Route Focus: PVTA Route 31 - Sunderland/South Amherst

Route Focus: PVTA Route 31 - Sunderland/South Amherst

  April 25, 2020    Kareem W

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Trip: Sunderland

Taken: February 2020

At first glance, you might not expect the college town of Amherst to have any impressive bus routes with city-like features like high ridership and frequent buses. Well you’d be wrong; UMass Transit’s routes 30 and 31 have exactly those features when operating during the academic year.

Both routes 30 and 31 travel from north to south through Amherst, serving the UMass Campus in the middle. The southern end of the 31 begins at an off-campus apartment neighborhood called Southpoint Townhouses and The Boulders. The 31 uses an articulated bus (New Flyer XDE60) during semesters, so of course I had to catch a trip with one.

PVTA #3402, the stretch limo

Leaving the stop for The Boulders on Brittany Manor Drive, we went around the road lined with apartments, and the bus made one more stop before turning onto East Hadley Road. The road curved and paralleled a small brook up until an intersection with South Pleasant Street.

We turned up Pleasant Street heading towards Amherst Center, passing homes with large yards and the generally rural landscape of Amherst with forests and fields. Before long, the buildings and halls of Amherst College appeared, but the 31 doesn’t turn in to serve it, unlike the 38.

Buildings of Amherst College

Instead, we made a stop at the busy Amherst Common, then proceeded through the equally active downtown of Amherst with all its cafes and shops.

This is neither a café nor shop, but there are plenty around here

After two more stops for the Amherst Post Office and Pray Street, the bus went around a roundabout and we were now on North Pleasant Street, heading towards the UMass Campus.

Around we go!

Soon, the bus made another turn, starting the stretch of North Pleasant Street running through UMass, which I like to call UMass’ Main Street because of how busy it is.

Fine Arts Center and the Haigis Mall

Making three stops along North Pleasant Street (Studio Arts Building, Morrill Science Center, and Arnold House respectively), we made our way along the street gaining more passengers. Usually the bus would be packed by the time we reached the last stop, but the trip I took was during a class-time, and there was only a moderate number of students on the bus continuing north.

The view of the campus center and library from North Pleasant St

Going around another roundabout and still on North Pleasant Street, the UMass Campus buildings started to disappear were replaced by residential. We made a stop outside of the Crestview Apartments, which is across the street from UMass’ family-style North Village apartments and close to the Puffton Village Apartments. As you can see, there’s plenty of affiliated and non-unaffiliated off-campus apartments around here.

Route 30 pulls into and ends at the Puffton Village Apartments

Soon after all the apartments, the bus headed into North Amherst center, which has a couple of businesses and a church, and we turned onto Meadow Street.

Taking tight turns like a champ!

On this street, there’s a stop for more off-campus housing called “Townehouse Apartments” [sic].

Townehouse Apartments. No, I am not misspelling their name.

After this, the bus turned onto the higher speed and almost highway-like Amherst Road. Along here there are only a couple stops at occasional clusters of businesses. Also along Amherst Road, we entered the town of Sunderland.

Solar Panels by an elementary school, with Mount Sugarloaf in view.

Eventually, we reached Sunderland Center, and we turned down Main Street, making the last leg of the route to Sugarloaf Estates.

Sunderland Center

Upon reaching Sugarloaf Estates, we turned into the entrance for the apartments and the trip ended at a stop towards the end of the parking lot. FRTA Route 23 to Greenfield also serves Sugarloaf Estates 6 times a day.

Up close and personal with #3402

Overview

On academic weekdays, the 31 has frequent headways of 15 minutes, and on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights, the 31 operates as late as 1 AM to serve the late-night party crowds. For ridership, the 31 has tremendous ridership with up to an average of 40 passengers per trip (or up to 70 passengers per revenue hour). From a transit planner’s perspective, these are great numbers for a mid-sized route like the 31, but from a rider’s perspective, this means packed and often overloaded buses, especially if you didn’t catch the one 60-foot articulated bus and got a 40-foot bus instead.

The bus got packed right after I got off. Class time had just ended, and rush-hour was in full swing.

The other downside of the 31 is that it has very long headways of 75 minutes on weekends. This is because the 31 uses just one vehicle on weekends, which is typically an articulated bus. The demand for better headways is certainly there, but the ability for UMass Transit to operate more vehicles on weekends is limited.

The typical loud and crowded experience of riding 31 aside, the 31 is an excellent route with great headways, straightforward routing, and good service on weekdays. Like Route 30, the main purpose of the 31 is to transport students to and from the UMass campus and a variety of off-campus apartments in Amherst and Sunderland. While the 31’s purpose is quite specific, the service is on par with trunk routes connecting dense areas, like the B7 or G1 in Springfield. Plus, it’s just cool and unique to see articulated buses running on rural roads.