Route Focus: PVTA X92 - Mid-City Crosstown

Route Focus: PVTA X92 - Mid-City Crosstown

  April 22, 2020    Kareem W

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Trip: Memorial Industrial Park via Senior Center and Roosevelt

Taken: June 2019

Welcome to the X92, the second of the PVTA “X” crosstown routes. Unlike the lengthier and straighter X90, the X92 has more of a crescent shaped routing from Downtown Springfield to East Springfield via the South End.

A lovely day for a bus ride

I took the X92 on a spring afternoon. The vehicle operating the trip was PVTA bus #1554, a 2008 Gillig Low Floor 35’. Leaving Union Station, we headed towards Downtown Springfield on Main Street. Encountering a bit of afternoon traffic, we slowly made our way through Downtown, passing the towers, Court Square, the MassMutual Center, MGM Springfield, etc, etc.

State Street – We’ll meet up with State Street later on

Further down Main Street, we left the more built up downtown and entered Springfield’s South End, where dense businesses, shops, and residential buildings remained.

Lovely brick apartments off of Main Street

The road curved and we were now on Locust Street. Up to this point, the X92 followed the same routing as the G1 and G2 from Union Station, but that changed once we turned onto Mill Street. On this street, there were no longer shops, but just apartments of varying densities.

Apartments, except for this historic single-family home

Mill Street curves a bit and the X92 joins up and shares a couple of stops with the G5. Passing the Johnny Appleseed Park, Mill Street gains a grass median, along with mixed shops on one side of the street. Mill Street ends here and splits off into Dickinson Street and Orange Street, and the X92 takes Orange Street.

These shops sure do add a splash of color

On Orange Street, there are more dense two-family homes, and shops at major intersections like Oakland Street and White Street (the latter is served by the X90).

Corner stores at the intersection of White and Orange

Soon, Orange Street ends, and we were briefly on Allen Street before turning onto Island Pond Road. Around the start of Island Pond Road, there’s two shopping plazas with a variety of retail including Rocky’s Hardware, a Rite-Aid Pharmacy, and Nathan Bill’s Bar & Restaurant.

Just a shopping plaza

After the shopping plazas though, the retail ends and there’s mostly one-story homes. Further down Island Pond Road, there are two churches and the road ends and splits off into Roosevelt Avenue.

This intersection was recently redone with bike lanes and greenspace. Love it!

The bus took a left onto Roosevelt and we proceeded to cross a bridge over the Watershops Pond. Continuing on Roosevelt, there’s more single-family homes and a wooded park on the other side of the street.

The intersection of Alden Street, just after Watershops Pond

Roosevelt Avenue curves at the intersection of Wilbraham Road (B17), and after a brief stretch, we turned off of Roosevelt Avenue and onto Berlin Street, going up a hill to meet up with State Street.

We turned off of the side-street and began our short run on the wide and busy State Street, shared by the B7 and B7s. Here, there are stops serving the MassMutual headquarters, the Science & Technology High School, and Putnam High School.

Putnam has the best landscape design and building out of any high school in Springfield

After that, we turned onto the narrow Blunt Park Road, which parallels Putnam High and a hospital, and we had to make a deviation to serve the Independence House apartment building, also served by some trips of the B7.

Independence House

Leaving Independence House and back on Blunt Park Road, we crossed Roosevelt Avenue and entered the forested rear entrance of Blunt Park, passing a swimming pool, and we turned to serve the entrance of the Raymond Jordan Senior Center, a relatively new building hidden away in the trees.

Literally hidden in the trees

We looped back around parking lot and back to the entrance of Blunt Park, this time turning onto Roosevelt Avenue.

Roosevelt Avenue curves and there’s mostly forest on each side of the street until Central High emerges, along with an ice rink, and the main entrance of Blunt Park.

Central High School

Going by an intersection with Bay Street (B6), we crossed a bridge over some railroad tracks and entered the industrial section of Roosevelt Avenue. We passed by several industrial buildings, as well as some medical offices, the massive Smith & Wesson factory, and the headquarters of Big Y.

The entrance to Smith & Wesson

The bus turned onto Cottage Street, then Industry Avenue, passing the transitional assistance center and other official offices, and we finally turned onto Memorial Drive. The route ends on Memorial Drive outside of a large parking lot and the operations center for Columbia Gas. The X92 shares the last stop with the northern branch of the G2 and G2E.

I had to rush to catch the next bus so this was the best shot I could get at the end. The bus at the back is the X92.

Overview

The X92 was created back in 2015, making it a recent route, but in its short existence, its weekday service was reduced to have headways of 60 minutes instead of every 45 minutes. For some reason, Saturday service was maintained at 45-minute levels and it still is, making the X92 the only PVTA route with better service on Saturdays. For ridership, the X92 gets around 20 passengers per revenue hour, or about 10 passengers per trip. The trip I was on got 15 passengers overall. From my experience, the X92 is busiest when students use it to get to and from the 3 high schools the route serves in the morning and afternoon. During all other times, the X92 is emptier. As for the routing itself, I don’t to consider the X92 a true “crosstown” route, but more of a radial route instead.

It’s hard for me to like the X92. Sure, it’s useful if you live on or near Orange, Island Pond, or Roosevelt and want to get to Downtown, the High Schools, or the Industrial Park, but if you just want to get from Downtown to those destinations, taking the most direct route like the G1, G2, B6, or B7 is faster. The X92 doesn’t run very late, with the last trips leaving at 6PM, and in my opinion, no route that travels through dense areas as this should have headways of 60 minutes. Perhaps the PVTA will restore service when times are better and there’s more money for service improvements. For now, the X92 remains the lesser of the PVTA’s crosstown routes and routes serving Springfield in general.