Wallerce Gives Update on Better Bus Program

As chair of the Transportation Advisory Committee, Julia Wallerce gave an update on the Better Bus Program, which has been going on for the last year and a half.

Wallerce said that they came up with three recommendations to increase ridership and improve the appeal of riding the bus for the 3,000 Winthrop riders every day..

First, is to increase services through high frequency, running every five-10 minutes rather than every 20 to 40 minutes, specifically the 712 buses that runs with high ridership along Shirley Street, Veterans Road and Revere Street.

A second recommendation that has been discussed in the past, and discussed with representatives from Revere, is open a pilot a bus between Beachmont and Winthrop so that not everything is flowing into Orient Heights.

“This could be done with Revere or the extension of the Route 119 bus, or a smaller shuttle,” Wallerce said.

The third recommendation is to fix the confusion and complexity of the buses. Riders have had to guess at the times that the bus will show up. Reliability and convenience are important key components to riders.

Riders will also some day see better signage and bus stop shelters.