Last Wednesday, I had a few spare hours in my day, so I decided to check out the new Silver Line airport service for myself. I reached South Station just before 3pm, and waited with 3 other people, some carrying luggage, next to the sandwich boards marked "Board Here for Airport Service". While I waited, I saw one of the new articulated dual-modes with luggage racks pass us by and stop farther up the platform, its display showing the route "SL2/3". Our bus (1117), which showed up a minute or two later, did not have the luggage racks, leading me to wonder why they'd mix up the fleet like that — it doesn't make any sense at all for the buses with luggage racks to be going to City Point and not to the airport.
Of course, it wasn't a big deal in this case, since there were only four of us occupying a 60' bus. I did notice that our bus had signs across from both sets of rear doors noting each terminal and what airlines it served, which were most likely borrowed from Massport, but are extremely useful nonetheless.
Here's an approximate timetable of my little adventure, with comments on what I saw along the way:
| Time | Location | Observations |
|---|---|---|
| 3:00pm | Departed from South Station | The ride through the first leg of the tunnel is BUMPY! I wouldn't expect this from brand-new construction. Suffice it to say, rails would be much smoother. :-/ |
| 3:07 | Arrived at SL Way | There was a 2-minute layover here that seemed unnecessary to me. The bus switched power immediately, and then we waited while the driver and another employee discussed something. I'm glad I wasn't in a hurry to catch a flight! |
| 3:09 | Departed SL Way | |
| 3:13 | Entered Ted Williams Tunnel | It takes four minutes to get from SL Way to the tunnel, which, among other things, requires the bus to cross over itself at the intersection where buses come out of the tunnel on their way under the Manulife Building This strikes me as terribly inefficient -- firstly, they should've kept the buses in a trench after WTC and avoided the light. Secondly, why is there no direct connection between the bus tunnel and the Ted Williams? It could easily have shaved 5 minutes off the outbound trip. |
| 3:18 | Arrived at Terminal A | The loading/unloading areas in front of the terminals are always a mess. It's rare that the bus actually makes it all the way to the curb to pick up passengers, because there are usually either civilian or security-related vehicles parked along the length of the road. This despite big yellow signs at every stop that say "ABSOLUTELY NO PARKING per order TSA". Go figure. |
| 3:21 | Arrived at Terminal B1 | |
| 3:23 | Arrived at Terminal B2 | |
| 3:26 | Arrived at Terminals C/D | |
| 3:28 | Arrived at Terminal E | |
| 3:24 | Re-entered Ted Williams Tunnel | As we passed through the tollboth into the tunnel, I wondered how the buses handle tolls. The driver went through the rightmost lane in the plaza, which I assume is protocol. I didn't see a "Fast Lane" pass in the bus window... Maybe the Silver Line buses have their own built-in RFID systems? This would make sense, as it's probably the same system that lets them in and out of the tunnel at WTC. |
| 3:43 | Arrived back at SL Way | It took longer getting back through the tunnel because we hit traffic and were forced to drive 25mph until about halfway. How ironic is it to opt for rapid transit because it's more efficient than driving, only to end up stuck in the tunnel with all the cars? |
| 3:50 | Returned to South Station | ...and the end of my adventure. |
The moral of the story is, if you're trying to catch a flight from Logan, leave yourself at least 20 minutes for the silver line portion, possibly more if it's during rush hour.
Other observations:
That's it. Sorry there aren't any pictures. I don't have a permit and I didn't want to get in trouble.
-Ian Westcott