The Montachusett Regional Transit Authority (‘MART’) is one of Massachusetts’ 15 regional transit authorities. ‘MART’ is located in North Central Massachusetts and encompasses parts of Northern Worcester and Western Middlesex Counties. ‘MART’ was created pursuant to Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 161B, in August of 1978. ‘MART’ provides public transportation to 22 area cities and towns. They include the cities of Fitchburg, Gardner, and Leominster and the towns of Ashburnham, Ashby, Athol, Ayer, Bolton, Boxborough, Hardwick, Harvard, Hubbardston, Lancaster, Littleton, Lunenburg, Royalston, Shirley, Sterling, Stow, Templeton, Westminster, and Winchendon. We work with the local communities within the region to offer attractive options to travel with ‘MART’. Bus fare discounts are provided to the elderly, disabled, veterans, and students.
‘MART’ has local bus routes in the Fitchburg, Leominster, and Gardner areas, as well as intercity service providing a connection to the Commuter Rail. Mount Wachusett Community College has service between Fitchburg and Gardner, as well as the Athol/Orange area via the Link-2 bus route. The Link-3 bus goes between Gardner and Winchendon center. There are also commuter time shuttles to Devens from Fitchburg/Leominster and a commuter rail shuttle service in Littleton. There are twelve (12) fixed bus routes which run Monday through Saturday on a 15 to 60 minute frequency, and six more regional routes which run on weekdays only with variable frequency. ‘MART’ has Council on Aging Service for the elderly and disabled in all of its communities except Royalston.
‘MART’ also runs a shuttle to Veterans centers and hospitals in Boston (from Bedford VA thru Jamaica Plain VA) and in Worcester. The shuttle runs three times a day and leaves from the ‘MART’ Intermodal Center. Veterans, seniors and the disabled can book an ADA ride from their homes to the Intermodal to board the shuttle. The shuttle is run at no cost to the Veterans themselves. Currently the cost to run this service is supplemented by the cities of Fitchburg and Leominster for the Veterans who live there. The shuttle is also open to the general public. Seniors and the disabled receive a discount.
‘MART’ operates and maintains three park-and-ride facilities along the MBTA Fitchburg Commuter Rail line. We operate the Fitchburg Intermodal Transportation Center located in downtown Fitchburg, the North Leominster Intermodal Transportation Center located on Nashua Street in Leominster, and the new Wachusett Station located at 55 Authority Drive in West Fitchburg just off Route 2 at Route 31 exit. Click here to view all MART’s locations.
Additionally, ‘MART’ brokers human service transportation through the Massachusetts Human Service Transportation (HST) Office within the Executive Office of Health and Humans Services (EOHHS) for four of the nine established HST regions. The human service agencies currently represented under the HST office are MassHealth (NEMT), Department of Developmental Services (DDS), the Department of Public Health Early Intervention program (DPH/EI) and the Access to Recovery program, the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission and the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind. The four (4) areas managed by ‘MART’ represent 206 of the 351 cities and towns in Massachusetts.