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
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,...
WRTA: 3 (Union Station Hub – Worcester State University via Highland Street)
Ready for a super-short trip on the 3? This is gonna be a quickie! Sweet, a Proterra!!! We cruised down Foster Street making those awesome Proterra all-electric noises, and we soon came into downtown Worcester. Once we crossed Main Street, the road became Maple Street...
Your MBTA Bus Ride Will Never be the Same Again
Your MBTA commute is about to get a lot more exciting. For the past few months, I've been interning for a group of MIT graduate students who have produced an incredible app: Alight. Instead of wasting your money on overly-expensive tour buses, you can now ride local...
WRTA: 24/24A (Union Station Hub – UMass Medical Center via Belmont Street)
Heyyyy, why does the WRTA website URL still reference the former 34? That's no good! That was a Sunday-only variant of the 24/24A, but luckily it's been eliminated, so we only have to deal with the 24 now. ...or, in this case, the 24A! We began at the UMass Medical...
WRTA: 5 (Union Station Hub – Southwest Commons via Grafton Street)
WRTA has an annoying policy where passengers can't "ride around" at the end of a route. This makes doing isolated routes like the 5 tough. Sam and I's solution was to get off a little bit before the end and just wait on the other side of the road. We missed a...
WRTA: 14 (Union Station Hub – Showcase Cinemas/Holden via Burncoat Street)
RTAs often end their routes at malls, but Showcase Cinemas is a new one! Unfortunately, Sam and I weren't able to catch the 14 from its true start point, so we began at its second stop, the Porter and Chester Institute. On weekdays, buses deviate directly into it, but...
WRTA: 30 (Union Station Hub – West Boylston Walmart via Grove Street and West Boylston Street)
We're going to the West Boylston Walmart on the 30. Fun stuff. Nice wrap! We headed out onto Foster Street from the Central Hub, then we turned onto Major Taylor Boulevard. There were lots of office buildings with parking lots along here, and they continued as we...
GUEST POST: GATRA: South Bellingham Commuter Shuttle
Of all the guest posts I would've thought to receive, the GATRA South Bellingham Commuter Shuttle was very low on that list! Let's see what Jules has to say about this rare commuter route, run by everyone's favorite RTA, GATRA! This is the ugly duckling route of...
WRTA: 26 (Union Station Hub – Great Brook Valley via Lincoln Street)
It's time for the 23's cousin route, the 26! We'll be covering a lot of familiar territory in this review, but we start off at a unique section: Great Brook Valley. The bus at Great Brook Valley. The route technically starts at the Great Brook Valley Pool, but Sam and...
Chelsea, Bellingham Square, Box District, Eastern Avenue, and Airport
Well, we established yesterday that the SL3 as a route isn't as great as it might've seemed to be. Are the stations any better? Let's take a gauntlet-style look at all of them! The inbound platform at Chelsea. We begin with Chelsea, and we'll use this one to describe...
SL3 (Chelsea Station – South Station via Airport Station)
I sprinted out of my house at 4:17 AM. I arrived at the empty main street...no cars going in either direction. Well, Sam said to wait at an inbound bus stop, so I headed over to the closest one. No cars coming. *BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP*!!!!! A vehicle was...
WRTA: 23 (Union Station Hub – East Mountain Street via Lincoln Street)
There's a 23 leaving from the Hub in 9 minutes? Alright, let's do the 23. Excellent. We headed up Foster Street, then we turned onto Major Taylor Boulevard. This was a wide road that passed a lot of office buildings with big parking lots, as well as the DCU convention...
Logan Airport Shuttle: 99 (Back Bay Logan Express)
Yeah, this is technically a Logan Express, but they refer to it as the 99 on certain countdown clocks, so we're calling it a Logan Airport Shuttle. No, I'm not going to do the other Logan Express routes. Okay, let's go! Boarding at Hynes. The route starts at a...