Ah, goody, a new bus route! Well, after doing my entry on Brandeis/Roberts, I’ve gotten the 553 to head back towards Newton and the Green Line. The route’s layover point is at the stop at Angleside Road, adjacent to the Commuter Rail’s inbound platform. After getting pics of the station, I went up to the bus and boarded.
The route begins going down South Street, opening the doors at the crossing, closing them, and continuing, largely serving Brandeis. Eventually, though, after a short deviation into Boston Children’s Waltham hospital and back out, we would turn down Main Street and eventually into Central Square. We picked up some people, however it wasn’t a lot. But, we did get a number of people from the Commuter Rail station in Waltham’s town center. The driver, however, did fuck someone over by not letting them board with a bicycle. Whoops.
We cross the tracks over into southern Waltham and, soon enough, Newton. Along the way it was much of the same, town center-y vibes to go around, until it became single-family housing again. We turned down Maple St., and back onto Moody St., and kept going down it until it became Lexington and River Streets. Soon enough, thankfully, though, things would become a little denser as we turned down Elm Street, looped around West Newton’s Commuter Rail station through a mini-Supercollider. We exited at Washington Street, continued down it, passing by Newtonville, and eventually we reached the infamous Newton Supercollider at Newton Corner. One complete loop around it and we were done, as the bus would return to the garage from whence it came. YAY!
The good: It serves Brandeis University! It also serves a considerable amount of suburban Newton as well, and Waltham’s CR station! It’s also West Newton’s sole full-time bus connection.
The bad: It could use better headways… (also, it used to run express into downtown?!). It also doesn’t run Sundays.
Nearby points of interest: Brandeis University, Washington St. (Newton), and Waltham Center mainly.
Overall, it’s a decent route. It could use better headways and Sunday service, but all things considered, it’s solid as-is, if a little low ridership. Say, what’s the plan for this post-BNRD, anyways?
*looks up the BNRD*
Huh, apparently the plan calls for axing this for a new route 53 to serve Brandeis, originating at Market Basket, and terminating at Woodland Station. It also calls for 50-90 minute headways, and …not serving Central Square? Weird choice, MBTA. Replacing Waltham CR-Newton Corner service would have a new route 58 running at similar headways but otherwise running the same route, with an extension out to Watertown Yard. I mean…it’s not the worst thing, but I do wonder what makes it worthwhile splitting this into two, rather than at least extending the proposed route 53 to deviate, in a way, to Central Square. Yeah, I feel kinda mixed about this, but I’m also not exactly the target demographic (I do not ride the 553 regularly)
Rating: 6.5/10
