The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) operates bus routes in the Greater Boston area. The MBTA has a policy objective to provide transit service within walking distance – defined as – for all residents living in areas with population densities greater than within the MBTA's service district. Much of this service is provided by bus. In , the system had a ridership of , or about per weekday as of .
Most MBTA bus routes are local service operated in Boston and its inner suburbs and connect to MBTA subway stations. Fifteen high-ridership local routes are designated as key routes, with higher frequency at all operating hours. The MBTA operates a five-route bus rapid transit service branded as the Silver Line, as well as a limited-stop crosstown route. Three smaller local networks are based in the nearby cities of Lynn, Waltham, and Quincy. Several express routes operate from suburbs to downtown Boston.
The MBTA has an active bus fleet around 1,040 buses with diesel-electric hybrid or compressed natural gas propulsion. Replacement of the full fleet with battery electric buses is planned. The entire bus system is accessible; all vehicles are low-floor buses with fold-out ramps.
Most routes are operated directly by the MBTA. Four suburban routes are run by private operators under contract to the MBTA, while several small circulator systems are run by other operators with partial MBTA subsidy. MBTA-operated buses operate from nine divisions based at eight garages. One additional garage is under reconstruction; a replacement for a second is under construction, and additional replacements are planned. Several sections of dedicated right-of-way for MBTA buses have been opened in the 21st century, including two off-street busways for the Silver Line and a number of dedicated bus lanes.
The modern bus system descends from a network of horsecar and electric streetcar lines built in the 1850s to 1910s, which were consolidated under the West End Street Railway and later Boston Elevated Railway (BERy). The BERy introduced buses in 1922 to replace lightly-used streetcar lines and expand into new areas. Over the next four decades under the BERy and Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA), all but six streetcar routes were converted to bus or trolleybus. Most trolleybuses were phased out by the 1960s, but four routes lasted until 2022. The MBTA took over the MTA in 1964, and several private suburban bus operators over the following two decades. Many routes have been modified during the MBTA era; the agency introduced crosstown routes in 1994 and the Silver Line in 2002.
History
A number of horsecar lines were built in Boston and surrounding towns in the second half of the 19th century, beginning with the Cambridge Railroad in 1856. Several smaller companies were consolidated into the West End Street Railway in 1887. The West End began electrifying existing lines and constructing new streetcar lines; the last horsecar lines ended in 1900. The West End was purchased in 1897 by the Boston Elevated Railway (BERy), which had been created to build a rapid transit system in Boston. As that system was constructed in the first two decades of the 20th century, many streetcar lines were cut back from downtown Boston to rapid transit stations. Stations like , , , , and were built as transfer stations with easy connections between subway and rapid transit.
Some small companies operated buses in Boston as early as the 1910s. BERy bus service began on February 23, 1922, when buses replaced the North Beacon Street streetcar line. Initial bus routes largely replaced lightly-used streetcar lines or expanded service to new areas. The BERy also attempted in the 1920s to make the Tremont Street streetcar subway operate more like a rapid transit line, using trains of streetcars entering the subway from a small number of feeder lines, rather than single streetcars from numerous surface lines. The Harvard–Lechmere streetcar line was converted to trackless trolley (trolleybus) on April 11, 1936 – the first route in what would become an extensive trackless trolley system.
As increased automobile usage reduced ridership and increased congestion, the BERy and its 1947 replacement Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) continued to convert streetcar lines to bus and trolleybus. Most trolleybus lines were replaced by buses in the late 1940s to early 1960s, as buses offered increased flexibility and no need to maintain overhead lines. When the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) replaced the MTA in 1964, all surface lines were operated by buses except six streetcar lines (the five Green Line branches plus the Mattapan Line) and four trolleybus lines. The MBTA rebranded many elements of Boston's public transportation network in its first decade. After being found unsuitable in 1965 for the Orange Line because it did not show up well on maps, yellow was chosen for the color of bus operations on January 8, 1972.
The MBTA had primarily been formed to subsidize the suburban commuter rail network. However, the agency also took over unprofitable suburban bus operations – much of which was former streetcar lines – from several private companies. The MBTA took over the Eastern Massachusetts Street Railway in 1968, inheriting large networks based in Lynn and Quincy plus several lines in Norwood and Melrose. (Networks serving Lowell, Lawrence, and Brockton outside the MBTA district were briefly operated by the MBTA. They were transferred to new public agencies: the LRTA in Lowell in 1976, a predecessor of the MVRTA in Lawrence in 1968, and a predecessor of the BAT in Brockton in 1969.) The MBTA began subsidizing Middlesex and Boston Street Railway service based in Newton and Waltham in 1964, and took over the remaining routes in 1972. Five former Service Bus Lines routes in northeast suburbs were taken over in 1975, and a single Brush Hill Transportation line in Milton was taken over in 1980.
The geographic scope of the MBTA bus network has remained relatively constant since these additions, though many services have been created, discontinued, and modified during the MBTA era. The openings of new sections of the Red Line (1971, 1980, 1984–85) and the Orange Line (1975–77, 1987) have resulted in significant changes as routes were modified to serve new transfer stations. Three limited-stop crosstown routes were created in 1994 as a prelude to the Urban Ring Project, a never-implemented circumferential bus rapid transit (BRT) corridor. Silver Line BRT service began in 2002 with conversion of existing bus service on Washington Street, and was expanded in 2004–05 with new routes serving the Waterfront Tunnel in the Seaport District. The latter used dual-mode buses that operated as trolleybuses in the Waterfront Tunnel and as diesel buses on the surface. A second Silver Line service using the Washington Street corridor was added in 2009, and service from the Waterfront Tunnel to began in 2018 with a new surface busway in Chelsea.
The BERy and MTA operated overnight Owl service until 1960. From September 2001 to June 2005, the MBTA operated bus service on 17 routes (7 normal bus routes and 10 routes replicating subway lines) until 2:30am on Friday and Saturday nights. Similar service on the key routes was operated from March 2013 to March 2014. In 2017, the MBTA Board rejected a proposal to run all-night service on several routes with pulsed connections at a central hub.
In 2018, the MBTA began planning for the Bus Network Redesign, a reworking of the entire bus network. A draft plan was released in May 2022, with a revised plan in November 2022. That plan was approved in December 2022. It increases overall service by 25%, with a doubling of the number of routes with high-frequency service. The first changes were made on December 15, 2024, in areas northeast of downtown Boston. The second phase is planned to cover most of Boston and Brookline; the third and south phases are tentatively planned to cover northern and southern suburbs. Changes will take place through 2028. The second changes were made on April 5, 2026.
In 2022, the MBTA started cutting bus service due to a driver shortage resulting from a long-term retirement trend accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic in Massachusetts. Despite paying for training to get a commercial driver's license and offering a $4,500 signing bonus, it ended the year short about 350 drivers, plus about 400 more needed to increase service to implement a proposed bus network redesign. Experts said the shortage was caused by the failure to raise the starting hourly wage, and offer new hires full-time work instead of forcing all of them to start part-time. Drivers were also unhappy about lack of access to bathrooms and "split shifts" with unpaid time between morning and evening rush hour that was too short to go home.MBTA’s ‘aggressive’ year-long bus driver hiring campaign failed. Black and Hispanic riders are paying the price. The MBTA began hiring operators for full-time work in 2023. The number of bus drivers increased from about 1,350 in mid-2023 to about 1,500 in March 2024.
Fleet
This is the current bus roster for the MBTA . All buses are manufactured by New Flyer and are wide; most buses are length, while 117 are articulated buses. 80 New Flyer 40-foot battery-electric buses were ordered in July 2023. Thirty-two of those buses will have left-side doors for use in the Harvard bus tunnel. 40 additional electric buses were ordered in December 2025 to provide service for the Quincy Bus Maintenance Facility to be opened in 2027; 15 of these buses will be funded with settlement money from Volkswagen from their 2015 "Dieselgate" emissions cheating scandal. State law requires the MBTA to purchase only zero-emission buses after 2029 and mandates a fully-electrified fleet by 2040.
Current Year built Manufacturer Model Picture Fleet Qty. Active Propulsion Length (ft.)Notes 2008 New Flyer D40LF 0756–0910 155153 Diesel 40All buses were overhauled in 2017–2020. To be replaced by newer NFI XE40 buses. 2010 DE60LFR 1200–1224 25 Hybrid 60All buses were overhauled by Northeastern Bus Rebuilders in 2021–2023 2014–2015 XDE40 1400–1459 60 40Buses being overhauled by Midwest Bus2016–2017XN401600–1774175CNG*Buses being overhauled by MBTA at Everett Shops2016–2017XDE401775–1924 &3000–3005156Hybrid 3000–3005 assigned to privately operated routes and Buses being overhauled by Midwest Bus with completion expected in 20272016–2017XDE601250–12934460 1273–1293 used for Silver Line Washington Street routes201812941Includes an extended-range battery. Used on the Silver Line.2019XE601295–12995Battery-electricUsed on the Silver Line. Only buses that do not have bike racks.2019–2020XDE401925–2118194Hybrid4020203100–3159602022–2023XDE601300–134445 60 Includes an extended-range battery. Used on the Silver Line. 2023 XDE40 3200–3359 160 402024–2026XE404200–423132Battery-electric Equipped with left-hand doors for operating into the Harvard bus tunnel Buses are to be operated out of North Cambridge Garage beginning in late 2026.2025–20274300–4387885 Pilot buses will be assigned to Cabot and Charlestown. Will provide service out of the new Quincy Bus Maintenance Facility in 2027. Will replace some of the 2008 New Flyer diesel fleet. The remaining 83 buses will be delivered in 2027.
Facilities
MBTA buses are operated out of nine divisions based at eight facilities (the two Charlestown garages share a site).