Silver Line Eases Travel to Logan

When Daniel Miede, a rising high-school junior and a Summer School student, arrived with his mother at Logan International Airport from Irvine, California, last Friday, he wanted to know the cheapest way to get to Harvard Square.

Airport officials directed Miede to the Silver Line, a six-month-old fleet of high-tech buses that began ferrying travelers between Logan and downtown Boston on June 1 for the standard T fare—$1.25.

“It was actually pretty easy,” Miede said of the service. “We waited two or three minutes [at the terminal] for the bus to come, and [on the bus] we had room to spread out.”

When the diesel-and-electric bus arrived at South Station, the two had little trouble transferring to the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority’s (MBTA) Red Line, arriving at Harvard Square and spending the night at the Inn at Harvard.

Just a month ago, Harvard students leaving Boston for the summer had only one way to trek to the airport on public transportation: take the Red Line inbound from Harvard, switch to the Green Line eastbound at Park Street, switch to the Blue Line outbound at Government Center, ride that train to the Airport stop, and then take a free shuttle bus to the correct terminal.

Now, airport-bound Harvard students can catch the Red Line inbound to South Station, and then transfer to the Silver Line SL1 route, which not only goes to Logan but—unlike the Blue Line—also stops at every terminal.

“Instead of a four-seat ride with three transfers, we now have a two-seat ride with one transfer,” said MBTA spokesperson Joe Pesaturo. “It definitely benefits most people on the Red Line.”

But support for the new service is hardly unanimous. There are already many critics who question whether the more-than-$600-million project of threading the Silver Line through tunnels from South Boston to Logan will actually result in faster service.

But Miede’s experience aboard the Silver Line is exactly what MBTA officials claim the newest branch of the T offers—a quicker, less stressful way to get to and from Logan, and one that will also revitalize the South Boston waterfront, and­­ the route will provide a seamless trip from the Square to as far as the South End and Roxbury.

BUT IS IT FASTER?

The Silver Line service is not designed to replace the existing Blue Line airport stop, which was completely rebuilt last summer. Pesaturo said that the Blue Line still makes sense for many travelers situated west of downtown Boston.

And cabs remain the quickest way to the airport, although they can cost as much as $35 from Harvard, in contrast to the $1.25 fare for either the Blue or Silver line.

But does the Silver Line’s greater ease of use translate into a faster ride?

“[That’s] the really interesting thing,” said David Luberoff, the executive director of the Rappaport Institute for Greater Boston at the Kennedy School of Government.

Luberoff said that the Silver Line is “getting trapped on the local streets,” referring to parts of the route where buses must vie against public traffic. These slowdowns cause the Silver Line to be a slower route to Logan from Cambridge than the Blue Line is, he suggested.

In an informal test conducted by The Crimson on Friday, two reporters traveled from Harvard Square to Logan’s Terminal C, one using the Blue Line, the other using the Silver Line.

Both to and from the airport, the Blue Line proved faster than the Silver. The reporter riding the Blue Line arrived back at Harvard nearly 25 minutes before the Silver Line reporter, who waited for 19 minutes at Terminal C alone for a Silver Line bus—despite posted schedules that promised a bus every ten minutes.

Nevertheless, Otmane Elyounssi, a Cambridge cab driver, predicted the new line would “definitely...affect our business, especially students.”

“If I had the choice and time on my hand, I would definitely pay the $1.25” to take the Silver Line rather than a more expensive cab ride, Elyounssi said.

—Staff writer Natalie I. Sherman contributed to the reporting of this article.

—Staff writer Brendan R. Linn can be reached at blinn@fas.harvard.edu.