The MVRTA serves the northeast corner of Massachusetts with over 1 million miles of scheduled bus routes, and elderly and disabled transportation.
In addition to the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), which provides public transportation to the Greater Boston area, public transportation in Massachusetts is provided by a network of 15 Regional Transit Authorities (RTAs) enabled in 1974 with the passage of Chapter 161B of the Massachusetts General Laws. RTA’s are body politics and political subdivisions of the Commonwealth. Chapter 161B defines the overall structure and functioning of MVRTA.
History
The MVRTA was established on October 11, 1974. It was one of the original transit authorities created by Chapter 161B if the Massachusetts General Laws.
MVRTA began service in Fiscal Year 1976 in the City of Haverhill and expanded over the next three years to include the City of Lawrence and the Towns of North Andover, Methuen, and Andover. Ten neighboring communities (Boxford, Groveland, Merrimac, Newbury, Rowley, Amesbury, Newburyport, West Newbury, Salisbury, and Georgetown) have since joined the Authority. Presently, the communities of Haverhill, Lawrence, Andover, North Andover, Methuen, Merrimac, Amesbury, Newburyport, Boxford, Groveland, Salisbury, Georgetown and West Newbury receive service.
On May 1, 2017 the Town of North Reading joined the MVRTA and now receives Ring & Ride service.
System Performance
The MVRTA has developed a performance based measurement program for fixed route and paratransit services in which we monitor the following categories:
1. On-time Performance
2. Valid Complaints
3. Preventable Accidents per 100,000 miles
4. Miles between Road Calls
5. Passenger per Revenue Mile
6. Passenger per Revenue Hour
7. Maintenance cost per Revenue Mile
8. Maintenance cost per Revenue Hours
Click here to see our key performance indicators for Fixed Routes and Paratransit.
We have assembled system performance data and will use this information to gauge our performance during the fiscal year (FY2019) against the 5 year average or benchmark.
The goal is to continue to improve our performance over time.
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