Alrighty, so on the day I did this bus route, I was going out to the Dedham Mall to meet up with someone who was working on walking the perimeter of Boston. There were three routes I could’ve taken: the 34, the 34E, and the 35. I’ve already taken the 34E, so my options were the 34 and the 35, and it happened the 35 came first. So, here we go.
So, after using a BlueBike to Forest Hills, I boarded the 35 from the upper busway, and eventually we started moving. From here, we turned down Washington St., following a number of other bus routes including the 34E, 36, 37, and 40. All of these routes would eventually diverge. Washington St. and Roslindale Square is not as dense as other parts of the city, but it’s still a major center of activity with shopping and even a Commuter Rail station. Neat! Eventually, continuing down Belgrade Ave., we continued following the 36 and 37 as well as the Needham Line, and eventually most of the bus emptied out along here. In a way, my experience proves a good point as to why the Needham Line should be converted to an Orange Line extension. Don’t get me wrong, I feel an all/nothing approach is probably better anyways, but a split approach (Newton Highlands-Hersey converted to Green Line, Forest Hills-West Roxbury converted to Orange Line, with West Roxbury-Hersey becoming a shuttle trolley) isn’t bad either. I digress. It’s mostly all lined with businesses until reaching the area near LaGrange St. and West Roxbury Station. We turned down and it became a quiet neighborhood, and going further from there, turning down Stimson St., it’s still residential. Eventually, however, we reached Washington St., quickly turned down for a bit, and deviated into the Dedham Mall for the end of the run.
The good: It supplements a few bus routes paralleling the Needham Line, and it gets a bit of ridership! Furthermore, it’s normal in that it shows up every 30-40 minutes (though in the aforementioned area, combined frequencies are higher).
The bad: The bus starts rather late on Sundays, though, and weekday service to the mall doesn’t start until 9 AM-ish…
Nearby points of interest: Centre St. and Belgrade Ave., and the Dedham Mall! Roslindale as well!
Overall, it’s a useful route for what it is, but the run I was on had little ridership to the Dedham Mall itself. But, I think the best fate is converting the Needham Line to an Orange Line extension, and this proves it.
Rating: 6.5/10
