South Boston Bus Stop and Service Improvement Plan Announced

After hearing from the community and elected officials, the MBTA on Jan. 15 announced its updated plan for South Boston bus stop and service improvements. The changes are designed to enhance service reliability, reduce overcrowding at bus stops, and to optimize bus stop locations and spacing.

Effective immediately, South Boston bus service will permanently travel inbound via Broadway rather than on E. 4th St., to match the outbound routing. The temporary route had been in place since last winter, when roadway configurations changed in response to historic snowfall levels, and this change makes the temporary route permanent. This change will enhance public safety and other benefits, include wider lane and sidewalk widths, and less susceptibility to delays caused by double-parked vehicles, garbage trucks, delivery vehicles, and emergency vehicles.

Two public meetings were held to discuss the bus route changes. Buses will remain at the temporary bus stops established on E. Broadway. The MBTA and consultant team will advance designs for accessibility improvements and bus stop consolidation at remaining bus stops planned for E. 1st St, Farragut Rd., E. Broadway, P St., and L St.

The consolidated stops are expected to increase walk times by 1-2 minutes for most customers, but this is offset by travel time savings from consolidated stops and reliability improvements. The changes will also upgrade the existing stops, which do not meet MBTA accessibility guidelines, while minimizing parking impacts. Placement of bus stops in locations with wider sidewalks will also improve the experience for waiting passengers and increase waiting space for passengers. Over the course of a weekday, shorter bus travel times via E. Broadway result in 4.5 fewer bus-hours on the streets of South Boston-even for the same number of trips.

In a separate initiative, there are plans to reconstruct the City Point bus terminal. The MBTA will coordinate to see if there are opportunities for improved transit amenities or other neighborhood benefits as part of this process. As part of these improvements, the MBTA will explore a new Bus facility along E. First Street. Also through our ongoing Bus service planning effort the MBTA is exploring other additional improvements to Bus Service for the South Boston Neighborhood. Future public meetings related to this effort will be announced.