MBTA Buses & Infrastructure

The 47 and CT2 get absolutely hammered at the Memorial Drive rotary. I suspect ridership on them is very sensitive to subway reliability - even a half-functional subway might be faster than spending 20 minutes at the rotary.

Also, I assume you mean >1,000 daily boardings, not >10,000?
 
The EGE said:
The 47 and CT2 get absolutely hammered at the Memorial Drive rotary. I suspect ridership on them is very sensitive to subway reliability - even a half-functional subway might be faster than spending 20 minutes at the rotary.

Also, I assume you mean >1,000 daily boardings, not >10,000?
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10,000 weekly boardings.
 
as02143 said:
The general theory of transit planning as I understand it is that frequency is the biggest driver.

As a new Medfordian, I can tell you that the 96 is not what I remember it from when I last lived here almost 209 years ago, and I think the schedules tell the frequency story as well. Albeit, the GLX is part of the story - maybe some Tufts-bound folks are using the GLX instead of Red to 96 or 94 to get here, but much of it is going to be what I think were some big service cuts. I assume related to the panini.

The same with the CT2 on my old commute and I suspect the 91 and 47 from having been in Central often after being in Kendall for work.
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Back in the day, when I lived in Medford near the 94/96, the frequency was the issue. It frequently was simpler for me to walk up from Davis, rather than wait for a bus that might never come.

There is a ridership chain reaction if there is near zero penalty for missing a bus. Sadly, US transit authorities cannot get funding to support this.
 
TheRatmeister said:
Here are the bus routes with more than 10,000 weekly boardings which grew the most in terms of passengers between 2023 and 2024:

Route% Change since 2023% Change since 2019
426 (Lynn-Haymarket/Wonderland via Cliftondale)21.1%-4.9%
435 (Lynn-Salem via Peabody)19.9%50.3%
429 (Lynn-Northgate via Square One Mall)17.3%5.4%
450 (Salem-Haymarket/Wonderland)16.3%24.6%
33 (River St @ Milton St-Mattapan)15.5%-5.2%
430 (Saugus-Malden Ctr)13.6%-10%
350 (North Burlington-Alewife)12.7%-23.5%
40 (Georgetown-Forest Hills)12%-10.8%
57 (Watertown Yard-Kenmore)11.1%-19.1%
240 (Avon Sq-Ashmont)11%-17.3%
120 (Orient Heights-Maverick)11%-7.5%
455 (Salem-Wonderland)10.9%12.4%
116 (Maverick-Wonderland) (Pre-BNRD)10.9%7.4%
SL3 (South Station-Chelsea)10.5%32.7%
238 (Holbrook/Randolph-Quincy Center)9.9%-17.9%
Lots of growth from the suburban routes. Is this from a general return to the office, a move away from the CR due to unreliability, or some of both? North shore ridership in general seems to be growing rapidly, so in conclusion extend the blue line, the end.

...and here are the ones that shrank the most.
Route% Change since 2023% Change since 2019Suspected reason for contraction/Comments
17 (Fields Corner-Andrew)-15.2%-28.5%Increasing RL reliability
216 (Houghs Neck-Quincy Ctr)-14.6%12.4%???
83 (Rindge Ave-Central)-13.1%-35.4%???
CT2 (Ruggles-Sullivan)-10.3%-11%Same pattern as 47, suggests demand along the route has changed? Possibly more reliable subway lines have made changing downtown more attractive?
29 (Jackson Sq - Mattapan)-10.1%-43.2%This one is especially baffling given that the Columbus Ave bus lanes should have made this route faster
47 (Broadway-Central)-8.6%-20%Same pattern as CT2, suggests demand along the route has changed?
96 (Medford Sq - Harvard)-7.6%-51.5%GLX?
11 (City Point - Downtown)-7.2%-46.2%???
34 (Dedham Sq - Forest Hills)-6.9%-29.2%34E ridership is up YOY however
8 (Kenmore-Harbor Point)-6.6%-4.8%More crosstown contraction
91 (Sullivan-Central)-6.6%-41.2%???
501 (Brighton Express)-5.3%-34.5%???
41 (JP-JFK)-5.8%-25.7%???
19 (Fields Corner-Kenmore)-3.6%-16.7%Maybe LMA demand is down?
28 (Ruggles-Mattapan)-2.4%3.3%More people choosing the Fairmount line?
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The 29 had a service cut in Summer 2023 and 2024, and both service cuts have remained in place since that time.

I'm not sure why the 91 and 216 has reduced ridership, since there aren't any service cuts that I could find between December 2022 through December 2024.

The 47 has had a reduced schedule since July 2024, weekday midday frequency was reduced from every 20 to every 30 minutes.

The 11, 83 and 501 buses each went through 2 rounds of service cuts between July 2023 and December 2023.

The 41 also has had reduced service schedules since August 2023 and April 2024, where it had 2 rounds of service cuts.

Source (TransitMatters)
 
At least for the 83, I'd be curious to see how the drop in ridership is broken down across the line, and how much of it can be attributed to the ongoing reconstruction of Jefferson Park Federal - all 178 units was vacated at the end of 2022. One would presume that would have been a significant transit dependent community that the 83 would have primarily served. Otherwise, Rindge to Porter is pretty well served both by the 77 which has better frequencies and the RL itself via the Russell field headhouse. The Porter-Central segment via Beacon & Inman is unduplicated, but I don't know how much it contributes to ridership given easy access to RL & GLX in that area and good bike infrastructure - anecdotally, I think that segment has had significant mode diversion to bikes - I do that instead of the infrequent 83.
 
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Good to see year-over-year gains, but looking at the 2019 numbers is sobering. I’m assuming much of the 450’s gain comes from the 441/442 being permanently cut back to Wonderland.
 
wicked said:
Good to see year-over-year gains, but looking at the 2019 numbers is sobering. I’m assuming much of the 450’s gain comes from the 441/442 being permanently cut back to Wonderland.
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The 450's walkshed doesn't overlap with the 441/442 walkshed. The 450 bypasses Lynn Station so it never meets with the 441/442 at all. The 455 is the bus route that shares some of it's routing with the 450.
 
Stlin said:
At least for the 83, I'd be curious to see how the drop in ridership is broken down across the line, and how much of it can be attributed to the ongoing reconstruction of Jefferson Park Federal - all 178 units was vacated at the end of 2022. One would presume that would have been a significant transit dependent community that the 83 would have primarily served. Otherwise, Rindge to Porter is pretty well served both by the 77 which has better frequencies and the RL itself via the Russell field headhouse. The Porter-Central segment via Beacon & Inman is unduplicated, but I don't know how much it contributes to ridership given easy access to RL & GLX in that area and good bike infrastructure - anecdotally, I think that segment has had significant mode diversion to bikes - I do that instead of the infrequent 83.
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I don't know if Jefferson Park or the towers has more of the ridership on the 83. The new Just a Start building is out there on the Parkway too.

I think a lot of the Porter to Central segment maybe made up by people who can switch to the new 109 to get somewhere across the river via Harvard and switch out destinations from Central to Harvard as well.
 
Delvin4519 said:
The 450's walkshed doesn't overlap with the 441/442 walkshed. The 450 bypasses Lynn Station so it never meets with the 441/442 at all. The 455 is the bus route that shares some of it's routing with the 450.
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Mea culpa. I was confusing the routes. I think the 455 served Vinnin Square as the 441/442 did once upon a time (?).
 
Delvin4519 said:
The 29 had a service cut in Summer 2023 and 2024, and both service cuts have remained in place since that time.
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-16.5% YOY in trips, down from 121 per week to 101. Almost certainly where the reduced ridership (-10.1% YOY) is coming from.
Delvin4519 said:
I'm not sure why the 91 and 216 has reduced ridership, since there aren't any service cuts that I could find between December 2022 through December 2024.
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216 actually has more trips logged in 2024 compared to 2023, 367 vs 362. 91 has the same number of logged trips (202).
Delvin4519 said:
The 47 has had a reduced schedule since July 2024, weekday midday frequency was reduced from every 20 to every 30 minutes.
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-7.4% YOY, down from 339 weekly trips to 314 logged. Almost certainly the cause of the -8.6% YOY change in ridership. The CT2 however went from 105 to 110 weekly trips.
Delvin4519 said:
The 11, 83 and 501 buses each went through 2 rounds of service cuts between July 2023 and December 2023.
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The 11 is down 9.4% YOY in trips from 318 to 288 weekly trips, so that drop in ridership is accounted for. Same with the 501 which went from 140 to 130 trips. However the 83 shows no change in the number of weekly trips between Fall 2023 and Fall 2024, so there is something else going on.
Delvin4519 said:
The 41 also has had reduced service schedules since August 2023 and April 2024, where it had 2 rounds of service cuts.
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-8.9% YOY in trips (168->153) so this one is accounted for as well.

That leaves the 'mysterious' ridership drops on routes 216, 83, CT2, and 91, plus a drop in ridership on the 96 that's much higher than reduction in trips would suggest. (I don't think 6 fewer weekly trips should cause an almost 8% drop in ridership.)
 
Instead of reha
The EGE said:
The 47 and CT2 get absolutely hammered at the Memorial Drive rotary. I suspect ridership on them is very sensitive to subway reliability - even a half-functional subway might be faster than spending 20 minutes at the rotary.

Also, I assume you mean >1,000 daily boardings, not >10,000?
Click to expand...
Instead of rehabbing it, the state really should've rebuilt this bridge wider. It's absolutely absurd that it's a single lane one of the ways and that rotary is just ridiculous.
 
TheRatmeister said:
Here are the bus routes with more than 10,000 weekly boardings which grew the most in terms of passengers between 2023 and 2024:

Route% Change since 2023% Change since 2019
426 (Lynn-Haymarket/Wonderland via Cliftondale)21.1%-4.9%
435 (Lynn-Salem via Peabody)19.9%50.3%
429 (Lynn-Northgate via Square One Mall)17.3%5.4%
450 (Salem-Haymarket/Wonderland)16.3%24.6%
33 (River St @ Milton St-Mattapan)15.5%-5.2%
430 (Saugus-Malden Ctr)13.6%-10%
350 (North Burlington-Alewife)12.7%-23.5%
40 (Georgetown-Forest Hills)12%-10.8%
57 (Watertown Yard-Kenmore)11.1%-19.1%
240 (Avon Sq-Ashmont)11%-17.3%
120 (Orient Heights-Maverick)11%-7.5%
455 (Salem-Wonderland)10.9%12.4%
116 (Maverick-Wonderland) (Pre-BNRD)10.9%7.4%
SL3 (South Station-Chelsea)10.5%32.7%
238 (Holbrook/Randolph-Quincy Center)9.9%-17.9%
Lots of growth from the suburban routes. Is this from a general return to the office, a move away from the CR due to unreliability, or some of both? North shore ridership in general seems to be growing rapidly, so in conclusion extend the blue line, the end.

...and here are the ones that shrank the most.
Route% Change since 2023% Change since 2019Suspected reason for contraction/Comments
17 (Fields Corner-Andrew)-15.2%-28.5%Increasing RL reliability
216 (Houghs Neck-Quincy Ctr)-14.6%12.4%???
83 (Rindge Ave-Central)-13.1%-35.4%???
CT2 (Ruggles-Sullivan)-10.3%-11%Same pattern as 47, suggests demand along the route has changed? Possibly more reliable subway lines have made changing downtown more attractive?
29 (Jackson Sq - Mattapan)-10.1%-43.2%This one is especially baffling given that the Columbus Ave bus lanes should have made this route faster
47 (Broadway-Central)-8.6%-20%Same pattern as CT2, suggests demand along the route has changed?
96 (Medford Sq - Harvard)-7.6%-51.5%GLX?
11 (City Point - Downtown)-7.2%-46.2%???
34 (Dedham Sq - Forest Hills)-6.9%-29.2%34E ridership is up YOY however
8 (Kenmore-Harbor Point)-6.6%-4.8%More crosstown contraction
91 (Sullivan-Central)-6.6%-41.2%???
501 (Brighton Express)-5.3%-34.5%???
41 (JP-JFK)-5.8%-25.7%???
19 (Fields Corner-Kenmore)-3.6%-16.7%Maybe LMA demand is down?
28 (Ruggles-Mattapan)-2.4%3.3%More people choosing the Fairmount line?
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Personal experience as a 34E rider, there have been suddenly an influx of people taking the 34E to work and hangout at Dedham Plaza and Legacy Place. Lots of teens after school each day heading inbound to get to those two locations up until summer break where i now assume theyre going midday. It always picks up a large group at Ariadne road in the afternoon, and theres always an exchange of a handful of passengers and Dedham Plaza now that wasnt as regular before. Im not aware of any new business in either that would result in a bunch of new job openings but maybe the more reliable service has attracted more riders as it was pretty unreliable and inconsistent in previous years.
 
Fall schedules add 1,569 weekly service hours for the MBTA's scheduled bus operations – a a 3.4 percent increase over summer 2025, bringing the bus system to 96.5 percent of its pre-pandemic (fall 2019) service levels.

However, many of the service increases are going into some of the T's slowest bus routes, including the 1, 15, and 23 in the city of Boston:

mass.streetsblog.org

Fall MBTA Service Improvements Add More Frequent-Service Routes In Boston - Streetsblog Massachusetts

The fall schedule adds an additional 1,569 weekly service hours for the MBTA's scheduled bus operations.
mass.streetsblog.org mass.streetsblog.org
 
So when they develop the Wellington station parking lot/ air rights in the future, there's no chance of a massive bus maintenance facility limiting TOD now, right?
 
samsongam said:
So when they develop the Wellington station parking lot/ air rights in the future, there's no chance of a massive bus maintenance facility limiting TOD now, right?
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Seems like it. (And I'm sure that was a calculus made at some point, how valuable is that land versus buying something else.)
 
samsongam said:
So when they develop the Wellington station parking lot/ air rights in the future, there's no chance of a massive bus maintenance facility limiting TOD now, right?
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The proposed Wellington facility was for 60-footer buses instead of 40-footer, so that could still very much be a thing if they want to start increasing per-bus capacity on key Charlestown-fed routes. But there's been no conceptual development on that since the bus facilities study of over a decade ago, so who knows what they're currently thinking.
 
The EGE said:
I'm glad to see them getting out of cramped Fellsway, but worried about Lynn getting closed. That's a lot of deadheading - 10 miles to Central Square Lynn, versus 1.6 from Lynn Garage.
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I hear ya but Lynn is very climate vulnerable - glad they’re thinking about this big picture. I’d still like to see a more robust planning effort around when the garage fleet and facilities need to be by 2050 considering anticipated growth in service and climate change.
 
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