NEW BEDFORD – Bus service connecting the South Coast region and Boston will continue.
Peter Pan Bus Lines will take over DATTICO SouthCoast-Boston Express bus route that was set to end on April 16, WPRI-TV CBS 12 reported late Thursday.
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Frank Dougherty, chief operating officer of the Springfield Mass.-based Peter Pan Bus Lines, told WPRI it will run one trip in each direction Monday through Friday, beginning April 18.
The Peter Pan route will make stops in Fall River, New Bedford, Taunton, South Station in Boston, and Logan International Airport, making it the first time New Bedford will have direct bus service to Logan Airport, state Rep. Antonio Cabral, D-New Bedford, told WPRI. He said the bus service was necessary because about 4% of the workforce in Greater New Bedford commutes to Greater Boston.
“My hope is that it goes for as long as, until we reach a point where the intercity rail service between New Bedford and Boston begins, and we believe that will be towards the end of this calendar year,” Mitchell told WPRI.
In January, DATTICO announced that it was ceasing operation of its SouthCoast-Boston Express bus route due to a sharp decline in ridership that had begun prior to the pandemic, DATTCO spokesperson Dennis Lyons said in a statement to PBN.
“We adjusted service levels as much as we could and had hoped we would add back service as things reopened,” Lyons continued. “Instead, the trend toward working from home has decimated commuter bus services worldwide.”
The service averages 55-60 round-trip passengers daily, Lyons said, down from 100 prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and its mid-1990s peak of 550.
DATTCO also considered “several years of considerable financial losses” and “the prospect of being forced out of business when commuter rail service in the region begins in a few months,” Lyons said.
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority is constructing the long-awaited South Coast Rail line, which will extend commuter rail service from Boston to New Bedford, Fall River and Taunton. But the first phase of that project isn’t scheduled for completion until late 2023, leaving the area with a months-long service interruption.
According to the MBTA, Taunton, New Bedford and Fall River are the state’s only major cities within 50 miles of Boston that lack commuter rail access to Boston.
