The MBTA announced changes as part of the Better Bus Project, including increased service on one of Watertown’s bus lines. See information sent out by the MBTA, below.
Subway and bus spring schedules will go into effect on April 6, 2025. The new schedule will include multiple changes to improve service frequency and schedule reliability in order to address growing traffic congestion. Riders are encouraged to use the MBTA’s Trip Planner to plan their trips and check out the full list of upcoming bus service changes at MBTA.com/ServiceChanges.
Notable frequency increases this spring include bus Routes 57 and 77:
Route 57 – Watertown Yard – Kenmore Station
We are improving Route 57 frequency for Newton and Watertown riders from every 15-20 minutes to every 10 minutes during weekday and evening rush hour periods. Additionally, the route will be simplified to create a more consistent service pattern and more consistent trip spacing between Oak Square and Kenmore. This increase in service supports the MBTA’s collaboration with the City of Boston on the future Route 57 Transit Priority Corridor, which will use strategies like dedicated bus lanes and transit signal priority to help buses move more efficiently. Data shows these lanes and signals will improve travel times for more than 8,500 daily riders.
Route 77 – Arlington Heights – Harvard Station
Route 77 will operate every 10 minutes or better during rush hour periods beginning this spring, an increase from the current 15-20 minutes on weekdays. On Saturdays, frequencies will improve to every 12-14 minutes from every 20 minutes. Sunday service will be upgraded from every 20-25 minutes to every 15 minutes or better, except during early morning and late-night service hours. This investment in increased service on Route 77 aligns with the City of Cambridge’s commitment to existing bus lanes on Massachusetts Avenue north of Porter Square and into Arlington, which helps to keep bus riders moving safely and reliably. These lanes have proven to save more than 4,300 daily riders 3-4 minutes each way, which amplifies the T’s investment in increased service.
These frequency improvements for Routes 57 and 77 are another step as part of Bus Network Redesign. The MBTA plans for these routes to become Frequent Bus Routes with service every 15 minutes or better all day, every day in the future.
As I am only an occasional user of MBTA buses, I ask others if their experience of the No. 71 line matches mine over the years: infrequent and unreliable. My last ride two weeks ago was actually unreliably welcome. The sign at Harvard Square T indicated that a bus was perhaps 15-20 minuets away, so I sat down on a bench to read. Good thing I looked up when a bus barreled down the driveway a minute or so later: an unannounced 71! I was home in minutes; couldn’t have been luckier. But why is it down to luck? For a bus route of only four miles, shouldn’t reliability be a relative cinch? As, thanks to the MBTA itself, we are set to build up dramatically in Watertown Square in the coming years, cars very much excluded, isn’t this route important for getting thousands of new residents from a public transportation “desert” to a bus/train hub? I’m closer to the 71 than the 73, but the latter seems to leave Harvard much more often than the former. Is that due to greater ridership, or a nod to the tonier Belmont clientele? I end up walking ten minutes home, instead of three. No harm. But for anyone living near Watertown Square, now or in the future, that isn’t an option. I paraphrase from Jaws: we’re going to need a bigger bus (route).
Finally something we can agree about!
The frequency of the 71 bus service is not adequate to support transit related development demanded by the MBTA Communities Act. The number 70 bus is also famously unreliable.
The sign board in Harvard Square is almost always wrong with regard to the 71 and 73 buses. The app is more accurate but not that much better. There are still “ghost buses” and inaccuracies.
We should not be asked to build extensive housing without more frequent and better transit service. Folks should be able to simply walk to a stop and expect a bus within a reasonable waiting time.
The MBTA Communities Act is an unsupported mandate. It’s all stick and no carrot.
Agreed on every word.
I had to go to a conference at Harvard last week, so took the bus for the first time in ages. I picked up the 71 in the Square and it was a pleasant trip. I can’t say the same for the ride back via the 70 bus, which I picked up on Western Ave after vising the engineering school. The driver should have been certified – slamming on the brakes for stops, changing lanes at speed and overall, it was a nail biting experience. It reminded me why I prefer to drive to work and pay for parking.
I can’t remember the last time I ever took the 57 – it had to have been in college. A few years ago I needed to get to Copley, so took the 504 – the cost was insane, and another reminder why it isn’t worth taking the T.
The 57 route barely passes through Watertown. It carries a fraction of the ridershop of the 71. Along with plans to revitalize Watertown Square and to build more housing there, the frequency of service along Mt Auburn Street from Harvard to Watertown Square needs to increase. 20 minutes between busses is not good enough.
You might be right about the 57 not serving that many Watertown riders. It must be considered though that the 57 was the replacement for the “A” line trolley that used to run to Watertown Square.
That said, the 71 and 70 are probably the most vital services for Watertown. They need to be increased.
Making the 70 reliable will be a tough lift. It is a long, long route through heavy traffic areas. But the 71 would be an easier fix. The T needs to shorten the current 20 minute headways.
Agree with all the above comments about the 70 and 71!
I would like to see service along Pleasant St. There is the 558 bus but it runs only a few times during morning and evening during weekdays and it doesn’t go to Watertown Sq. The Watertown Connector shuttle picks up some of the slack but it too also only runs morning and evenings weekdays only. Anyone who lives near the end of Pleasant St by the Waltham line who have places to go when neither the 558 or Connector shuttle are running has to either walk all the way to Main St to get T service or walk all the way down Pleasant St to Watertown Sq. Both are pretty far walks. You would think with all the apartments on the far west end of Watertown that have opened in the past several years (Mews, WaterMills, Aver) there would be T service or some form of transit option that runs somewhat frequently 7 days a week.
“You would think with all the apartments on the far west end of Watertown that have opened in the past several years (Mews, WaterMills, Aver) there would be T service or some form of transit option that runs somewhat frequently 7 days a week.”
I’ve been asking that question for years. We have to get serious about transit if Eastern Massachusetts is to have a competitive future. Phil Eng has been doing his best to fix a transit system that cannot keep its assets in working order. But we have to be looking beyond that to the future–which will require more and better transit.