The Franklin Regional Transit Authority (FRTA) is a regional transit authority which provides public transportation principally to Franklin County and the North Quabbin region, both in Massachusetts. The FRTA is based in the county seat of Greenfield, Massachusetts .
7-490: Prior to the FRTA, Greenfield and its surrounding areas were served by the intermunicipal Greenfield and Montague Transportation Area (GMTA), an authority created with the purchase of assets of the defunct Connecticut Valley Street Railway in 1924. The FRTA was established in 1978 with then implementation of Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 161B, which gave rise to several regional transit authorities throughout Massachusetts. FRTA
14-710: Is available Monday through Friday. Fares on fixed route buses are free through June 30, 2024. FRTA is classified as a 'rural' transit authority. As of May 2023, there are seven active routes: The John W. Olver Transit Center houses the FRTA offices and the Franklin Regional Council of Governments, the successor organization to the Franklin County county government. It has provisions for local FRTA buses and Amtrak service, and links with Greyhound Lines for intercity bus service to Springfield , Boston and Brattleboro . All FRTA bus routes service
21-771: Is the largest public transit authority in Massachusetts by territory. In 1999, the FRTA and the Fitchburg -based Montachusett Regional Transit Authority (MART) cooperated to form a route to Athol and Orange, Massachusetts , linking Greenfield to the MART terminal in Gardner . Although not in the FRTA service area, public bus service operated by the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority between Greenfield and Northampton began in 2000. In 2006,
28-522: The FRTA assumed the responsibility of providing transportation services for the towns of Greenfield and Montague , when the former Greenfield Montague Transportation Area (GMTA) transit authority became unfunded by the state Department of Transportation. In 2013, Athol voted to withdraw from the FRTA service district, and instead voted to join MART, necessitating that the former Greenfield/Athol route be truncated in Orange. FRTA public transportation service
35-609: The JWO Transit Center. Connecticut Valley Street Railway The Connecticut Valley Street Railway was an interurban streetcar and bus system operating in Greenfield, Massachusetts as well as surrounding communities with connections in Deerfield , Hadley , Hatfield , Montague , North Amherst , Northampton , and Whately . Originally the street railway began as two companies, both founded in 1895,
42-753: The Montague Street Railway Company and the Greenfield and Turners Falls Street Railway Company. From their inception, both companies shared common directors and within a year of their founding both would merge, taking on the latter's name. The company would assume the Connecticut Valley Street Railway Company name with the addition of the Northampton & Amherst and the Greenfield & Northampton Street Railway companies in 1905. With
49-562: The growth of jitneys in the early 1910s, the company became the first street railway in New England to begin a bus service, seeking to compete with these new fleets. Following a period where the system became unprofitable, its company went into receivership, closing the railway on April 1, 1924. Within a week of this however, the system was sold to the towns of Greenfield and Montague in a joint municipal purchase of its assets for $ 75,000. The resulting municipal authority became known as
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