The MBTA is taking a different approach to reassessing their bus routes this year with the Better Bus project. Instead of asking how to cut service, they’re asking how to improve reliability, travel times, and overall ridership. Best of all, the MBTA is looking for feedback. The reports provide a great deal of data for each route, as well as proposals for improvement and the trade-offs being made. The numbers for Newton aren’t impressive and the changes may not seem significant, but in some cases (such as the 59) they’re proposing changes to sections which have followed old trolley routes from a century ago.
Proposed changes to Newton’s routes include:
- Simplifications to 52 and 59 routes, eliminating variants and adding more frequent service to Needham Street. A few years ago, Newton was at risk of losing these north-south routes.
- Elimination of loops around the Circle of Death in one direction for express buses in Newton Corner.
- A shorter route for the 60 bus, skipping the Chestnut Hill Mall and terminating at Chestnut Hill Square instead of Langley Road in Thompsonville (yes, that is Thompsonville)
For everybody headed TO Newton Corner FROM Boston, the proposal is for the (frequent service provided by the) 502 and 504 to stop at Jefferson Street and not at the big bus stop near Bacon Street. The south side of Newton Corner would not be served by these buses at all. Isn’t this a very significant service cut or am I missing something?
The loop is dumb. Half the drivers skip the loop anyway, which I know would piss me off if I picked the bus up at the south side. But something needs to be done to help the south siders walk across to the north side stop. Raised crosswalks (which would slow traffic in the circle) or a pedestrian bridge? A gondola?
Also, I would be in favor of bringing consistency to the bus route numbers – a 504 currently may or may not go to Copley depending on time of day.
An express bus route to the Seaport would be a nice addition for a lot of us as well.
That loop can add several minutes to the bus route, so this should improve wait times for people on the inbound side, especially during peak hours when traffic is heavy. However, the transfer in the afternoon from the express bus to the S/B 52 is gonna suck. I’m not sure how many people this impacts, but it means crossing a tough intersection instead of just staying put. It doesn’t seem like the reverse is much of a problem. On the south side, there should be little interest outbound express service.
The changes to Route 59 are an outrageous repetition of proposed changes that were rejected within the past two years. The T proposes to cut out service to the heart of Upper Falls and Newton Highlands where many elderly people and low-income people live who are very transit dependent. I would hope that the Upper Falls and Newton Highlands Area Councils as well as the state and local officials from these areas would strongly protest these changes.
The rationale for the changes include a desire to increase service to Needham Street (fine but do it at the expense of Northland and other property owners in the corridor) and a finding of poor reliability on the route on weekends/ (The obvious alternative is to MAKE THE ROUTE MORE RELIABLE..
The New General Manager should be chanllenged on this harebrained change.
@Brian, I wholly agree that the elderly, disabled, and low-income riders on the 59 can’t be abandoned. Hopefully the Eliot St. diversion could be kept while also increasing service on Needham Street.
The 59 bus could eventually be packed with riders if it were correctly managed to frequently and reliably serve the large user populations in the Needham/Newton corridor – it would be disappointing if transit service to Needham Crossing were left only to the private Local Motion/TripAdvisor/128 Business Council shuttles, rather than the MBTA.
I was also surprised that they intend to abandon the Winchester St. diversion of the 52 bus – that’s the only public transit that serves the JCC, and it’s the only hope of ever providing public transit to Wells Ave.
52: Routing every trip down Meadowbrook/Wheeler is interesting. It’s always strange seeing the bus back there. The removal of the Winchester variation removes service to the JCC, which is disappointing. (Access to Wells Ave. is still possible by walking through the woods.)
59: I think both the Elliot St and Needham St routings are both useful; I’d be sad to see the Elliot St one go. Maybe it would be a bit more equitable to run Oak->Elliot instead of Oak-Chestnut-Elliot?
60: (Adam missed this one in his post, but it’s worth a look.) The proposal is to switch the terminus from the Chestnut Hill Mall to Chestnut Hill Square. It’s true the Square is more popular these days. The proposal also uses this as an opportunity to change where the bus loops: instead of going up to Langley, it will use Chestnut Hill Square to turn around. That’s unfortunate for the small-but-trusty cohort of Thompsonville commuters who board at the Sunoco. It’s also surprising because, if I recall, previous MBTA studies had recommended extending the 60 towards the Newton Highlands area. [A further surprise is that they’ve kept the Brookline Village to Kenmore via Longwood Area for the 60, even though its brother the 65 has received the useful proposal of Brookline Village to Ruggles via Longwood Area.]
Express buses: The fragmentation is unfortunate, but it really is an improvement for everyone who gets on the bus before Newton Corner (and who don’t care about access to the 52).
Has anyone thought to ask the bus drivers how this whole system and set of schedules could work better? We used to do this regularly in Rhode Island back in the early 80s when I was helping to examine expanded bus transit programs as part of the State’s clean air planning. They saw things that consultants and modelers just wouldn’t pick up. The Rhode Island Public Transit Authority’s (RIPTA) bus driver and service union was a joy to work with and they enjoyed taking ownership of key parts of this planning. I’m still in touch with two of their leaders. As Tip O’Neil used to say, “if you want something, you have to ask”.
@Brian Yates. I’ll put this on the agenda of the Highlands Area Council for our February meeting. Could you come?
I’m glad they are going to drop the alternative routes on the 52 & 59 – though I’m not sure they are dropping the right ones. Also glad they are increasing the frequency of the #59. I didn’t see anything about extending the hours beyond 6-7pm.
Comments about the changes need to be given to the MBTA before March 13.
Brian – In past years, Newton has been at risk of losing its bus routes entirely because of low ridership. The numbers don’t lie (or if they do, someone should call them out on it) If ridership is that low along Eliot Street, maybe it is more cost efficient to replace that section with smaller shuttles or ride sharing?
Jeremy – thanks for the correction. I’ll add the 60 to the post. It doesn’t look like there’s much time saved by shortening the route. I wonder if it’s worth it. The bulk of the #60 boardings are much closer to Brookline. The 60 is also stuck with the Pill Hill detour (Cypress Street) which makes the trip extra long for Newtonites.
Adam – thanks.
There probably is time saved, actually… it’s only because of the stop at the Sunoco that the 60 has to go all the way up to Langley Rd: after CHS was built it became possible to turn left directly out of the Chestnut Hill Mall.
The Sunoco stop is a nice little secret for those of us in the area who want to go right to the Longwood Area, and pay 50c less than subway fare, but ultimately it’s not entirely necessary: those who currently board there could be convinced to walk to the new 60 bus stop in CHS or walk to the Green Line in Newton Centre.
@Jeremy – if the 60 came to Newton Highlands, I’d take it over the D Line (which I don’t take to work) for 2 reasons: (1) For those who work at the Huntington Ave. side of the LMA, Brookline Ave. is significantly closer than the Longwood stop, and (2) I’d feel safer waiting for it after dark on Brookline Ave. because the stop’s at ground level where there’s a lot of foot traffic whereas the Longwood T stop is below ground level and isolated if you leave after rush hour.
I suspect there’s a hidden agenda with the route 60 changing to Chestnut Hill Square. The 60 used to stop at the upper mall and turn around at Hammond Pond Parkway, probably the way the trolleys once did. When they redid that intersection and widened Route 9, they extended the bus to the mall and Langley, but with the extra lane on route 9 there’s really no place for the bus to dwell or even stop to pick up passengers anymore. The route change basically trades one mall stop for another one that might be a bit more popular lately. According to the proposal, this saves 1 minute.
If the T eliminates the loop around Newton Corner, welcome as that may be, ridership levela may suffer if some are forced to take their life in their hands to cross from one side to the other and decide to use other means of travel. The city needs to do what it can to improve pedestrian access as it works to improve the circle of death.
A lot of mall employees use the 60 at the mall. This would be a disservice to them. Many are completely dependent on it.