MBTA Schedule | Bus | Train | Commuter Rail | Boat
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The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) is the Boston Metropolitan Area’s comprehensive public transportation system. The four elements of the MBTA include a commuter rail line that extends from two Boston terminals, North Station and South Station, to the suburbs. There are also bus and subway lines, and there are even boat lines that connect the harbor area in Downtown Boston to points south of Boston.
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Boston is known as “The Hub” for good reason – the streets and avenues extend outward from Central Boston like the spokes of a wheel, and the MBTA conforms to this reality by necessity. It is easy to get from any point to downtown, but rather difficult to get from neighborhood to neighborhood.
How to Find MBTA Schedules
The official MBTA Schedule can be found at www.mbta.com. The website’s top page is dominated by a trip planner, which can be used to plan your trip from point to point. By default, the trip planner will incorporate all four elements into the trip’s itinerary as appropriate, but the rider has the option to choose one element, such as the subway only, if preferred.
Across the top of the website, there is a row of eight radio buttons that each open to a unique drop down menu. The first radio button is titled Schedules & Maps, and the choices include the four elements of the system, Subway, Bus, Commuter Rail and Boat, as well as System Map, which can otherwise be found at http://www.mbta.com/schedules_and_maps/system_map/. The map can be magnified, allowing the user to see what MBTA elements serve a given area. There is also an option to view sub-maps detailing different suburban areas, the central urban area, and subsections of the urban area.
Directly below the radio button row on the right side of the page is a section marked Schedules & Interactive Maps, and there are four choices, one for each of the system’s four elements. If you click on Rail, you are presented with sub-menu’s offering the choice of pointing and clicking on any one of the twelve different commuter rail lines. After you’ve made your choice, you are presented with options to view a schedule or a street map of the chosen rail line. The Bus and also the Boat option present similar options. The Bus choice will open a drop down menu with which you can choose any of the hundreds of bus lines, and here, too, you can view comprehensive schedules or street maps.
Interestingly, the url doesn’t change when you choose any of the four choices of Schedules & Interactive Maps, and it does so only when you make a choice from within one of the four choices.
Another important part of the online MBTA Schedule, directly below Schedules & Interactive Maps, is the Service Alert section. You can choose to view any current problem on any of the four elements, or problems with any of extensive array of elevators and escalators that many riders depend on.
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