New crosstown express-type bus routes will provide faster links starting Monday, Sept. 26, between MIT and the Longwood Medical Area, the MIT dorm on Huntington Avenue, the MBTA Orange Line/commuter rail at Ruggles Station, and the Boston City Hospital/Boston University Medical Centers. The fare will be 60 cents.
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority CT2 crosstown route ("CT2: Kendall Square Station to Ruggles Station via Longwood Medical Area") will serve Vassar Street, MIT's Huntington Hall dorm in Boston, and the Museum of Fine Arts area every 20 minutes during the day, making only 10 stops on its 27-minute route (see schedule summary below).
The major advantages for the MIT community-beyond the links to the Orange Line, southwest commuter rail and the Harvard teaching hospital areas-are a scheduled 22-minute trip from Kendall Square to Huntington Hall near the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston, and a scheduled trip of about six minutes between Amesbury and Vassar Streets (near Tang Hall on the west edge of the MIT campus) to Kendall Square, near the Sloan School and the Dibner Institute on the east edge of campus.
The CT2 bus provides a connection at Ruggles Station to the Orange Line and commuter rail from Needham, Franklin, Stoughton and Providence. At Ruggles Station, there also is a connection to CT3, another new crosstown route running a similar daytime schedule every 20 minutes and linking Andrew Square in Dorchester to Beth Israel Hospital via Boston City Hospital and BU Medical Center.
The CT1 Crosstown route ("CT1: Central Square to BU Medical Center/BCH Via MIT") will supplement MBTA bus route #1 along Massachusetts Avenue between Central Square and Boston City Hospital (BCH), running every 15 minutes during the day and making only eight stops on its 24-minute route.
An MBTA Crosstown Transit Feasibility Study estimated the three new crosstown bus routes will carry more than 7,500 riders a day. The new routes are:
CT2: KENDALL-RUGGLES
From Ruggles Station, the CT2 bus is scheduled to run every 20 minutes from 6am-6pm. Stops will be at Huntington Ave. and Ruggles St. by the Museum of Fine Arts (6:02 etc.), Huntington Ave. at Longwood Ave. by MIT's Huntington Hall dorm and Mass. College of Art (6:04 etc.), Children's Hospital on Longwood Ave, (6:06 etc.), Beth Israel Hospital on Brookline Ave. (6:10 etc.), Park Drive at Fenway Green Line Station and Harvard Community Health Plan (6:15 etc.), Commonwealth Ave. by the B.U. Bridge (6:18 etc.), Amesbury and Vassar Streets near the Hyatt Regency Hotel (6:21 etc.), Vassar St. and Mass. Ave. (6:23 etc.), and Kendall Station at Main St., Broadway and Wentworth St. near the Sloan School (6:27 etc.).
From Kendall Square, the CT2 bus is scheduled to run every 20 minutes from 6:30am-6:30pm from Broadway at Kendall. Stops will be at Vassar St. and Mass. Ave. (6:34 etc.), Vassar and Memorial Drive (6:36 etc.), Mountfort St. at Boston University area (6:40 etc.), Park Drive at Fenway Green Line Station and Harvard Community Health Plan (6:42 etc.), Beth Israel Hospital on Brookline Ave. (6:49 etc.), Children's Hospital on Longwood Ave., (6:51 etc.), Huntington Avenue at Longwood near the MIT dorm Huntington Hall and Mass. College of Art (6:52 etc.), Huntington at Ruggles by Museum of Fine Arts and Wentworth Institute (6:54 etc.), and Ruggles Station-Orange Line/Commuter Rail (6:57 etc.).
CT1: BCH-CENTRAL SQARE
The CT1 bus is scheduled to run every 15 minutes from 6am-6:30pm. Stops will be at BU Medical Center (6:00 etc.), Boston City Hospital (6:00 etc.), and then along Massachusetts Avenue as follows: Washington St. (6:03 etc.), Massachusetts Avenue Orange Line station (6:06 etc.), Symphony Hall Green Line station by Westland Ave. (6:09 etc.), Hynes Auditorium/ Institute of Contemporary Art Green Line station (6:12 etc.), MIT at 77 Mass. Ave. (6:17 etc.), University Park (6:20 etc.), and Central Square Red Line station (6:23 etc.) Return trips start at 6:30am from Central Square and arrive at BU Medical Center roughly 24 minutes later.
A version of this article appeared in the September 21, 1994 issue of MIT Tech Talk (Volume 39, Number 5).
