I'm moving to Burlington/Woburn around December as I got a job there and the office is near Burlington Mall. I just graduated from college and don't own a car. I wanted to pay off a big chunk of my student debt before purchasing even a used car. What public transport options can I find for commuting and how safe/reliable are they?
I'll eventually purchase a car but for the initial months, I was wondering if I can rely on public transport. Appreciate any inputs !
Most public transport in that area would be by bus, and there’s few options. I believe bus route 354 begins in Burlington and passes through Woburn going towards Medford, where it becomes express and goes straight into Boston, dropping off at State St. I believe it also only runs on weekdays but someone could correct me on that.
Woburn has a stop on the commuter rail at Anderson/Woburn station. It’ll get you into North Station in about 25-30 mins, but unlike other commuter rail stops in cities around the area, it’s not located in the “center”, but a bit far out, so you’d probably need a bus to get there unless you live within walking distance.
In general, public transport in these towns is lacking and the options are not necessarily fast.
Edit to add: Burlington also has the 350 bus that will bring you to Alewife in Cambridge to connect to the red line.
Busy area
The suburbs are not the place for reliable public transportation. Especially not in the winter.
There’s a bus, the 350, that leaves from alewife and goes to the Burlington Mall area. It’s fast and safe. Checkout the route and schedule. https://www.mbta.com/schedules/350/line
It's not great. I think you'll probably need a car, though it pains me to say it!
Burlington town info: https://www.burlington.org/736/Transportation
While the commuter rail stops in Woburn, I couldn't readily find information about other public transport except for senior citizens.
I also just found this, but it's odd that the Burlington town website doesn't refer to it. There's a customer service number you could try to call. This service may not exist anymore.
I used to take the 350. Since you’re by the mall, you could take that to work. I’d recommend living near in East Arlington with roommates since you’ve said you want to live frugally. In my experience it has some cheaper options than the nearby neighborhoods.
My rent was cheaper than almost all of my friends in Greater Boston when I lived there. Part of the reason rent is cheaper there is there is absolutely no street parking overnight. Some streets do get away with it, others are heavily patrolled at night.
Keep in mind that you will need to factor in type of heating system to overall cost. Oil heating is extremely expensive now and most oil heated places have cheaper rent. So factor in the costs because you might not end up saving overall compared to another place.
You have two real choices :
-New Balance Public Transportation Co. for nice weather.
-LL Bean Mobile for the winter.
(That would be a good pair of sneakers and a pair of boots for the out-of-town folks.)
It’s not a great area to be in without a car.
Find the bus routes that go to the mall, then work backwards along the bus route trying to find housing.
Also, Woburn and Burlington aren’t really the same area. Two totally different towns.
In addition to what others have mentioned, there’s also the 134 bus that (sometimes) serves north Woburn out of Wellington, though it doesn’t connect to Anderson but rather Winchester Center, which is out of commission until further notice. There’s an express bus out of Anderson that goes to Logan airport, as well as Flight Line service to Manchester airport.
Burlington has some limited LRTA bus service that goes from the mall/Lahey area to the commuter rail station/LRTA hub in Lowell, in addition to another line that goes to the 3A/62 intersection/concurrence. Both routes go through Billerica, so you could consider living there as well (or even Lowell proper). The Lexington Lexpress has a route that connects to the mall area as well. Burlington used to have its own little bus system called the B-Line but I’m not sure if it’s defunct by this point.
To put things in to perspective, getting from Wilmington center to Burlington Mall takes approximately 7-10 minutes by car, while the LRTA trip takes 2 hours and 45 minutes from the moment you get on the first bus. Good luck!
I disagree. I’m in Woburn and am only 5 mins from the Mall, Wegman’s and Row 34.
TL;DR Uber or taxi until you can afford your own vehicle pretty much
FYI, 350 route is proposed to be cancelled and replaced with alternate bus now (not from Alewife) . https://www.mbta.com/projects/bus-network-redesign/update/revised-bus-network-map
jtet93 t1_iuet3np wrote
I mean, it really depends what the route is. There are probably busses that go to the mall that mainly serve employees. I would just look for housing on those bus routes.