To the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, City of Newton, City of Cambridge, and Commonwealth of Massachusetts:

As of 2019, there is no bus, subway, or commuter rail that provides direct service between the cities of Newton and Cambridge. These two communities collectively house over two hundred thousand people and are the third and first largest municipalities sharing a border with Boston, respectively. Both are home to vibrant residential neighborhoods, historic cultural attractions, and bustling commercial districts that serve not just their residents but the entirety of Greater Boston. Yet they remain severely disconnected by public transit.

Commuters between Newton and Cambridge have few options, all of which come with significant challenges. As traffic worsens and highways become increasingly congested, drivers face lengthy commutes and higher levels of gas usage, not to mention difficult-to-find or expensive parking. Subway riders must take the T into downtown Boston only to ride it out again, with trips taking up to an hour. Those who chose the bus are forced to either transfer between unpredictable and packed routes or walk over a mile to the nearest stop. Even the greenest and most direct choice of cycling comes with its own risks, including erratic weather and dangerous, high-speed roads that lack established bike paths.

Adding a bus route between Newton and Cambridge would provide residents with a safe, reliable, and direct connection between their cities. But it would help more than just those who choose to ride it. It would take drivers off the street, easing traffic on the Mass Pike and Soldier’s Field Road and reducing carbon emissions. It would save hundreds from traveling through downtown Boston via the Green and Red Lines, relieving pressure on a severely congested subway network. It would reduce ridership on some of the crowded bus routes that indirectly serve Newton and Cambridge through Allston, Brighton, Watertown, and Brookline by rerouting many of their passengers. It might even rescue the occasional biker from having to cycle home in the rain.

A bus route could, above all, provide a much-needed service that would help Massachusetts commuters easily and quickly get to their destinations. For the MBTA, the fix could be as simple as extending the 64 route between Oak Square and Kendall to Newton Corner or the 52 route between the Dedham Mall and Watertown Yard via Newton to Harvard. These solutions would not require a largescale purchasing of new buses or hiring of new drivers because they would only lengthen routes a couple of miles past their current terminuses. Ridership would be protected and likely increase on these low-priority lines. 

Boston has a suburban transportation problem: while the MBTA provides service in and out of the city, it does not do so around the city. This means that riders must endure downtown congestion even when it is not their final destination, hurting suburbanites and city dwellers alike. A bus route from #Newton2Cambridge would not fix this problem, but it would—simply but importantly—be a start.