The infamous gas crisis of 1979 led to a spike in prices and lines more than 45 minutes long to fill the tank on the family car. Here in Lexington, it also led to the founding of Lexpress, Lexington’s local bus service. Today, with concerns about carbon emissions and climate change, Lexpress remains as relevant as it was then.
“I think public transit in general, whether it’s Lexpress or any other service is important because buses can serve more people per vehicle hour and vehicle mile than a car can,” Susan Barrett, the Town of Lexington Transportation Manager, said.
Initially attracting youth, the bus is now popular among senior citizens as well. Lexpress offers three routes to help Lexington residents get around the town, providing and average of 140 rides a day. Each route runs every hour from 7:30 AM to 7:30 PM, taking riders to senior homes, the Burlington Mall, Market Basket, and the Town Center, among various other locations.
To this day, Lexpress has had success in attracting customers through its affordable pricing model. Currently, an individual ride costs $2, and the Limitless Pass, which provides unlimited rides, costs only $20 year. In addition to riders’ fares, Lexpress is funded through residents’ taxes, specifically property taxes. They also occasionally get money from the MBTA and MassDOT.
“We’ve recently been awarded two grants of $200,000 to offset the cost of operations. Within the past few years between MassDOT grants and the MBTA, we’ve been able to raise over half a million dollars in external funding to support the service,” Barrett said.
In the future, Barrett hopes to expand the bus routes to make public transportation more accessible. For instance, many students do not have a way to ride to and from various destinations after school, so having a convenient option like the Lexpress would be beneficial. And it isn’t just Lexington residents that take advantage of the service; those who work in the town also use it for their daily commute.
“People have a lot of requests for service and it doesn’t appear that we’re going to be getting significant increases in MBTA service. There are some that are planned, but for the most part, to fill in these gaps, it’s going to take other services [such as the Lexpress],” Barrett said.
Barrett credits Lexpress with connecting Lexington residents and adding to the vibrancy of the town.
“One of my favorite things is how, like with any transportation service, it’s intergenerational – you have people across all generations that ride the service. What I have seen, that I think is the cutest thing ever, is when I see seniors talking with students on the bus. It’s really nice,” Barrett said.
Being a local transportation service, Lexpress drivers and riders are able to form lasting relationships with one another.
“I was riding the bus one time, and it was after school, and the driver stopped. I couldn’t figure out why he stopped; nobody was getting on or off. He waited anyway, and then he called over to this one student who had fallen asleep on the bus. He’s like ‘this is your stop,’ and he had to go wake him up, which is not something you’re gonna find on the larger bus service, but because he came to recognize this student, he was able to do that,” Barrett said.
For a ridership of 140 rides/day on average, wouldn’t a ride on demand model such as Acton has be more efficient and cost effective than the present service?
The “youth” ridership consists mainly of high school students whose families choose not to pay for the school bus and occasional students getting home from after-school sports or other activities.