PVTA to update Northampton, Holyoke, Springfield routes

Date: 12/18/2023

In continuing a series of in-person public hearings on upcoming route enhancements on the P21E and G73E routes, the PVTA met with the public in Holyoke inside the Holyoke Media center on Dec. 11 to go over and hear feedback on changes impacting the area.

Pioneer Valley Planning Commission Principal Transit Planner Carl Jackson moderated the hearing and explained it was directed by the PVTA advisory board to discuss these new route enhancements. He was joined by PVTA Director of Transit Operations Paul Burns Johnson who broke down the changes in further detail.

Burns Johnson explained that with increased funding in the state’s budget, the PVTA will begin to add service in both the short and long term. The agency is taking an incremental approach to adjusting service on system routes, he added.

With this being the case, Burns Johnson said the PVTA’s ultimate goals are expanding weekend service throughout the region, restoring service that was reduced due to staffing shortages, and to increase frequency on all routes to 30 minutes or less across the system.

The P21E route is also known as the Springfield/Holyoke via I-391 express. The proposed change is intendend to improve frequency from 60 minutes to 45 minutes effective Dec. 24, and further improving frequency to 30 minutes for the spring bid. This change will affect service Monday through Sunday.

The proposed change to G73E, known as the Springfield-Northampton via Holyoke Mall route, would make it for all trips to serve Northampton with 45-minute frequency effective Dec. 24 and further improving to 30-minute frequency for the spring bid. This change will affect service Monday through Saturday and will include adding new service on Sundays beginning on Dec. 24 as well.

When discussing potential challenges of these two projects, Burns Johnson confirmed none are expected for the P21E, but the G73E will see some bumps as the transition and change is made. This includes four fewer trips each day serving the Holyoke Mall. The frequency change results in significantly more service to Northampton, while eliminating confusion among riders when not all trips go to Northampton. The service to both the Holyoke Mall and Northampton will increase to every 30 minutes in spring 2024, according to Burns Johnson.

“There will be a reduction of four or fewer trips each day to serve the Holyoke Mall in the initial phase of the service change, however once we implement the full-service change, we will see increase service up to Springfield, Holyoke and Northampton,” Burns Johnson explained. “So, it’d be a little bit less service at the start of the changes but it would improve significantly by March.”

The third and least discussed proposed route service enhancement was for the Ware Palmer Shuttle where changes will include reinstituting the previous Ware and Palmer Circulators using two separate vehicles and providing more comprehensive service in each town. Additional service to Wilbraham Big Y will be added bringing the total number of connections to Springfield to six each day. These changes started Dec. 18 with the addition of weekend service planned for early spring.

The lone public commentor of the hearing was David Borowsky, a University of Massachusetts Amherst student from Wilbraham, who started his comments by thanking the PVTA for playing a proactive role in speeding up journeys across the valley, especially to core cities like Holyoke, Springfield and Northampton. As someone familiar with public transportation across the valley, Borowsky expressed some concerns about misconnections and long transfer times with this change during the winter months but Burns Johnson said that when the spring comes it alleviates these issues and that the PVTA is always welcoming feedback of its routes.

“Creating those separate systems and initially connect those areas to the rest of the Pioneer Valley more frequently is in my opinion a great thing because with more frequent transit, I believe that more riders will utilize the system,” Borowsky said.

To learn more information about these changes, visit www.pvta.com/meetingsManage/attachments/104/WebsiteP21E_G73E.pdf.