The minibus: a bright haven in the middle of the darkness. |
Middle of nowhere + darkness = awful pictures. |
I have no idea what this is, but here it is! |
I think we're making a turn here? |
Who knows what this is? |
There we go! It's a legible image! |
No, let us stay on please! |
All of a sudden we lost the sidewalk. It was just us on the dark road. Every time a car came, we had to duck into a driveway. "Woof, woof!" barked a rabid dog across the street, trying to get free of its chain so it could murder us for a light snack. "Don't worry," his owner shouted from the house, "he doesn't bite!" Okay, if you say so...
We merged onto Myrtle Street and came across a set of pylons going across the road. I was all set to go under them, but Nathan had second thoughts. "Let me just shine my flashlight to see where we're going," he said as he turned it on from his phone...and right in our path were downed power lines. Right there. We could've died!!!!
A small bridge over the Charles River actually had a sidewalk, then we arrived at a strange ice arena in the middle of nowhere. "Left here," Nathan said. We turned onto Dean Street, but we ran into an obstacle in the form of a house with demonic Christmas lawn ornaments outside. After darting between the abominable snowman from Rudolph, a huge Minion from Despicable Me, and a strange cutout of Buddy the Elf, we had to cross the power lines again. Nathan immediately turned on the flashlight.
"Is this the right way?" I eventually asked. "I think so," Nathan replied, "I'll check the map to make sure." Nope - we were going in the complete opposite direction. "I don't think we're going to make the train," I said. "We might still have a chance!" Nathan replied. He checked his watch. "Maybe..."
As we were going through the maze of lawn ornaments again, I said a little too loudly that they were awful and creepy. "Don't say that," Nathan said, "We might get shot." Right after, the door of the house opened up behind us and someone started to step out. We bolted into the night.
Medway Street was the longest section of our walk. It was also the worst street in the history of the universe. Again, there were no sidewalks, but this time the houses and driveways were further apart. Every time we reached one, we instinctively ducked into it in case any harsh headlights from cars came speeding down the road. The weirdest one by far was a big Hummer, decked out in a ton of different lights, speeding down the road far faster than it should've been going. Why did it have so many neon lights on it? Why was it going so fast?
Medway Street never ended. It just kept on going and going and going. "What if we die along here?" I asked Nathan. "What if I collapse to the floor and an angel comes to pick me up?" "What would the angel look like?" Nathan asked. "A GATRA minibus," I replied, "and it would make a million deviations on the way to heaven."
More Medway Street. Why was this road so long? Shoot, another car is coming, let's duck into a driveway. Wait...those lights...that speed...the Hummer was back! I legitimately braced myself for a gunshot...but it never came. The ghost Hummer sped off for the second time, in the opposite direction.
Why did they call Medway Street a "street"? That suggests a relatively urban environment, or perhaps a sidewalk? Medway ROAD would be a much more fitting name. Wait...what's that down there? Is that...the end? WE MADE IT! WE CONQUERED MEDWAY STREET!!!! I HAD NEVER FELT HAPPIER IN MY LIFE!!!!!!!
WE WERE SO HAPPY WE ACTUALLY TOOK A SELFIE! |
A pungent smell arose as we entered Norfolk Town Pizza. A TV was blaring some trashy game show above the dirty tables. We silently agreed that our orders would be to go. We got our slices in bags, which I thought was a little weird and unwieldy, and once we started eating on the Norfolk Station mini-high platform, it turned out it was plain ol' bad pizza, too. Sigh...we survived Medway Street for this?
Oh yeah...I'm supposed to be writing about buses... |
Ridership: Well, at first glance, the ridership of 51 people per day doesn't seem too high. But then you look at the productivity: 36 passengers per hour. Then you see the farebox recovery ratio: 41%, compared to the GATRA average of 8.2%. And finally, we see the subsidy per passenger: $1.30, versus the average of $11.83. Yeah, this is an amazing route for GATRA standards.
Pros: Like I said, the numbers for this route are great. This is the best-performing route on GATRA overall, which is quite an achievement. As a route, it gets plenty of ridership on its three trips in each direction, and for only a dollar, this is a great last-mile connection from the train. It's awesome that it has a free park-and-ride at the middle school, too.
Cons: As far as the route goes, its biggest con is in the evening rush schedule. For some reason, the route is shown as departing three minutes before each Commuter Rail train arrives! It obviously doesn't play out this way, but it could be very confusing for new riders. Also, of all routes for GATRA not to run all day, it's seriously this one? There are a few shopping plazas out near I-495 that it could run to on a midday schedule, and it would be able to service them every hour.
Nearby and Noteworthy: Well, currently, there isn't much. All you've really got is Medway Village, and that's a very small town center.
Final Verdict: 8/10
Of course GATRA's best-performing route has to get a high score! Now granted, it's just a rush hour-only commuter shuttle with three trips in each direction, but it still performs that function well. It seems like the route would do well with midday service too, although it only satisfies the shopping mall part of the suburban bus route equation - there are no housing developments to serve, so there may not be a lot of people that would ride middays. Regardless, a bunch of people do during rush hour, and it works great. Also, for the record, Medway Street gets a 1/10, and I hope to never see it ever again.
Latest MBTA News: Service Updates
I can't believe you walked five and half miles to write a review! Is Medway too far out from Boston to have Uber or Lyft?
ReplyDeleteThere's Uber out there, but what's the fun in that? ;)
DeleteI forgot to ask in the plimptonville post but did you happen to review the Norwood stations and islington
ReplyDeleteNo, I didn't.
DeleteCan you please add the Hyannis station review to the commuter rail section of the train stations part of the blog.I know it's not an actual commuter rail station but maybe you can do what you did with the Amtrak exclusive stations and put "capeflyer" In parenthesis next to it
ReplyDeletehttp://www.milesonthembta.com/2015/08/bonus-review-hyannis-transportation.html
DeleteOkay but are you going to add it to the station page like I requested
DeleteOh you did ,thanks for taking my request!
ReplyDeleteNo problem
DeleteIve been waiting forever for you to write this, thank you! I live in Medway, right near the village stop you previously mentioned. That pizza place is amazing. But walking to the station from here is insane, that mustn't have been fun.
ReplyDelete