Route Focus: PVTA Route 33 - Puffer's Pond / Shopper Shuttle

Route Focus: PVTA Route 33 - Puffer's Pond / Shopper Shuttle

  April 02, 2020    Kareem W

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Trips: Puffers Pond | Big Y and Stop & Shop

Taken: January 2020

You can assume what this route is about by the fact that “Shopper Shuttle” is in the name, but don’t judge this book by its cover; the 33 has its hidden charms. Route 33 is run by UMass Transit, the operator of buses for the PVTA in and around Amherst. UMass Transit routes are free of charge since most of the service is paid for by the Five Colleges, and UMass Transit is almost entirely student-run, meaning student drivers as well. These features make riding UMass Transit operated routes unique from the rest of the PVTA system.

The bus arriving outside of Stop & Shop

Anyways, on to the 33 we go. The route begins and ends at a Stop & Shop shopping plaza just off Route 9 in Hadley. The vehicle operating my trip was PVTA bus #3313, a 2014 New Flyer XD35. Leaving Stop & Shop with a couple of shoppers onboard, we exited onto Route 9 and shortly turned onto University Drive, but then we immediately deviated into another shopping plaza, with a Big Y this time. I feel like I can excuse these deviations though because they are at the end of the route and this is called the “Shopper Shuttle” after all.

Serving the Big Y

After picking up a couple more shoppers, the bus looped around the parking lot in a complicated fashion and we continued back up University Drive before turning on Amity Street. Amity Street is lined with trees and houses, but quickly gets built up as we approached Amherst Center. Turning onto North Pleasant Street, the bus goes through Amherst’s neat little “downtown”, lined with cafes and local restaurants frequented by college students. The bus was busiest along this stretch of the trip.

Looking back towards Amherst Center

Going around a roundabout, we left the downtown and headed toward UMass Amherst. After making a turn, the bus was now on the stretch of N. Pleasant Street that runs through the UMass Campus. I like to call this UMass’ “Main Street”. This street is served by almost all UMass Transit routes, and on semester weekdays, hundreds of students and faculty walk, bike, and catch buses on this street at any given moment.

The empty-looking campus, featuring the tallest library in the world!

After covering this stretch, we went around another roundabout and were now on Eastman Lane, passing some large campus residential buildings. Turning onto East Pleasant Street, all there is from there are moderately spaced apart single-family houses. At the end of this road the bus turned onto Pine Street, first to serve Cushman Center, which really isn’t much besides more houses and a small market/café.

Snow-covered Cushman Common @ Cushman Center

Back on Pine Street, we reached an intersection that is a bit built up, then continued on Montague Road, then the narrow residential Summer Street. At the end of this street we finally reached Puffers Pond, a timepoint for the route, and a very scenic waterfall. Puffers Pond is rated well in online reviews as a good swimming and fishing spot in the summer, so it’s worth checking out.

After waiting at Puffers Pond for a little bit, the bus went back onto the main road but this time turned onto Cowls Road, serving “The Mill District” of Amherst, home to Atkins Farms’ north location, a restaurant, and newly built modern apartments. The sudden development seems a little out of place considering we’d just passed some farm fields, yet it looks quite nice at the same time.

These apartments don’t quite look like they belong here

The bus turns on Sunderland Road and reaches the same built up intersection from before, but this time continuing back down N. Pleasant Street, passing off-campus apartments and finally reaching the UMass Campus. At this point the route goes back on itself so I got of the bus at a UMass stop and ended my trip there.

Bye Rt. 33 – This bus needs a wash!

Overview

The 33 serves a lot of places in Amherst: shopping plazas, the town center, UMass Campus, and Puffers Falls, yet the route isn’t massive or take a long time. From Big Y to Puffers Pond only takes about 30 minutes, and there a lot of places in between where college students and residents would like to go. Using 2 vehicles on weekdays, the time between buses is an okay 30 to 40 minutes. For the weekends though, the time between buses is much worse at an hour and 20 minutes. What is nice about the schedule though is that it is consistent year-round. All the other UMass Transit routes have reduced service or no service at all during the summer and school breaks. The year-round schedule also makes the ridership healthy all year, with peaks of 50 passengers per revenue hour during school months. My trip only had a lighter load because I took the 33 during holiday break.

My only complaints are the horrible frequency on weekends, but I believe that’s an issue because of the lack of student drivers on the weekend. Also, does the 33 really need to serve Cushman Center? There isn’t much there and the route could run a bit more efficiently if that branch was cut off, plus the route would still be at most a 10-minute walk from the closest stop on the 33.

Considering all of this, the 33 still ends up being one of my favorite routes in Amherst and operated by UMass Transit. It serves a lot of useful places and the beautiful Puffers Pond, the time between buses is alright, and the route is not overly long or tedious.