University of Massachusetts Transportation Services

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University of Massachusetts Transportation Services
Pioneer Valley Transit Authority University of Massachusetts Transit New Flyer Xcelsior articulated bus.jpg
PVTA bus #3401 makes a stop at the UMass Fine Arts Center on N. Pleasant Street, operating the Route 31.
Parent
Headquarters185 Holdsworth Way
Amherst, Massachusetts
Locale Five Colleges of the Pioneer Valley
Service areaFive Colleges campuses plus Amherst, Belchertown, Granby, Hadley, Northampton, South Deerfield, South Hadley and Sunderland
Service typeLocal bus transit, campus shuttle, field trip charter
Alliance Five College Consortium
Routes10
Hubs
Daily ridership20,600 (weekdays, Q2 2025) [1]
Annual ridership2,280,500 (2024) [2]
Fuel typeDiesel, hybrid electric
Website UMass Transit
PVTA.com

University of Massachusetts Transportation Services, abbreviated to UMass Transit Services or UMass Transit, is a department within the University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst) that is contracted by the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority (PVTA) to operate fixed-route transit services on the UMass Amherst campus and surrounding area, including some services to other members of the Five Colleges Consortium in eastern Hampshire County. Similar to other large campus transportation systems, such as UGA Campus Transit in Georgia and Unitrans in California, PVTA fixed-route buses operated by UMass Transit Services are driven by students attending UMass Amherst. In 2024, PVTA fixed-routes operated by UMass Transit had a ridership of 2,280,500, or about 20,600 per weekday as of the second quarter of 2025[ citation needed ].

Contents

Background

UMass Transit is a student-based organization with more than 90% of the employees (i.e. bus drivers, mechanics, dispatchers) being UMass students, with the remaining employees falling under University 03 employment status or full time administrators. UMass Transit Services operates 10 PVTA routes with a fleet of 40 transit vehicles (35' - 60').[ citation needed ]

PVTA service operated by UMass Transit runs 12 months a year, 20 hours per day, seven days per week.[ citation needed ]

Service began in 1969 as an intra-campus shuttle. A federal grant allowed expansion to nearby towns in 1973. It joined the PVTA in 1976. Daily ridership reached 24,000 by 1982. [3]

Route B79 was originally operated by the Quaboag Valley Community Development Corporation and the Town of Ware, through its Quaboag Connector partnership. PVTA reassigned operation of this route to UMass Transit Services, starting on January 5, 2025.[ citation needed ]

Services

Fixed-route services

UMass Transit operates as a contractor for the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority (PVTA), which is headquartered in Springfield, the largest municipality of the region. This setup exists because PVTA, as a regional transit authority established under Chapter 161B of the Massachusetts General Statutes, is forbidden under Section 25 of the same statute from operating routes directly. PVTA thus contracts with the school to operate certain routes (other routes in the system are operated by other contractors). PVTA owns all fixed-route buses that operate its services and are painted in their standard livery across the PVTA service area. The buses assigned to UMass Transit are numbered in the 3000 series, and are between 35 and 60 feet in length. UMass Transit operates two of the 60-foot (18 m) articulated buses in the PVTA fleet; they were acquired in 2013 to accommodate crowding conditions on routes 30 and 31. [4]

Field trip services

In addition to operating tendered services for the PVTA, UMass Transit also maintains an activity fleet of buses of various types for charter by student groups within the UMass Amherst community. These buses are generally painted to match the school colors of white and maroon.

Accessible Van Service

UMass Transit operates a fleet of paratransit vans which services members of the UMass Amherst community who have mobility impairments, whether they are permanent or temporary. The service has a range that extends 3 miles from the center of campus. [5]

Fixed routes

The following routes are operated by UMass Transit Services on behalf of the PVTA.

Amherst-area routes (including UMass and the Five Colleges)

RouteTerminalsVia
30 [6] N. Amherst
Puffton Village		 Amherst
Old Belchertown Road
(before Harkness Road)		North Pleasant Street, Main Street, Belchertown Road
31 [7] Sunderland
Sugarloaf Estates		 S. Amherst
The Boulders		South Pleasant Street, North Pleasant Street, Amherst/Sunderland Road
34/35 [8] [9] UMass Amherst Campus ShuttleUniversity Drive, Commonwealth Avenue, North Pleasant Street, East Pleasant Street, Eastman Lane, East Pleasant Street, Massachusetts Avenue
38 [10] Amherst
Haigis Mall, UMass		 S. Hadley
Mt. Holyoke College 		MA Route 116, North Pleasant Street
39 [11] Northampton
Smith College


or
Hadley
Hampshire Mall

S. Amherst
Hampshire College


or
S. Hadley
Mt. Holyoke College

UMass Outreach routes

These routes, operated by UMass Transit, are targeted not toward the UMass student body, but towards the year-round local population in the area.

RouteTerminalsVia
33 [12] Hadley
Stop & Shop 		N. Amherst
Mill Hollow Apartments/Puffers Pond		Amity Street, East Pleasant Street, Eastman Lane, Cushman Center, Survival Center, North Pleasant Street
45 [13] Amherst
Physical Sciences Building, UMass		 Belchertown
Belchertown Center		North Pleasant Street, Main Street, Echo Hill/Gatehouse Road, Belchertown Road
46 [14] Amherst
Studio Arts Building, UMass		 S. Deerfield
Whately Park and Ride		North Pleasant Street, Sunderland/Amherst Road, South Deerfield Center

Fares

PVTA buses operated by UMass Transit are not equipped with fareboxes.

Students attending any colleges in the Five Colleges Consortium have a fee included in their tuition bills (service fee for UMass Amherst students and student activity fees for the other colleges) for each semester that prepays their bus fares for the semester and funds the Five Colleges bus system, along with fares on the B43 local route between Amherst College and Smith College via UMass.

Holiday and school break service levels

While the population of Amherst is nominally 39,263 as per the 2020 census, that figure includes the student population of the Five Colleges, many of whom are only part-time residents and who account for approximately 60 percent of that figure[ citation needed ]. As such, when classes are not in session, service is greatly reduced and often suspended on many routes, and other routes will have service ending early.

All PVTA fixed-routes operated by UMass Transit are suspended on New Year's Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day. On other days when classes are not in session, these routes operate on a reduced service schedule.

References

  1. ↑ "Transit Ridership Report Second Quarter 2025" (PDF). American Public Transportation Association. August 27, 2025. Retrieved August 29, 2025.
  2. ↑ "Transit Ridership Report Fourth Quarter 2024" (PDF). American Public Transportation Association. February 19, 2025. Retrieved February 25, 2025.
  3. ↑ "MBTA News". Rollsign. Vol. 20, no. 1. Boston Street Railway Association. January–February 1983. p. 7. ISSN   0035-7898.
  4. ↑ "UMass Transit Goes for Long Ride". Office of News & Media Relations, UMass Amherst. 12 September 2013. Archived from the original on 14 September 2013. Retrieved 29 September 2024.
  5. ↑ https://www.umass.edu/transportation/transit/accessible-van-service
  6. ↑ "PVTA Route 30 Schedule" (PDF).
  7. ↑ "PVTA Route 31 Schedule" (PDF).
  8. ↑ "PVTA Route 34 Schedule" (PDF).
  9. ↑ "PVTA Route 35 Schedule" (PDF).
  10. ↑ "PVTA Route 38 Schedule" (PDF).
  11. ↑ "PVTA Route 39 Schedule" (PDF).
  12. ↑ "PVTA Route 33 Schedule" (PDF).
  13. ↑ "PVTA Route 45 Schedule" (PDF).
  14. ↑ "PVTA Route 46 Schedule" (PDF).
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