Here we go again, another park and ride RIPTA express route! The 9x is the only express route (and the only RIPTA route) to directly serve Burrillville and Glocester in the northwest corner of the state from Providence. Burrillville is also served by the 282 (a Flex route), but I'll save that for another time.
The route starts at the Downcity Loop in downtown Providence by Kennedy Plaza before continuing express along US 6 and I-295 to Johnston, where some trips deviate to serve the Citizens Bank headquarters there. All trips continue on I-295 until Smithfield (the exit about two miles after the Citizens Bank deviation). The route continues along US 44, passing through the villages of Greenville and Chepachet, before turning onto Route 102 to reach Burrillville. The route stops in all the main villages in Burrillville, those being Mapleville, Harrisville, and Pascoag, where the route ends. There is another park and ride in Smithfield near the Stop and Shop, in a plaza where the route deviates into (US 44 is a stroad at this point).
Schedule wise, it's what I imagined because this is a RIPTA express route. The route runs weekdays only with trips during the peak hours. There is also a mid-morning (9 to 10 am) trip from Pascoag and an early afternoon (1:30 pm) trip from Providence. Those are included in a total of 5 inbound and 6 outbound trips a day. The Citizens Bank deviations occur during mornings outbound and afternoons inbound, seeing two trips in each direction.
Thoughts - This route has some decent short-term potential for improvements. This is a mostly well-done express route by RIPTA, some minor scheduling tweaks could improve it. One or two more mid-day runs can help it, due to the local portions of this route. This route utilizes two-lane, residential roads for a large chunk of its routing, connecting major village centers together. Also, remember how Citizens Bank and the Smithfield exit are two miles apart? It would probably be easier to route all trips along Greenville Ave instead of I-295 for those two miles, as Greenville Ave connects up with US 44 along the existing route, and it serves more housing and businesses (local and smaller businesses). I'm not too much of a fan of adding devaitions to routes, but this route could benefit from a rerouting to serve Burrillville High School. It would add about one more mile (routing along East Ave instead of Central St), but the times that this route would pass by coordinate very well with school arrival and dismissal. Buses would stop at about 7:05 am, 7:25 am, 2:30 pm, and 2:50 pm (other trips would skip it). Solid express route though.
Posted: Jul 5, 2022 23:59
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Cod on July 6, 2022 at 12:04 pm: ooh i did this route, don't remember the rating i gave it though