Kiss Your Familiar Morning Commute Goodbye: Two Dozen Bus Routes Are Changing
The MBTA has announced a slew of changes happening over the holiday weekend.
Photo by Olga Khvan
If you’re planning on taking an MBTA bus home from your Labor Day barbecue, you might want to double check the schedule first. Starting September 1, the MBTA plans to implement a long list of bus service changes as part of the Better Bus Project, bringing changes big and small to over two dozen routes across the city.
The project is the first phase of the MBTA’s efforts to improve Boston’s bus system, which one third of the city’s population of transit riders relies upon every day. For over a year, MBTA officials have collected input from community members, elected officials, and planners to determine how to best redesign and update bus routes, and the resulting crop of changes, while inconveniencing some passengers, will help increase the reliability and frequency of bus service as a whole, the MBTA says.
“The modifications to these select routes are the first wave of changes to improve service,” Steve Poftak, MBTA General Manager, says in a press release. “These modifications represent the most significant changes to our bus service in over a decade and are the results of both a comprehensive analysis of how our bus routes perform, and an unprecedented level of engagement with our customers.”
29 routes in total will see changes. While some routes are seeing minor revisions, meaning the elimination or movement of one or two stops, five routes—the CT1, 5, 448, 449, and 459—are being completely eliminated. Service to the stops along those routes, the MBTA says, is, for the most part, served by other buses.
The MBTA’s Fiscal Management and Control Board approved changes to 53 routes in total. The other 24 routes will likely change during or after the winter.
Will you need to retool your commute after the holiday weekend? Check the full list of changes here.
