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
MVRTA: 37 (Beacon Street)
Ah, it's the Pac-Man route! Seriously. Look at it. So yes, this is the 37, a wild snaking mess running aimlessly through southern Lawrence and Andover. It serves two Marriotts. Two! At least some light is shining in here. We went down Essex Street from Buckley,...
GATRA: 16 (Seekonk/Attleboro) – A.K.A. THE BUS FROM HELL
Usually I like to do my reviews in chronological order, but I feel compelled to write this one as soon as possible because this bus route is hell spawn and I'm worried it'll do something awful to me if I don't kill it ASAP. Ahem...the GATRA 16, everyone. Time for some...
MVRTA: 36 (Holy Family Hospital/Lawrence Street)
Time for some loopity-loop-loop-loops on the MVRTA 36! Yeah, this one is rather crazy...as are most bus routes in Lawrence, it would seem. Oh, Buckley...good to be back. We headed east from Buckley on Common Street, coming along next to Campagnone Common. We turned...
GATRA: 14 (Attleboro/North Attleboro/Plainville)
So..."Man-Mar Drive" in Plainville. Scenery: a bunch of sketchy-looking businesses inside dated shopping plaza buildings with big parking lots out front. Facilities: a faded old "GATRA Bus Stop" sign bolted to a telephone pole. Morale: low, because the 14 is...
GATRA: Franklin Area Bus
Ahhh, it's good to be back on a system I know and love! Yeah, you know, I always miss GATRA whenever I'm away from it for a while. It's so charming in its awfulness, and every GATRA route seems to be full of surprises. While the FAB wasn't as crazy as the...you...
Join us on a Race to Chelsea!
Do you want to be in a Miles on the MBTA video? Do you want to see if the SL3 is actually the fastest way to Chelsea? Do you want to meet me and a bunch of other fans of the blog as we race there and back? We're going to be staging a race using five different...
MART: Athol/Orange Link
Yes! We're finally leaving Athol! We're on our way home! Let's just wait at the Athol ITC and get the lovely Athol/Orange Link, and...oh God, what is that... TRUCK MINIBUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm just gonna come out and say it: this was the...
MART: Athol/Orange Shuttle 1/2 (Counterclockwise/Clockwise)
Man, this route is out there! It officially gets to a point where it's closer to the New York border than it is to Boston. Interestingly, this far-out land has had a bus route for a while; this deviation-filled loopy-loop used to be operated by a company called...
MART: Athol ITC
Oh no, ATHOL has an "intermodal transit center" too? This has to be even worse than the Gardner one, right? Well, right off the bat, I'll say this: the Athol ITC is in an old train station, so it's more "intermodal" than Gardner's transit center is! Plus, the...
MART: Gardner Route 1/2 (Counterclockwise/Clockwise)
Ohhh...we get to go back to...Gardner! And ride a really long, deviation-filled bus route around the whole...city. My...favorite......place.......... YAY! GARDNER!!!! The bus was very nice, at least. It was that rear door-less Gillig that we had gotten before on the...
MART: Devens Regional Shuttle
The Devens Regional Shuttle recently celebrated its one-year anniversary, and MART threw a lovely party for it at one of its stops, with free swag to boot! I didn't attend the party, and I have no idea how many people attended it, but my guess is not too many. Why? I...
Shirley
Surely Shirley can't be that bad! Great, I've gotten that joke out of the way. Andddddd...that's it! Shirley has one very very very small platform. Quite very small. However, it's entirely occupied by a shelter that's actually rather charming! It has some benches...
Cross-Acton Transit
I gotta say, a suburban, rich town like Acton (median household income $133,532) is one of the last places I would expect to see an awful minibus shuttle! I mean, why does Acton get an hourly service, while Webster (a place where people actually use the bus)...
WRTA: 42 (Union Station Hub – Oxford – Webster via Southbridge Street and Route 12)
Sam and I barely made the 42! We ran and ran and ran and we couldn't find a stop, so we just kept going down Southbridge Street until finally, we came across the strangest bus stop in Worcester: WOAH! Goodness, the 558 is longer than I thought! Yeah, I have...
WRTA: 6 (Union Station Hub – West Tatnuck via Chandler Street)
The 6 is a lot like the 3, except longer. Not only is the route longer, though - we also got the WRTA's awesome full-sized Proterra on this thing! Oh my gosh, it was a beauty in every conceivable manner! YES! OH MY GOSH, THIS IS AWESOME!!! We began at Tatnuck Square,...