Bus Network Redesign | Projects

Route 50 bus travels inbound to Forest Hills, with a bus lane in the foreground, some remnants of snow on the sidewalk

Timeline: 2018 – 2022
Status: Planning

The Bus Network Redesign is a complete re-imagining of the MBTA's bus network to reflect the travel needs of the region and create a more competitive bus service for current and future bus riders.

Greater Boston has changed significantly in recent years, with shifting demographics, emerging employment districts, increasing traffic congestion, and changing travel patterns.

And, as we collectively continue to adapt to the uncertainty of COVID-19, so will the bus network. Throughout the pandemic, buses have played a critical role in connecting people with their jobs and essential businesses like hospitals and grocery stores.

All of these things call for a bus system that meets the needs of the region.

A central initiative of the Better Bus Project, the redesign builds on some of the work we've already done and guides our recommendations for an improved bus network—a network that better serves existing riders, attracts new riders, and better meets regional needs. These changes will address everything: route design, frequency of service, span of service, stop spacing, and coverage area.

Building a Better T

As part of our $8 billion, 5-year capital investment plan, we're renovating stations, modernizing fare collection systems, upgrading services for our buses, subways, and ferries, and improving the accessibility of the entire system.

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Our Vision for the Bus Network Redesign

When we look at the network, we see things that we think only a redesign can fix. We will examine the system as a whole to create a better bus network that responds to the changing needs of the region.

Our plan aims to:

Simplify a complicated network

While implementing the 2019 Route Changes, we learned that many of our riders feel our network can often be hard to understand due to complex schedules, indirect routes and connections, and infrequent service.

The Bus Network Redesign will examine the network as a whole. We will consider the relationship between buses and other modes while looking at ways to improve access and make the network easier to understand.

Modernize the system

From complex street networks that limit choices to a lack of street space for transit, there’s a host of reasons why our bus system has been slow to respond to changes. In parts of Boston, buses run the same routes today that streetcars did 100 years ago.

By working with municipalities to identify areas where there is the most demand, we aim to improve access and create a modern bus network that is more reflective of the way Greater Boston residents travel today.

Create a more equitable network

The MBTA’s Focus40 plan concluded that “Bus-only neighborhoods and communities experience much longer and more difficult commutes—and thus poorer and more indirect access to opportunity—than do communities with easy access to rapid transit service.”

A better bus network can ensure the residents of places like Roxbury, Everett, Chelsea, Roslindale, and Lynn have better access to jobs, education, and essential services.

Make transit a competitive alternative to driving

Our ridership patterns show that people use transit when it offers a travel experience that is fast and frequent. To make transit more useful to people, we need to make it more competitive for those who own cars—and those who don’t. Using factors like travel time, frequency, number of connections, and walking distance, we’re creating metrics to evaluate why people choose to use or not use public transit.

We know that there are some riders who use the MBTA for every trip they make, and some that decide between bus, train, driving, or ridehail for each individual trip. A more competitive bus system will give people better choices on where they can go and how they can get there, regardless of whether they currently have access to a car

Building a Better Bus Network Together

We’re counting on our riders and residents of the region to help design the new bus network. The redesign will be based on data we’ve collected about travel patterns in the area, and will be shaped through continuous public engagement.

Here's what we're doing now:

Partnering with municipalities

Improving bus service is challenging because we don’t control the streets or even most bus stops—our 51 cities and towns do. So, we are working closely with our municipal partners to make change happen. We’re finding places where we can implement transit priority treatments that keep buses moving in traffic.

Identifying where riders need to go and how they get there

People are making trips to regional employment centers, like Downtown Boston and Longwood Medical, and to local centers for their neighborhood grocery store, restaurant, or other community activities. Transit must serve both of those needs. We’re looking at where people travel across the MBTA service area to see how transit can take them where they need to go.

We’ll also need your input on what makes transit a competitive alternative to driving. Our travel data shows us what trips people make, but not why they choose to take transit or other modes. So, we’ll be asking you what matters, and your answers will shape our metrics and our plan to design a network that offers better choices for more people.

What’s Next

We’ll use the data we gather during the planning process and from other work we’ve already done to produce a set of recommendations for redesigning our bus network.

We will:

Weigh the pros and cons of changes

Transit planning involves tradeoffs. We can design more routes so that more people have one-seat rides, but if we do, we have to spread the same buses across more routes, and each of those routes will be less frequent. We can design routes that get to the front door of more destinations, but if we do, those routes will be longer and slower. These are important decisions, and we can't make them without you.

Identify key corridors for transit priority

As we work through the planning process, we’ll identify streets where we want frequent transit service. We might not know which routes will use these corridors, or exactly how they’ll connect to the larger network, but we’ll know we need the service there. Even before the network planning process is done, we’ll be working with municipalities to plan, design, and implement transit priority and improve bus stops in those corridors.

Examine the MBTA system as a whole

Bus service will not be evaluated in a vacuum—the entirety of the MBTA route system is on the table for study. We will recommend improvements to major corridors with high travel demand, and we will identify new routes to better serve the region and expand access to opportunities. We'll consider how the bus network feeds into the rail network and how connections to other MBTA modes could be improved.

Propose a new network

We’ll develop a number of alternatives for the network, each proposing a different combination of service designs across the MBTA service area. We’ll then hold a series of public workshops to see which of the alternatives works best for our riders before proposing a draft network.

The proposed network will still serve the same places that the MBTA serves today, but in different ways:

Major corridors will likely still remain major corridors, but the routes and connections may change.
Buses might run on different streets within neighborhoods.
Buses will likely have different frequencies, and end of service times may change.

Once we release the draft network, we’ll set up public engagement opportunities to gather additional feedback. We’ll use this feedback to create a finalized network for the MBTA board to adopt.

Implement the new network

The new network will be implemented in several phases, starting in summer 2022. We plan to add service over time as we continue to modernize our facilities and expand our fleet.

Our public information efforts during this time will be more extensive than any we’ve ever launched for a route change—we want to ensure that riders can learn and understand the new system before it’s implemented.