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
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...
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...
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. The bus at Ruggles. The 45 is one of the...
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... A bad tram picture taken from our bus. Rome's bus signs were...
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,...
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. Wow, that's a tight fit. And so is that. That bus is so cute! A full-sized...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
RIPTA: R-Line (Broad/North Main)
I've talked about a couple of RIPTA routes before under the "Service Change" moniker, but this is the first time I'll be doing a proper review of one of their routes - and it's a good one. The R-Line is kind of like RIPTA's "main route", taking its two most popular...
GATRA: 24 (Attleboro/Pawtucket, RI)
A bus route from Attleboro to Rhode Island? Sign me up! I'm always looking for creative ways of getting places, and being able to ride the GATRA for the first time was certainly creative enough for me. Plus, this route is weekdays-only! The bus at Attleboro Station....