line C. |
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| A Line B bus coming up a hill… |
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| …and passing by. |
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| And here’s the bus at the terminus of Line A. To be honest, it can probably be assumed that it’s the exact same vehicle every time. |
This was a minibus, and for very good reason. As I mentioned, this is a mountain town, and so the route was very hilly, with lots of narrow streets to boot. The bus was nice and simple inside, with a ticket scanner right at the entrance. (How about trying that out, Florence?)
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| Well, I suppose I have to give a shoutout to Jay, striking a pose in the back. |
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| Looking up front. |
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| The ticket. |
The bus started in Assisi’s main square, the Piazza del Comune. We then headed up Via S. Paolo, and I do literally mean “headed up” – this narrow street was steep. On either side there were old stone buildings housing shops, and later on, apartments.
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| Lovely view! |
We went under an arch between two buildings, then the street name changed to Via Metastasio. It went right up to the side of a cliff, offering a fantastic view down the mountain. From there, we were surrounded by old buildings again, as the street suddenly curved downhill and made a terrifying 90 degree turn in the process.
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| The rear window was quite dirty, so…yeah. |
After that, we headed onto Via Cardinale Raffaele Merry del Val (insanely long street name there), which left the town and was lined with nice trees. Running along the mountainside with just woods for surroundings, there were some more incredible views out the window. We curved onto Via Egidio Albornoz, going by some kind of settlement, and then it was forest again with the occasional industrial building (and of course, the views stuck around).
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| Unsurprisingly, I didn’t capture them well at all. |
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| Of course, when I say slightly modern, I do mean slightly. |
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| Speaking of which… |
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| Some blurry houses. |
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| How’s about another view? |
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| Goodbye, bus! |
Service Change: Italy, Part 3 – Buses (and Trouble) in Florence
Hooray! A city where we actually got to take a bus! However, it didn’t exactly go as planned. Before we get to that, though, here are some pictures of other buses I saw that I didn’t ride.
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| Wow, that’s a tight fit. |
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| And so is that. |
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| That bus is so cute! |
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| A full-sized vehicle. |
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| A few buses at a major stop. |
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| A bus on the 14. |
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| A side view of another bus. |
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| A vehicle rounding a corner. |
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| A bus stop. |
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| A bus on the 19. |
And now for the bus that I rode. Since the streets of Florence’s historical center are so narrow, its bus company, ATAF, can’t run full-sized buses through it. However, it does have a few minibus routes that loop around through the city, including the C1, on which a few friends and I rode during some free time.
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| The ticket. |
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| The stop, with the countdown clock in the background. |
We were waiting for the bus at the Piazza di San Marco, which is a major stop served by a lot of routes. There was an employee outside who sold us tickets while the countdown clock told us when the next bus was arriving. The C1 runs every 10 minutes, so we didn’t have long to wait.
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| I like how the destination board wasn’t working so they just stuck a “C1” paper on the front. |
On the inside, the bus was pretty badly designed, I have to say. Considering how small the vehicles on the C1 are, do they really need three doors? It leaves so little room for seating! Plus, the ticket machine is in a position where it’s easy not to notice as you walk in – and you need to validate your ticket. Yes, there’s an honor system on Florence buses, and it came to bite us in the rear later on.
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| Looking toward the front… |
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| …and the back. You couldn’t stand next to that back door because it would swing and hit you. I found that out the hard way. |
We left the busway at Piazza di San Marco and headed up Via Giorgio la Pira, with close beige buildings on either side. After going by a park, the buildings got more “modern” – though in such a historic city, modern buildings are still quite old. Eventually, we came to an oblong roundabout at the Piazza Della Libertà, which was a wide enough street to have a segregated bus lane for a bit.
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| A wide street. |
Next, we turned onto Viale Don Giovanni Minzoni, which was quite leafy with quaint apartments. Then we turned onto Via Giovanni Pascoli (a different Giovanni, I guess), and soon pulled into a parking lot where the final stop was. Here, we all left the bus and realized that we had arrived at a completely different part of Florence. We even found an arcade!
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| The bus at its terminus. |
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| A strange blue walkway. |
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| The arcade! |
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| Alas, it was closed, but here’s a look inside. |
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| The big plaza near the arcade. |
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| Ummmm…this is interesting. |
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| Okay, that’s an impressive gate. |
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| The bus we took back. |
Having walked a bit from the terminus, we got on at the second stop of the route. Unfortunately, there was a row of parked cars between the sidewalk and the stop, so we had to walk out when the bus came. This one was a lot more modern, and though the layout was still slightly weird, it was much better than before. There were even automatic announcements!
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| Looking toward the back… |
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| …and the front. |
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| Mmm, lookathelovelyviewdon’twanttothinkaboutthecopsrightnow. |
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| A bad picture of the bus leaving. |
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| The sheet the cops gave my friend, all in Italian. Way to make sure tourists don’t understand anything, ATAF! |
Service Change: Italy, Part 2 – (Water) Buses in Venice
I really wanted to take a water bus in Venice. In fact, during a period of free time, a few friends and I were going to take it a single stop, just for the sake of riding one. But when we got to the station, I asked the woman at the ticket booth how much it would cost to go one stop. “Take taxi,” she said. “Water bus is €7,50.” Seriously??? That single-ride fare is absolutely ridiculous, especially considering it’s slightly more in US dollars! Needless to say, we didn’t ride the water bus, but here are some pictures of the boats and stations I saw.
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| The station near the bridge out of the city. |
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| A boat running on Route 2. |
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| The boat again. |
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| A nice-looking station. |
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| Oooh, countdown clocks! |
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| People entering the station. |
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| Another stop. |
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| The inside. |
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| And another stop. |
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| The entrance. |
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| I’m sorry, only one ticket machine but four vending machines??? That seems excessive. |
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| The ticket machine. |
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| Alas, ’twas €7,50 to go beyond this point. |
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| Another boat. |
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| A smaller stop… |
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| …and a boat picking up passengers there. |
Service Change: Italy, Part 1 – Buses in Verona
Man, Italy is an amazing country. My trip there was awesome, and now I’m sharing the public transportation I got pictures of, and (on a couple of occasions) rode. Unfortunately, I didn’t ride any buses in Verona, but here are the photos I took during our brief visit there.
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| An articulated bus! |
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| Looks like a natural gas vehicle. |
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| A smaller bus. |
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| The “P” seemed to be a short shuttle between the city’s main parking lot and its downtown. |
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| The P again. |
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| Another smaller bus. |
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| A different smaller bus. |
Fitchburg
Welcome the MBTA’s outermost station in Massachusetts! Yes, we are truly in the wild west right here. Well…the wild west if it had multi-story buildings and a fairly busy downtown. Okay, so Fitchburg might not be a true frontier, but its gateway station is certainly a good one.
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| One of the station buildings. |
Being a terminus, Fitchburg has plentiful amenities. This is the “Fitchburg Intermodal Transportation Center” after all, and thus it’s got quite a lot of “stuff”. Most of that “stuff” is housed within two connected station buildings, both of which have clock towers! Okay, they’re not very high up, but a clock tower is a clock tower.
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| A waiting area. |
Near the building’s exit to the platform, there is a convenient waiting room area so people don’t have to wait for trains out in the cold. It also has a vending machine and water fountains. There is a booth to buy tickets, which wasn’t in operation when I was there. I think something may have been out of order on that particular day, but hopefully it’s working now.
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| Well, they certainly make it clear where the restrooms are. |
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| A café! Well, a closed café. |
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| I love the natural light! |
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| The bus area…from above. |
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| The closed second building. |
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| Well then. |
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| The view of downtown Fitchburg. |
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| The shelter and high-level portion of the Commuter Rail platform. |
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| The barren part of the platform. |
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| Two shots of the same train. |
Pros: This is a great modern station with quite a few amenities. I mean, it’s got lots of parking, a fabulous bus area, a café, restrooms, ticket booths, waiting areas, and more. The platform may have a simple high-level section, but why complain about the shelter’s aesthetics when you can just wait inside the station?
Cons: Just the fact that some of the station’s features aren’t open a lot of the time. That said, though, the café probably only stays open when ridership necessitates it, while the bathrooms are under lock and key to prevent people loitering or vandalizing. But yeah…other than that, I really don’t have much.
Nearby and Noteworthy: This station is essentially right in downtown Fitchburg (or at least very close to it), and there are lots of businesses there. Also, Fitchburg State University is in walking distance.
Final Verdict: 9/10
Despite its low ridership (which may go up now that the Fitchburg Line renovations are done ), Fitchburg is a great transportation center with lots of convenient amenities. It performs well both as a Commuter Rail station and the hub of the MART. And…yeah! There isn’t much else to say, this is a pretty great station.
Latest MBTA News: Service Updates
This is the last post before I go on a school trip to Italy. The trip will be 10 days, but my hiatus may be a bit longer than that. I guess…expect a hiatus of at least 10 days? Sorry, guys.
MART: 2 and 9 (Intermodal Center – Monument Square – Jytek – Walmart)
A Walmart in the middle of nowhere? Sure, what better place to start a bus? I mean, it has to be said, the Walmart stop does get ridership. And, you know, the route serves a lot between the mall and its terminus in Fitchburg. Anyway, today we’re looking at the MART’s 2 and 9 routes, which together run from the south of Leominster all the way up to Fitchburg.
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| I had gotten on at Monument Square, so, uh, here’s Monument Square. |
This bus was different from the last one I took, in that it was a hybrid. I think it’s more or less the same model as the MBTA’s hybrids, except that this one had a rear window! Other than that, the inside was rather fancy-looking, but functionally, it was the same as other MART buses.
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| I love the bright color scheme! |
I had taken the bus from Monument Square down to Walmart, but I’m gonna start the review with the trip back. So we left the Walmart parking lot and headed onto Jungle Road, but only to turn onto the wide New Lancaster Road. The big box stores got replaced by trees for a bit, and then we turned onto the narrower Willard Road.
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| Going over a train track on Willard Street. |
This street was a strange mix of industry and housing developments. We crossed over a train track, and then the road was more traditionally lined with houses. We then turned onto Central Street, although on weekdays some trips come from the south to serve an industrial park. As this was a Saturday, though, we headed north.
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| Turning onto Central Street. |
The scenery along Central Street was…repetitive. I mean, it was just a lot of businesses with big parking lots out front. Sure, there was the occasional housing development off the road, but nothing unique. Outbound trips pull off the street to enter the Johnny Appleseed Plaza (alright, Leominster, we get it), but we just sped right past.
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| I’m not sure what this is a picture of, but, uh, here it is. |
We passed a trailer park at one point, and there started to be a few regular houses in between the businesses. Not a lot, but at least a few. Eventually, the businesses lost their parking lots as we entered Monument Square, looping around the common and picking some more people up. Now we had become the 2 and we were headin’ for Fitchburg!
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| An earlier picture of a different bus on the 2. |
We turned onto Main Street, the so-called “main drag” of Monument Square. To be honest, none of the businesses that lined it looked very interesting, noteworthy, or in some cases, open. We eventually passed a nice-looking park on the right, and after a few other businesses, it got residential.
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| The park. |
This next bit is a bit confusing, mainly because it’s being changed. Now currently on the 2, only outbound trips serve the Leominster Hospital, and since we were going inbound, we skipped it. Inbound trips serve the Water Tower Plaza, a mall, instead. However, with the elimination of the 10 on March 1st, the 2 will start serving the hospital and the Plaza in both directions. On our trip, though, we only deviated to serve Water Tower Plaza.
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| It has a huge parking lot! Of course. |
The street got very wide from there as we crossed over Route 2. And on the other side of that interchange? More businesses with parking lots! Woo! Most trips make a deviation onto Erdman Way to serve some offices, a hotel, and a big box store, but ours was one of the ones that didn’t.
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| Going over the highway. |
The businesses went on for quite a while without any breaks. The most noteworthy thing that happened was when the road changed to Water Street when we entered Fitchburg! Well, okay, I will say that after that momentous occasion, houses started to appear more frequently between the retail.
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| I love that bridge! And in the foreground, that’s a…”haunted mansion”. |
We went by a pretty impressive bridge, then the street became lined with houses and apartments. Eventually, we headed down a slope, crossing the Nashua River and passing a shopping plaza. The 2 doesn’t directly serve the plaza, but there’s another route, the 11, that goes into it.
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| The view of the river and the plaza. |
Water Street went onto another bridge, this time over the almost-Commuter Rail tracks. We then turned onto Main Street, heading away from downtown Fitchburg. Thus, we arrived at the Intermodal Center soon after, and the bus got ready to head back to Monument Square and eventually that one Walmart in Leominster.
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| The bus in Fitchburg. |
MART Routes: 2 and 9 (Intermodal Center – Monument Square – Jytek – Walmart)
Ridership: This is the second-busiest route combination on the MART, with the highest being a free college shuttle, so that doesn’t count. Over the course of a year, the 2 and the 9 get an average of 135,000 riders, or about 431 riders per day. My particular ride was somewhat quiet, with about 15-20 passengers in total, but that seems fine for a MART bus.
Pros: Aside from the 4, that aforementioned college shuttle, this is the most frequent route on the MART. Well, by frequent, I mean every 45 minutes, but it was deemed busy enough to run with two buses. The routes also serve a lot, with the 2 providing an important link between Fitchburg and Leominster, while the 9 heads further south into the latter city.
Cons: Like what happened with the 1 and the 3, MART’s March 1st schedule changes are basically fixing all the problems I have with this route. For example, there’s the fact that the 2 only serves either Leominster Hospital or Water Tower Plaza depending on its direction. Now it will serve both. Also, the 9 currently serves the Jytek Industrial Park all throughout weekdays, when it really only needs to go there during rush hour. That’s being fixed, too. Well-played, MART. Well-played.
Nearby and Noteworthy: Aside from serving Monument Square and downtown Fitchburg, the 2 and the 9…don’t go anywhere particularly interesting. I was interested in the Haunted Mansion thing, but apparently it’s gone bankrupt.
Final Verdict: 9/10
I mean, this has to be in the top 3 best routes on the MART, right? It’s one of the most frequent, even though clockface scheduling is sacrificed with the 45 minute headways. Still, more frequent service is more frequent service. Plus, the routes serve a lot, and most of their problems are being ironed out with the March 1st schedule changes.
Latest MBTA News: Service Updates
MART: 1 Counterclockwise and 3 Clockwise (Intermodal Center – Kmart – Monument Square – The Mall at Whitney Field – Kings Corner)
Well, that’s a long post name. Yeah, the MART likes to put every single major destination into its route names, so they can be a bit…lengthy. It doesn’t help that I’m reviewing two different routes here. But even though the particular bus I rode was the 3, it does the same loop as the 1 except in the other direction, so I figured I’d include them both. Let’s take a look.
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| The bus coming into the North Leominster “bus area”. |
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| The inside of the bus. |
Leaving North Leominster Station, we headed up Nashua Street, then turned onto Main Street. This was sort of an industrial area, but it stopped once we crossed over the Nashua River and Route 2. Right after the Route 2 crossing, we turned onto Haws Street, passing a police department and a cemetery on the other side.
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| The area around North Leominster Station. |
But the surroundings soon became – ech – fast food restaurants and other businesses with big parking lots. Great. We reached The Mall at Whitney Field, which certainly was a big ridership draw (a large portion of the bus got off here), but was a really long time sink for everyone else. You’ll see what I mean.
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| Oh, what a lovely parking lot. |
Right, so first we deviated a bit, navigating through a smaller parking lot in order to serve Market Basket. Then we had to squeeze between many cars in order to get to a road that curved south of the Market Basket. We took this road all the way to the other side of the mall to serve a nondescript stop in front of the food court. Oh, and it doesn’t end there.
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| *sigh* It never ends, does it? |
We headed back up the way we came, making a right turn and running alongside various mall entrances. We then turned onto Cinema Boulevard, passing a movie theater. The street curved up and there was a stop at the Leominster Reliant Medical Group, which the automatic announcement said as “Reliant Medical Group Leo”. FINALLY, we left the mall complex and turned onto Mill Street.
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| This was mainly to get a picture of that street sign. They. All. Have. Apples. |
Soon we merged onto Whitney Street, passing through an industrial section. The road started going by apartment buildings, which continued as we turned onto Water Street, passing over a river. This street led us to Monument Square, which had lots of businesses. We did a few twists and turns, and laid over for a few minutes at the main bus stop, next to a common.
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| The driver let me take a picture of the bus while we were laying over. |
From there, we headed down West Street, going by the Leominster Senior Center. It got residential from there, the street lined with houses. It continued like this for a while, and there was no break in the houses except for an assisted living center. Soon after that, we turned onto Doyle Street, a residential side street, and then Merriam Ave.
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| The turn onto Merriam Ave. |
This street was all residential for quite a while, right up until we crossed over Route 2. But after that, the surroundings instantly became businesses with big parking lots again. Here, we turned into the Twin City Plaza, which quite literally was on the border between Leominster and Fitchburg. Dropping someone off at the mall, we returned to what was now called Whalom Street and continued further into Fitchburg.
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| Another parking lot…fun. |
The businesses with parking lots continued for a while, with Whalom Street becoming South Street. Things got less dense as we went along, though, including a short stretch of forest. Eventually, though, it got residential again. And after passing a school, the houses got pretty close together.
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| I love that little brick building! |
Unfortunately, just as South Street was about to go down a fun-looking hill, we turned onto Pine Street instead. Now in the heart of a residential neighborhood, we next turned onto Walton Street, then Laurel Street, passing a cemetery. All of a sudden, we got a panoramic view of downtown Fitchburg across the Nashua River before crossing the river ourselves.
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| Nice view! |
We turned onto Water Street, going over some train tracks (technically not the Commuter Rail). But instead of going toward downtown Fitchburg, we turned right onto Main Street, opting for the Intermodal Center instead. Also housing Fitchburg’s Commuter Rail station, the Intermodal Center had a few parking spaces for buses, one of which we entered.
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| Not that downtown Fitchburg looks especially interesting… |
After picking some more passengers, we returned to Main Street, then turned onto Summer Street. Climbing a hill, we left downtown and entered a residential neighborhood. Following some dense houses, we went by a school, and then…sigh…more businesses with parking lots. We entered Lunenburg, going by a Commuter Rail yard, and left the town as soon as we entered.
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| Some houses in Fitchburg. |
Reentering Leominster, there were dense houses on both sides of the street. There were a few businesses at Kings Corner, where we turned onto Main Street, which was again residential. The houses were broken by a church, some retail, and Johnny Appleseed Elementary (boy, Leominster really nails in the whole Johnny Appleseed thing). The houses gave way to businesses once more when we got to the Commuter Rail tracks and turned onto Nashua Street, entering North Leominster Station. Thus, the loop was complete.
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| I actually continued a bit more to get off at Monument Square, so here we are. |
MART Routes: 1 Counterclockwise and 3 Clockwise (Intermodal Center – Kmart – Monument Square – The Mall at Whitney Field – Kings Corner)
Ridership: As I mentioned, my ride was unexpectedly crowded. Over the course of the whole loop, there were about 25-30 riders in total, with many getting off at The Mall at Whitney Field, Monument Square, or the Fitchburg Intermodal Center. The 1 and the 3 are considered one route by the MART, and together, they have the third-best ridership on the system with about 125,000 riders per year. That means about 400 passengers per day, which…well, that seems a lot lower now.
Pros: There’s nothing like a good circle line! These routes connect quite a few major transit and shopping centers around Fitchburg and Leominster, and as a bonus, they run pretty frequently! I mean, they’re both every hour, including on Saturdays. But technically that’s every half hour, and if you’re not in a rush, you could go either way around the loop to get where you’re going.
Cons: I think maybe one more weekday trip in the evening would be helpful. The last trip to the Intermodal Center is on the 1, and it gets there at 6:25. That seems pretty early to cut service. Also, some of the deviations on these routes are very lengthy, particularly The Mall at Whitney Field. It takes a full 10 minutes to navigate through that mall, which is an incredibly long deviation for people who are just passing through.
Nearby and Noteworthy: Aside from malls? Well, the routes connect downtown Fitchburg with downtown Leominster, so there’s probably something or other that’s noteworthy in those places. Oh, and they go by the Fitchburg Line Commuter Rail yard, in case you’re interested in seeing that.
Final Verdict: 8/10
Despite their slight problems, these routes do have the third-highest ridership on the MART. I mean, my main issue is with the Mall at Whitney Field deviation, but that really does serve a lot of riders. Other than that, these routes form a good circle line with relatively frequent service.
Final Verdict UPDATE: 9/10
Okay, so it turns out that MART is changing its routes fairly drastically on March 1st. Yeah, turns out I had pretty bad timing with this review. Anyway, it seems they’re adding one extra trip on weekdays, ironing out one of the issues I had with the 1 and the 3. Also, they’re changing the routing through Leominster to serve an apartment complex and enter The Mall at Whitney Field from the south. It still seems quite complicated, so that doesn’t fix that problem, but it’s a change regardless. See the full list of service changes here.
Latest MBTA News: Service Updates
North Leominster
Usually when a station name has “north” (or any other direction) in it, you expect there to be a station in the center of town, as well. Unfortunately for Leominster, it’s stuck with this northern park-and-ride station. Luckily, North Leominster is a pretty good northern park-and-ride station, so the city doesn’t have to worry.
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| The inbound boarding platform. |
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| The station…viewed from above. |
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| The platform…from ground level. Not as exciting… |
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| Further down the inbound platform. |
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| Speaking of which… |
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| Awesome view! |
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| Hoo, boy. |
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| A train leaving the station. |
RIPTA: 6 (Prairie/Roger Williams Zoo)
Having just eaten the worst pizza ever, my friend Michael and I were trudging through the snowy Roger Williams Park. Every time the wind blew, our numb hands got even number. We were trying to get to the Roger Williams Zoo in order to pick up the 6 to get back to Providence. Suddenly, it flew by us on its way there. “Grab the camera case, Michael!” I yelled as I dropped it in the snow in a mad rush to get a picture of the elusive vehicle.
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| Waittttttt! |
With newfound vigor, we navigated a rotary with no sidewalks and made it to the zoo parking lot. The bus was sitting there next to a themed shelter, but its destination board was off. Looking around, it seemed that the driver was power walking around the parking lot. We decided to sit under the shelter on some rock benches (which were a nice touch) while the driver entered the zoo for some reason.
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| The bus sitting next to the awesome zoo shelter. |
Finally, the driver came back and asked if we were getting on. We said yes, and he let us onto the bus. We had gotten transfers from the R-Line (which would’ve honestly been a much easier way of getting back), and thus we grabbed seats and tried to warm up.
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| I had to crop this one a bit, since my glove got in the way. It was cold, okay? |
As you can see, this route operates using tourist trolleys. I normally hate these kinds of vehicles, but it has to be said that the interior of this bad boy was amazing. Aside from the bright red seats (which were cool in their own right), the floors and walls were made out of wood! Plus, the cords used to request stops were made out of these rough ropes. I’m not sure what “theme” they were going for here, but it was fantastic regardless.
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| Looking toward the back… |
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| …and the front. |
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| Also, just look at this stop request cord! Or…rope, I guess. |
Heading out of the zoo parking lot, we went around a rotary onto Hawthorne Ave. This road went right through the park, and thus lots of snowy trees were in view. Eventually, we reached Broad Street, and turning north, we crossed over I-95.
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| I used a photo from our walk because the bus windows were dirty. |
We then merged onto Prairie Ave, going by a middle school. After a quick industrial blip, the street became lined with dense houses. There were also some businesses in the mix, as well as a library at one point. Prairie Ave curved north, and then we made a rather long detour.
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| Looking down a side street. |
Right, so pay attention, because this is complicated. We first turned onto Blackstone Street, and then Staniford Street. From there, we entered a loop at the entrance of the Community College of Rhode Island, picking no one up. We returned the way we came, but instead of going all the way down Blackstone Street, we turned onto Gay Street, and then Dudley Street.
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| An industrial view from Gay Street. |
Finally, we returned to Prairie Ave, going to a big parking lot for the Rhode Island Hospital. It got residential after that, with an apartment building on one side and houses on the other. We turned onto Point Street, which crossed over I-95 once more, then we turned onto East Franklin Street. Paralleling the highway, there was a fantastic skyline view to the right.
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| Man, I love the Providence skyline! |
We turned onto Broad Street, leaving the highway behind. The road became Weybosset Street, and the surrounding buildings started to get taller as we got closer to downtown. As it started to curve around, we were suddenly in the financial district with skyscrapers everywhere. Finally, we arrived at Kennedy Plaza, and the bus went out of service.
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| The bus in Providence. |
RIPTA Route: 6 (Prairie/Roger Williams Zoo)
Ridership: In 2012, this route carried a measly 477 passengers per weekday, 264 per Saturday, and 100 per Sunday – and that was before this route’s schedule cuts! My ride was similarly low, with only about five people in total. Now, I’ll admit that this was Martin Luther King Day, but still, five people is tiny. I would imagine the 6 gets slightly more ridership during the summer, when people actually want to go to the zoo.
Pros: This would theoretically be a good bus for tourists. Direct service from Providence to the zoo? Awesome! And on weekdays, it satisfies that in a schedule regard, too, with every half hour service. However…
Cons: That becomes every hour on weekends – certainly not a good schedule for tourists. Okay, well, maybe it’s a good route for locals. After all, it serves the Community College of Rhode Island, as well as the Rhode Island Hospital! Well, yeah, except it does that through a really time-consuming detour. Plus, it’s within a few blocks of the R-Line for most of its trip. Talk about being overshadowed.
Nearby and Noteworthy: All I’ve seen of the Roger Williams Zoo is the parking lot, but it is one of the oldest zoos in the country and admissions are half-off through February. The 6 will take you there directly, while the R-Line is much more frequent, though it only drops you off at the entrance to the park in which the zoo is housed.
Final Verdict: 4/10
This route is kind of in a strange limbo. In order to be more of value to tourists, it would have to run more often. But since it wouldn’t be too well-used, it could probably just get flat-out eliminated. I mean, okay, ridership still comes from the Community College, that said. I like the idea of running a cut-back version during the winter that only goes as far as the CCRI, and then during the summer it goes all the way to the zoo. Plus, it could also get extended to Providence Station on the other end during seasonal service to improve tourist connections. I mean, these buses are awesome, they can’t be put to waste!
Latest MBTA News: Service Updates