By Nathan Metcalf, Special to the Reporter
Four MBTA bus routes serving Dorchester are among the 10 slowest and the 10 most bunched in Greater Boston, according to an analysis by the advocacy group TransitMatters.
The group’s annual Pokey and Schleppie Awards – which measure bus speed and “bunching,” when buses show up back-to-back after an extended wait — found that Routes 19, 22, 23, and 28 performed among the worst in the network.
“I try to leave the house two hours before work because I know these buses are slow,” said Xavier Walker, 21, who rides the 28 almost every day from his Dorchester home to his security job at the Museum of Fine Arts.
“I’m about to be late again,” Walker said. “It’s frustrating, especially in security, when they expect you to be on time. You can’t be guarding very expensive stuff and be fog-minded because of what happened on the bus.”
TransitMatters ranked the Route 23 bus as the most bunched in Greater Boston, placing it first on the Schleppie list with a bunching rate of 19.3 percent, meaning nearly one in five trips arrived too close together to provide regular service. Route 22 ranked seventh for bunching, with a rate of 14.6 percent, and Route 28 ranked ninth at 14.2 percent.
On the speed side, Route 19 appeared on the Pokey list as the region’s fourth-slowest route, with an average speed of 6.49 miles per hour. Route 28 also made that list, ranking tenth slowest at 6.70 miles per hour.
Systemwide, TransitMatters reported, average speeds on the MBTA’s 10 slowest routes slipped again this year, falling from 6.83 miles per hour to 6.52 miles per hour. Bunching across the network also increased, rising from 14.1 percent to nearly 15.8 percent.
TransitMatters leaders said the four Dorchester routes illustrate how congestion, limited bus-priority infrastructure, and long-term underinvestment combine to slow service in neighborhoods that rely on transit the most.
“There’s definitely a disinvestment in the infrastructure like bus lanes and transit signal priority,” said Caitlin Allen-Connelly, the group’s executive director. “Slow speeds and bunching are disproportionately harming some of the system’s most transit-dependent riders, who tend to be low-income and primarily from Black and Brown communities in Dorchester and Roxbury. Riders are losing hours.”
Her colleague Cole Lewis, a co-lead on TransitMatters’ NextGen Bus team, which analyzes bus performance and advocates for faster, more reliable services, said those delays accumulate into a measurable barrier to opportunity.
“It’s a lack of access,” Lewis said. “That extra 15 minutes waiting or riding can decide whether someone looks at a job, gets to healthcare, or reaches the parts of the city others take for granted.”
In a statement, the MBTA said it is working to improve speed and reliability and expand priority infrastructure across the city.
“Improving the speed and reliability of our bus service is one of our top priorities,” the statement said. “The MBTA will continue to do its part while collaborating with our municipal and state roadway owners and stakeholders to expand bus priority infrastructure and increase Bus Lane and Bus Stop Enforcement to achieve improved service for our riders.”
The MBTA said its major Blue Hill Avenue bus-priority project is nearly 30 percent designed, with plans for center-running bus lanes, transit-signal priority, and safer crossings. Similar upgrades are planned for Warren Street and Malcolm X Boulevard, while Tremont Street would see an extension of the Columbus Avenue center-running busway.
Additionally, a redesign of Nubian Square would improve bus circulation and boarding. Construction on Blue Hill Avenue — used heavily by the 23 and 28 — is unlikely to begin before 2027, pending federal funding.
TransitMatters said the timeline is further complicated by the federal grant that the Blue Hill Avenue project is depending on. Grant approvals have stalled under the Trump administration and left cities unsure when funding will arrive.
Taneja Williams (above), 22, of Dorchester, recently started a cleaning business and uses the 28 to reach clients. “I was late today,” she said. “Luckily, since it’s my business, I can communicate with my clients. But if I had a 9-to-5, there’s just no wiggle room, you gotta be clocked in at eight.” Nathan Metcalf photo
Williams said the delays are hardest on younger riders. “The main frustrating thing is when kids are going to school and they have to wait out in the cold,” she said. “They’re way more susceptible to dangers and weather.”
Gwendolyn Henry, 54, also of Dorchester, said, “I’ve been late to appointments because of the 28. They told me I was too late and had to reschedule, and I had to go back home. It made me so angry.”
Dorchester resident Tyquan Lamar, 30, said he has used the 22 for most of his life and is back on it after recently returning home from incarceration and losing his car. “I don’t mind taking the bus. I’m a trooper,” he said. “I grew up taking the bus everywhere, taking the bus by myself every day starting at 11.”
But even after a lifetime on the bus, the delays take a toll. “I hate when the bus is late,” he said. “Your boss don’t care. You gotta be to work, you gotta be to work.”
Jocelyn Henry (no relation to Gwendolyn), 20, of Dorchester, takes the 22 to her job in Central Square on days when she doesn’t have to pick up her child. She said the route’s slow, unreliable service reflects deeper inequities between neighborhoods.
“Mattapan and Dorchester are definitely underfunded compared to places like the South End or Back Bay, and that’s because of the people here,” she said. “There are more people of color in this neighborhood, and we don’t get the same buses or the same resources.”
This story is part of a partnership between the Dorchester Reporter and the Boston University Department of Journalism.
