The blog that started it all! Check out reviews of every bus route and train station in Boston, as well as ongoing reviews of the regional bus systems in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
Recent Posts from Miles on the MBTA
Pittsfield (Amtrak)
Well, now that we've finished the FRTA, there's nowhere else to go but west. It's time to tackle the BRTA, the westernmost RTA in the state, covering a big vertical rectangle of land spanning from Williamstown to Great Barrington. But before we can get to the system...
Service Change: A Day in Virginia (Richmond and Hampton Roads)
So you can take Greyhound from Philly to the Hampton Roads area for a little over 30 bucks one-way? And you can do overnight buses each way so you don't have to spend the night anywhere? And one itinerary involves a five-and-a-half hour layover in Richmond, allowing...
FRTA: 22 (BlueLink Connector)
Why does the 22 have a colored name? Does that make it important? Because it only runs four trips a day. It doesn't serve Greenfield. It almost entirely duplicates other routes. No, doesn't seem important to me. The bus approaching at Turners Falls. We boarded this...
FRTA: 24 (Crosstown Connector)
The 24 is probably the FRTA's best route, but our experience on it was one of the worst. It all started when a real clunker of a bus showed up at the JWO Transit Center about 25 minutes late... This'll be a fun ride! Hopefully. So the 24 runs from Greenfield Community...
Service Change: Scotland, Part 3 – The Highlands
Click here for Part 1, click here for Part 2. Our final part of the Scotland series takes us to the northern tip of Great Britain...and beyond. But we first begin in Inverness, the largest city in the Highlands (with slightly under 47,000 residents) and one with a...
GATRA: GATRA GO
Gotta tell ya, I was not anticipating a GATRA ride on my return to Boston. "Wanna do the GATRA GO when we get to Foxboro?" Jules asked on the train there. YES, OF COURSE I DO. Oh boy, time for a GATRA trip, and it's a doozy! Okay, get ready for a bunch of phone...
Foxboro (and the “Foxboro Pilot”!)
Alright, strap in for a long preamble: for me, getting the first trip on a new MBTA Commuter Rail service ain't how it used to be. While I could've attempted to ride the first inbound train at 5:47 (potentially winning Patriots tickets, apparently), I wanted to do the...
FRTA: 31 (Northampton/Greenfield)
By the time my friend and I got to this point in the day, we had been seeing a lot of fields and tiny towns. The 31 was kinda like going back to civilization - it travels to the giant metropolis of Northampton! Okay, maybe it's not that big, but it is the largest town...
FRTA: 41 (Charlemont/Greenfield)
Welcome to the most rural route that the FRTA operates! The 41, the system's westernmost route, runs out to a tiny town called Charlemont that I wouldn't have heard of if the 41 didn't end there. Also, it only runs four times per day... The minibus comes rolling in....
FRTA: 21 (Greenfield Community)
Okay...time to do the 20, but in the opposite direction! Yeah, sorry if the 21 ends up being a bit redundant... Yikes, what an unflattering angle. So we headed straight up Federal Street, leaving downtown Greenfield pretty quickly in favor of more suburban businesses...
Service Change: Scotland, Part 2 – To the Isle of Skye
After our adventures in Edinburgh and Glasgow, the urban part of my family's Scotland trip was essentially over. It was time to take a train way up into the Scottish Highlands, and on the eponymous (West) Highland Line, no less - widely considered to be one of the...
GUEST POST: Grafton
Ben sent in his take on the Grafton Commuter Rail station. Thanks, Ben! Grafton station. It's a nice little station on the Worcester line. The station itself is in the middle of absolute nowhere, near the Shrewsbury town line, off of State Route 30. The station is in...
VIDEO: The Greyhound Trip That Doesn’t Exist
Nathan and I bought $10 EconomyExtra Greyhound tickets for their once-a-day service from Boston South Station to Logan Airport. This is what happened. The video is also available here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3iPE3DRsVg
FRTA: 20 (GreenLink Connector)
Okay, "GreenLink Connector", huh? Makes it sound like some sort of frequent Greenfield shuttle. That would be great! A route connecting up major points in Greenfield that runs frequently all day! So, I'm just checking the schedule for the 20 now: let's see, it...
GUEST POST: RIPTA: 24x (Newport/Fall River/Providence)
Jules rode RIPTA's new 24x route recently. Here are his thoughts: If you caught Miles’s recent post about the fall changes at the RTAs in southern New England, you may have been surprised to learn that RIPTA was tacking on an interstate express route connecting...