Bus/bike lanes on Huntington Avenue between Brigham Circle and Gainborough Street will be made permanent by the end of the year with the addition of red paint, after the MBTA and BTD said today that 39 and CT-2 riders are saving up to two minutes per trip during the morning and evening commutes when compared to the same period in 2019. Read more.
The Boston Transportation Department has decided this is the year of the 39 and 57 buses - and has launched studies to see how to improve their routes to get people to and fro faster - and let them "wait comfortably at their bus stops and board the bus safely." Read more.
The T reminds Green Line riders that it's shutting down the ol' E Line between Copley and Heath between Aug. 6 and Aug. 21 to make improvements, including sprucing up the tracks it didn't get to the last time it shut the line. Riders who'd rather not just walk from Back of the Hill to Copley Square can instead ride the 39 bus, the T says.
Patrick Ford had a ringside seat to watch the plus-sized 39 buses shimmying all over South Huntington Avenue in the snow, because they never seem to remember that they just don't do well in the snow there.
On Centre Street outside the Curley School shortly after 10 p.m., driver may have had a seizure.
Roselynn RodrÃguez Manzanet reports:
Please help my little friend, M, find her Mary Pig. She is heartbroken. Last seen on the 39 bus Sunday.
The T has canceled the E Line past Brigham Circle due to a trolley and a stopped box truck exchanging some love pats near the Riverway and is advising riders to jump on the 39 bus instead - but the buses are having their own problems due to all the traffic piled up as a result.
A 39 bus and an E Green Line trolley had a little love bump on Huntington Avenue near Brigham Circle shortly before 7:30 a.m. Lena, who captured the scene, reports there didn't appear to be too much damage, but that some of the Boston Latin School students on the 39 "charter" from Forest Hills appeared shaken up. Plus, of course, traffic came to a halt.
The T's Joe Pesaturo shows us a new 39 bus at Back Bay with a barrier to help protect the driver from the sort of people with anger-management issues who insist on taking buses.
State transportation officials said tonight they will shut the Arboretum-bound side of the Casey Overpass in February, followed by the Mattapan-bound side by the end of March.
Transit Police report arresting an out-of-towner they say used a hockey stick to threaten the driver of a 39 bus at Forest Hills and prevent riders from boarding around 7:45 p.m. on Friday.
Police continue that John Capehart, 50, of Marlborough did not willingly go with them to the penalty box:
Two stuck buses. Photo by Gordon Hallett.
As of 2:45, there were three 39 buses dead on South Huntington Avenue by the VA Hospital - two due to a bit of crashiness. Police asked the dispatcher on that route to stop sending buses down South Huntington.
And with nowhere for them to turn around, E Line trolleys that normally would head that way are instead terminating at Brigham Circle.
MBTA Transit Police report a man they initially intended to just ticket for drinking a malt beverage and smoking a cigarette at Forest Hills last night found himself under arrest when they discovered he was wanted in Chelsea for assault with intent to murder and aggravated assault.
According to a police report, around 9:30 p.m., an officer making a routine swing through the area around the 39 bus berth under the overpass noticed:
[A] male party, later identified as Ronaldo Taylor, sitting on a retaining wall behind the Inspector's booth. I approached Taylor to see what he was doing. As I was approaching him, I observed he had an open container of a 40 ounce malt beverage and he was smoking a cigarette.
The MBTA is outlining a series of changes to the 39 route from Forest Hills to just before Back Bay it says will mean shorter commutes for riders on the system's second-busiest bus route.
Among them: Eliminating one out of every five stops and looking at new locations for some of the remaining ones. Also proposed are changes to the traffic signals at Monument Square in Jamaica Plain.
Also for you 111, 114, 116 and 117 riders. Catch the Bus uses recently released real-time MBTA data for those routes to let you know when your bus is going to show up.
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