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    Sullivan Square

    2.7 (40 reviews)
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    Jeffrey H.

    Well folks, if you're a bridge person like me and have the privilege of living in the burbs (please insert sarcasm and rusty razor blades here), then you're familiar with the pleasure (hell) of commuting downtown. The commuter rail couldn't be anymore overpriced/untimely, screw you purple trains...and the parking downtown is horrendous...screw you real estate! Anyway, Sullivan Square is my recommendation for anyone coming from the north and needing to get into downtown. I use it M-F for work because it's right off 93 and the price is right. Back in the old days, the spots would fill up quick and drivers would be screwed. So screwed you might end up like me one summer while interning...parking in an old man's backyard for $10/day...not kidding. But recently, an independent operator opened a parking lot across the street for $6/day (only $2.50 more than what the MBTA charges). For me this is perfect...I drive in, park cheap, take the T from there. Plus, you're far enough away from downtown that you beat some of the traffic on 93. Oh, and why else do I love Sully? Well there's a Dunkins and a convenience store inside. I never fail to laugh whenever I see the old crazy blonde woman behind the Dunkins counter scream, "GET OUTTAH HEYAH" when a pigeon flies in through her window and perches itself on a maple frosted coffee roll. Watching a crazy woman scream and throw cups at a bird-rat? Priceless. And hey, I thoroughly enjoy stepping over to the convenience store to buy some diet cokes and pop tarts whilst I watch the scum of Slummaville spend their paychecks on scratch tickets, megabucks, and Chiclets. Long story short...coming from the north? Sullivan Sq is your best bet. I know I'll be using it until I move downtown...but I know I'll go back and visit...someone has to train the other pigeons to steal me some reduced carb bagels.

    Cristina C.

    I like the station, it's pretty alright. I've taken the T enough over the years from this location to say that it's a good stop, when you're there at the right time. In the winter, it stinks to get into Boston in the mornings. You may wait a few trains, even throughout the year.. so plan ahead on that note. Ample parking and plenty of bus service. There are a few characters over here so don't laugh or stare.. at them.. with them?

    Sullivan Station is by all regards the epitome of the MBTA: beyond practical and yet beyond dirty and beyond outdated. BEYOND PRACTICAL: Dozens of bus lines, most of them heading to the 99%-er suburbs of Everett and Malden, leave from the station's upper and lower busways and provide an easy (though not free) connection to the above-average-running Orange Line. Parking is dirt cheap compared to Downtown rates, plus there's fairly easy access to/from I-93 and thus it becomes a haven for suburbanites wishing to go to events. The Garden is a mere two subway stops away; Fenway is an easy two-seat ride more dependent on the Green Line cooperating. BEYOND DIRTY: For its mammoth size, I guess overall Sullivan has a much higher cleanliness-per-square-foot ratio than other MBTA station complexes. The biggest issue with the station is that its literally the catch basin for all the fumes, chemical runoff and general standing water that doesn't quite make it into the drainage pipes of I-93 overhead, the ultimate insult to people choosing to take public transit instead of sit in the traffic above. As you walk along the Upper Busway toward Cambridge Street there are sections of I-93 that literally SHOWER water whenever it's raining/heavily snowing. The subway platform is a sundry of graffiti along the far wall as seen from the Inbound platform and the MBTA freight division often parks its scrap cars on the railroad siding. Commuter trains, which don't stop there, blow endless amounts of diesel fumes as they growl by. It's even more fun when they park there waiting for opposite traffic. They SHOULD move the Commuter Rail stop from Malden there since it's where the Newburyport/Rockport and Haverhill Lines merge. As far as smoking--well it might as well be an open-air opium den! The official rule system-wide is that there is no smoking on (public) MBTA property. The ESTABLISHED rule is that there is no indoor smoking, which equates to the area from the doors to the top of stairs to get to the subway platform. Elsewhere is smokers' paradise! I've actually seen people light up just as they exit the doors onto the Upper Busway, in plain view of the Inspectors' booth. BEYOND OUTDATED: Like all other Orange Line stations, Sullivan is largely devoid of any architectural prowess or inviting feeling, save for local children's artwork, recreated amongst the maps and benches on the subway platform level. As far as the aforementioned busway shelter--or lack of--the MBTA really got its money's worth by having I-93 provide it. They don't need to build a roof over the entire station--just perhaps over the Upper Busway so people don't get the toxic showers. My biggest pet peeve, other than the aforementioned smoking issue, is the poor transportation engineering both within and around the station. Of course, this comes from a Massachusetts history of having the most incompetent transportation engineers in the world since the cow path days. Let's start with pedestrian traffic: There really should be a dedicated "In" and "Out" section with the faregates (formerly turnstiles), for a station that handles such a high volume of riders and with very few faregates. Rush hour becomes a huge bottleneck as people push through the faregates to the busways and people getting off of buses head to the trains. The latter of course gets screwed since they have to wait to pay their fares--or at least are supposed to. Next, navigating the Upper Busway is extremely dicey during rush hour since the average Greater Boston commuter is anything but orderly. People stand all over the Busway and *Heaven forbid* you try to get around them to walk toward the street or catch a train--or another bus further down. They really should have a corral system, which would also eliminate the "me first" people who sit all the way back at the benches until just before a bus pulls up then elbow-check everybody just to get on first--and pay in pocket change. Next, let's look at the road traffic engineering, specifically the signage As others have mentioned, the signage is RIDICULOUSLY confusing, beginning with the fact that there's enough of it to have the great Hans Monderman rolling over in his grave. It's all well-intended to ensure that buses don't crash into other buses or cars, but, like all other Greater Boston signage it's a guarded secret by the locals just WTF every sign really means are and a guessing game for everybody else. I guess the saving grace is that the signs are SO confusing that there are no crashes since most drivers just use the waiting area on Maffa Way. Long-story short, because apparently my review is so prolific, you CAN make a left turn off of Cambridge Street-Eastbound into the busway. Buses/T vehicles stay LEFT; cars stay RIGHT. You CAN'T make a U-turn in front of that driveway, however. You also CAN'T make a RIGHT out of the Busway onto Cambridge Street--all traffic must go via Maffa Way and around the Teamsters Building. Got it?

    Cue Instagram photo; a shot of the tracks from a side street, the view of the Boston skyline from the station, and track
    Shayna C.

    My go-to station for when I want to visit Boston and don't feel like shelling out an arm and a leg for the commuter rail. It's a 20 minute drive from where I live, and around $6 to park your car in their lot now. My only complaint about this location is that it's very difficult to find the entrance to get to the parking lot. There's been times where I've driven right past it, or accidentally driven into the bus lane; not good! Other than that, it's usually in-and-out for me to get in there, buy my Charlie Card, swipe in, and get on the T. Aside from that, it's located right on the edge of Boston, meaning you'll be touching down at North Station or points forward in just minutes.

    Men's bathroom need to be attended to more, if have to use this bathroom bring tissue n alcohol to whip the seats. Very very Unsanitary

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    A worker there named George Michael helped me and my friends when we were lost and put us in the right bus. Thanks!

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    Ask the Community - Sullivan Square

    Review Highlights - Sullivan Square

    When I am on the orange line I get off here to go home even though the bus to my house from Malden Center is shorter.

    Mentioned in 8 reviews

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    South Station Bus Terminal

    South Station Bus Terminal

    3.2(101 reviews)
    2.6 miWaterfront, South Boston

    If prices were more outrageous or service was unreliable (consistently late/cancelled) or if I felt…read moreunsafe here, this rating would be lower. Reviews complaining about cleanliness or out-of-date decor simply make no sense to me; I'm positive that by European standards, this bus station is the stuff of nightmares, but by American standards? The South Station Bus Terminal is somewhere I would feel comfortable being at nearly any time of day as a young woman who often travels alone. The service I've experienced taking the Concord Coach specifically is always professional, timely, and doesn't leave me feeling unsafe, which are my priorities compared to having a beautiful-looking terminal or countless options for food vendors. Although the northeast is typically the exception, finding public transport in the US that has these qualities is rare. South Station is a repeated haunt of mine and has a special place in my heart. If you're looking for a cheap, reliable, and safe way to get out of Boston, this is the way!

    Recently SSBT has gone & expanded more on the property in terms of more gates so now…read moreGreyhound/Flixbus/Plymouth & Brockton has its own gates & Peter Pan/Concord Coach/Dartmouth/Boston Express has theirs (deeming Greyhound & few other ones don't interlink you must know) & this makes more passengers/buses set especially for the holidays & if another Government shutdown/airline ground happens again (if you get my drift).

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    South Station Bus Terminal - Now you see this & hopefully it'll help with new assignments

    Now you see this & hopefully it'll help with new assignments

    South Station Bus Terminal
    South Station Bus Terminal

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    Greyhound Bus Lines

    Greyhound Bus Lines

    1.5(325 reviews)
    2.6 miWaterfront, South Boston

    I'm livid rn so I'll keep it short until I can call but I rec'd email 11:27pm last night that my…read more1:15 direct to NJ was cancelled so I panicked and rearranged my whole itinerary for getting to South Station (incl. skipping breakfast) but just to have opportunity to still get to NJ via an 8:55 (supposedly DIRECT) ride I booked an Uber for $39 ($44 w/tip) and then had to wake up my Son super early (priceless lol) and luckily the 8:55 still had 2 seats available so I booked that. Upon arrival at South Station bus driver informs me that there will be 2 stops so it's NOT DIRECT and so I started researching other options and found out my 1:15 that was cancelled was NOW SHOWING AVAILABLE. WTF!!!! but we're here so we get on the 8:55 only to be told we don't have assigned seats so after 3 attempts of sitting and being moved the driver nicely accommodated us up front because he noticed my frustration. Nevertheless, I hope we make it safely to NY on this run down bus with tattered seats, missing toilet seat and barely working heat. I don't know what I expect from you guys but at the very least a reimbursement for the Uber would be nice and compensation for the loss of sleep if possible. This experience deserves some news air time though because I expected better from you Greyhound. Maybe I'll call my reporter friend at WHDH ‍ but rn I just pray this rattling bus gets us to NJ in one piece. That was only the ride there. Ride coming back made an unexpected stop which made us 30 minutes late which then made us miss our commuter rail.

    Wanted to give them a proper try after many years of taking Amtrak instead and I do have regrets…read more Poor communication and the trip left 40 minutes late (at least the bus eventually came)

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    Greyhound Bus Lines
    Greyhound Bus Lines
    Greyhound Bus Lines

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    MBTA Bus Route CT2

    MBTA Bus Route CT2

    2.6(5 reviews)
    0.7 miCharlestown

    Commuter Bus from Sullivan station to Ruggles through Kendall and Longwood Medical all while being…read moreexpress? Yes please! Where do I sign up? Wait I can't make it work on time if I take this bus? You are kidding right...I thought it was the commuter line from somerville? Damn you MBTA, you cruel temptress. I work in longwood and live in union sq. With the first CT2 hitting union at 6:40-6:42a and the hospital day shift starting at 7 I unfortunately can't use this great resource to get to work. Also the bus stops running before the 7p shift change so I can't even use it to get home either. *I discovered this unfortunate scheduling issue after getting the job. If you are a commuter line and go through a major hospital area then logically you would think to run a bus to accommodate workers for this area. The 7a and 7p shift changes are not exactly a rare or unknown thing. However, if your job starts later this bus line is kind of amazing and is very fast so make sure you are at the bus stop a couple min before your bus app tells you. It only takes the bus about 5min from sullivan to union. From union to kendall is just 10min which is very convenient for getting to the redline. I like this bus line and it is my preferred bus if I am not going to work but could be a more inclusive commuter bus with addition of a bus in the am and one at night *crosses fingers*

    People have been discussing linking inner Boston neighborhoods together using a transit Urban Ring…read more for about a century at this point. Unfortunately, it looks like the CT2 is the best we're gonna get. I used the bus to hop from Mission Hill to Kendall Square and it was always so much faster than E train to Red Line, even though I had to first walk to Longwood. I've moved out but the bus is still useful to get from Kendall to Cambridgeport, BU, or Fenway after work. Its big flaw when I rode it was the horrible traffic snarls at the BU Bridge and at Fenway whenever there was a baseball game. It's always crowded, but I've never seen it bypass people waiting at a stop. This is a bus desperately needs to run more often and later into the night, and maybe throw in some weekend service as well. Until we get an Urban Ring (keep dreaming) this'll do.

    Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority

    Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority

    2.0(379 reviews)
    2.3 mi

    Don't get the low rating and 1 star reviews here. I love good public transportation and have lived…read morein places with some good ones. Coming from Los Angeles where I live with transportation that's struggling, Boston's system is a breath of fresh air. Not perfect, there are some delays and a bit of confusion - I'd get over it fast if I'd live there! But it's reliable, comes fast, takes you everywhere in the city, great connections. You can take it to and from the Airport (Logan) which it's a major plus! Pretty fast and easy. It is the oldest in USA (Bolyston station has a small nice museum inside, very cool!), so many stops don't have AC, but they have fans. Staff- some folks nice and helpful, some just OK. Not the cleanest, a tad squeaky, but it extends to ferry lines as well. A few nitpicks, but a solid transportation system that takes you everywhere. Love the lines that take you above ground. I got a pass on a Charlie Card and I used it a lot during my Boston visit. My husband lived here in college and told me it's still has the same smell. Nothing bad for him. More like Proust's madeleine.

    Crap service on the Boston T today…read more Bought a 7 day card for $22 yesterday, today the turnstile tells me "invalid card". Service person: "Not my problem. Go to xyz address to fix. I said, "How am I gonna get there with this broken card?" Service person: "Not my problem." @MTA

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    Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority
    Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority
    Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority

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    MBTA Bus Route 79

    MBTA Bus Route 79

    1.3(3 reviews)
    2.3 mi

    The most consistently inconsistent bus line running in the Arlington/North Cambridge area, the 79…read moreis, for whatever reason, the most infuriatingly frustrating of all that originate from or pass through Arlington Heights. In Somerville I'd always found that the buses that operate with less frequency make up for it in precision and punctuality. In Arlington, this is all inverted, and for whatever reason the drivers of the 79 (and the 62) seem to take pride in either leaving at times so divergent from the posted schedule you wonder whether everything was changed that day, or if the bus you are on is just really late, or exceptionally early - and this if the bus ever comes at all. They seem to deliberately cancel runs of the 79 on a fairly regular basis, especially in the mornings, for no good reason, and totally unannounced, and even if you are standing right at the bus station at the Heights, and talking to an actual MBTA employee, they seem incapable of giving you a straight forward honest answer and just shrug and fire up another 77 on top of the three that just pulled out. My new theory is that the Arlington Heights runs are some sort of reform school for recalcitrant drivers, and the 79 of them all is for the very worst of the worst. All this said, the bus is generally half full to all but empty, even at peak times (probably for all the reasons listed above) and without traffic it can get you to Alewife in the blink of an eye (mostly because the drivers refuse to pick up anyone who doesn't hurl himself in front of the bus at a stop). Enjoy

    Doesn't run often enough on weekdays to be useful to me. Doesn't run on the weekends at all. The…read moreonly time I take this bus is when I miss the 77 by like 30 seconds because it was tearing down Mass Ave at breakneck speed, hence making my Catch The Bus app slightly inaccurate, and by some crazy stroke of luck there happens to be a 79 that appears before the next 77. But I assure you, this is a very rare occurrence indeed. For every 79 bus that you see, there are five 77 buses. No, I lie. It's probably more than that.

    Sullivan Square - busstations - Updated May 2026

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