Route Focus: PVTA R44 - Florence Heights via King St and Bridge St

Route Focus: PVTA R44 - Florence Heights via King St and Bridge St

  May 02, 2020    Kareem W

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Trip: Florence Center via King Street / Hampshire Plaza

Northampton Center via Florence Hts / Correctional Facility

Taken: March 2020

Looking for a loopy, deviatory, and slow route serving just about every place imaginable in Northampton? The R44 is just what you’re looking for!

For context, the R44 is a recently modified circular route serving Northampton and its village, Florence. The R44 operates both counterclockwise (“a” trips) and clockwise (“b” trips). I took an “a” trip.

Taking the R44 on a March morning, the vehicle operating my trip was PVTA bus #7403, a 2006 Gillig Low Floor 29’. These 29-foot buses are the smallest full-sized buses in the fleet, and in my opinion, it’s a treat to ride these rare buses. Luckily, the R44 only uses Gillig 29’ buses!

The baby bus dwarfed by the Salvo House

Like almost every route in Northampton, the R44 serves a large apartment building south of downtown called the “Salvo House”. In fact, the R44 loop starts, ends, and has its layover here. Leaving the Salvo House, we were on Conz Street, but we almost immediately turned onto Smith Street, then Fruit Street to serve stops on this narrow residential street.

At the end of this street, we turned onto Old South Street to get to New South Street (very creative, Northampton). This leads to Northampton’s Main Street, and right at the start of it is PVTA’s bus transfer point outside of the Academy of Music. Most of the people on this trip got on here.

After the Academy of Music, we proceeded through Downtown Northampton on Main Street, passing all the cafes, shops, and quirky businesses of the college town.

Undoubtedly NoHo

The bus turned up King Street, and there was now a mix of businesses and housing. Soon we reached a pocket with larger stores and shops, and we deviated to serve a shopping plaza with a Stop & Shop.

Deviating to serve Stop & Shop

Getting back onto King Street, we passed a couple car-dealerships, then turned onto Barrett Street, then Jackson Street, which were both mainly residential, with some apartment projects too.

After an intersection with Bridge Street, the road became Cooke Avenue, and we descended a hill behind some shops. We turned into the rear entrance of Hampshire Plaza, then looped around a parking lot and stopped outside of Big Y. Hampshire Plaza has a Big Y and a Walmart, among other stores, and most of the people on the bus got off here. Because the bus was a few minutes early for the timepoint, the driver turned the engine off, making for a silent and awkward wait.

Wouldn’t be a PVTA route without a Big Y

After waiting for the timepoint, we left Hampshire Plaza from the same way we got in, went back up Cooke Avenue, and turned west on Bridge Road. On this road the houses were a bit more spread out, and there were even some agricultural buildings, as well as branching apartment communities.

There’s also this abandoned Rehab and Nursing Center

Before long, we turned onto Meadowbrook Drive, a speed-bump laden road running straight through the apartment community by the same name. This road exits onto Straw Avenue, and the bus uses this to get to Locust Street, where we finally approached Florence Center.

The rest of Florence Center is just up ahead

Most R44 trips run straight on Florence’s Main Street, but certain trips like the one I took make a detour using Chestnut Street to serve houses and some apartments on High Street. Seems like an unnecessary deviation, considering bus stops on Main Street are only a block away.

High Street exits onto to Maple Street, and we went south leaving the neat shops of Florence Center.

So long, Florence Center

At the end of Maple Street is Nonotuck Street, and the buildings around here are industrial. This area is the Mill River Reservoir and hosts mill factories converted into offices and workspaces.

Industry by the Mill River

Nonotuck Road merges onto Pine Street, and we used this to cross over the Mill River. Across the river, we turned south on Florence Road, which is purely residential, and we soon deviated into yet another apartment project. This time it’s Florence Heights, and the bus had to make a tight U-turn at the dead-end of the street.

Making the U-Turn inside Florence Heights

Getting back onto Florence Road, we continued south, and the bus picked up speed passing nothing but houses and forested areas. Turning east on Rocky Hill Road, it’s the same scenery.

Scenery exactly like this

After a bit on Rocky Hill Road, we turned off into the ascending driveway of the Hampshire County Jail. Yes, the R44 even serves the House of Corrections for its visitors and employees.

Climbing up to serve the jail

Leaving the prison, we continued east on Rocky Hill Road, which soon became Chapel Street, then West Street. In this area, the surroundings became built up again and we passed a manufacturer and the offices for the Department of Mental Health.

Offices for the DMH and a historical building converted into apartments

After crossing the Mill River (again), West Street runs through the Smith College campus, and we passed several of its residences and halls.

Buildings of Smith College

West Street leads back to Northampton’s Main Street, and just like that, we were back at the Academy of Music. I got off here since the bus just runs back to the Salvo House after this stop.

Finally, off this bus!

Overview

One loop of the R44 takes about an hour to complete, and a trip in one direction is scheduled every 70 minutes. The R44 operates 7 days a week, but there’s a catch. When the PVTA modified the route back in 2019, they kept the R44’s old and confusing half-loop routing on the weekend, so keep that in mind if you’re riding the R44 on the weekend. Looking at ridership, its surprisingly low for the R44, with around 10 passengers per revenue hour year-round. My trip had 10 people exactly, but I was the only person on the bus for much of the route. I didn’t expect the ridership to be so low considering the R44 serves so much.

Perhaps the R44 serves too much. Sure, I see a need for the R44, and I do think that a bidirectional route around Northampton is more effective than the pre-2019 routing, but the R44 makes so many deviations and could be a little more streamlined.

In conclusion, I don’t see the R44 as a good route. Sure, it could be somewhat convenient if you live in one of the many apartment areas it serves or you just want to get to the shops on King Street, but not for much else since it’s so darn slow and long. If you just want to get to Florence Center, I’d recommend taking R42 instead.