Boston-to-Hartford Bike-Train-Bus Commute
This week concludes my twice-a-week multi-modal commute from our new home in the Roslindale neighborhood of Boston to my current place of employment at Trinity College in Hartford CT. When Beth and I made the big decision to move to Boston, I encouraged us to do it during my final semester of teaching during the fall (rather than waiting until the winter), and I readily agreed to commute to teach my Monday & Wednesday morning classes for three weeks of November and one week of December. Because I’m a morning person, who loves public transit, and am always looking for a good excuse to pedal around on my Brompton folding bike!
Here’s my commute, which was perfectly fine twice-a-week for four weeks, but wouldn’t want to do it every day:
- 4:40am wake up to shower and eat breakfast
- 5:15am 3-minute ride on Brompton bike to Roslindale Village station on the MBTA commuter line
- 5:30am fold up my bike and carry onboard train to South Station
- 5:50am arrive at South Station, place Brompton bike inside Ikea bag, and carry upstairs to bus terminal
- 6:00am place my bagged bike in the storage compartment and board Peter Pan bus to Hartford
- 7:50am arrive at Hartford Union Station, unbag and unfold by bike, and pedal 10 minutes to Trinity
- 8:10am arrive at Trinity College campus, ready to teach
After teaching my two classes, I enjoyed lunch in Hartford and did the same trip in reverse, usually making it home by 4:30pm.
Lessons learned from this experience:
- Life does not fit neatly into the perfect schedule. While I taught two classes back-to-back from 10:00am to 12:45pm, I needed to catch the 6:00am Peter Pan bus (or the 6:20am Greyhound bus) to arrive on time at Trinity, since the 8:00am bus did not arrive until 9:50am, assuming no delays. Good thing I’m a morning person, my brain was awake, and I could effectively prep for class with my laptop on the bus!
- MBTA commuter trains allow folding bikes anytime. But the Peter Pan/Greyhound bus companies prefer that you place your folding bike inside a bag before you store it under the bus. Also, there’s no extra fee for bringing one piece of luggage under 50 pounds, but unbagged bikes might be charged an extra fee. So this was another great use case for the $5 Ikea Dimpa bag to store your Brompton bike, as described in my 2024 Brompton packing post.
- While it would have been easier to simply unfold and push my bike through South Station, making the connection from my train to the bus was tight. In order to save time, I learned to fold up and bag my bike while riding on the train, then threw the bag straps over one shoulder and hoofed it up the escalator to my bus. The first time I rolled my bike into South Station and up the escalator, a security guard warned me that their rules required bikes to be transported on the elevator, which was very slow. So my 30-pound bike lift became part of my morning exercise routine!
- The Peter Pan Bus company lets you sit anywhere. But Greyhound sells you tickets for a specific seat, and the 6:20am Greyhound driver was adamant that you must sit in your assigned seat, even forcing you to sit next to another passenger despite having plenty of empty seats all around you. So I became a big fan of the Peter Pan bus line!
- Most bus drivers and passengers are nice folks, even in the early morning. One time at Boston’s South Station, a passenger mistakenly stood in line for our 6:00am Peter Pan bus to Hartford, but as our driver was checking tickets prior to boarding, suddenly realized that this person was supposed to be on a different bus that had just started to leave. So our driver sprinted across the bus loop to flag down the other driver before he fully departed our station, and guided the mistaken passenger onto the correct bus.