<p>I asked this question a few times, and I got some answers, but I’m still confused about the exact modes of transportation available to get from Wellesley to Boston.
So far, it’s either:
<p>Yeah it can get a little confusing.</p>
<p>2) The T. The nearest stop to the college is Woodlands, but you can’t really get there by foot – so car and sometimes the Senate bus will drop people off there. The T is much more useful once you’re in the city. The T costs $2 per ride unless you have a Charlie Card (a plastic card that you can load money on to) and then it costs $1.70 per ride. You can get a Charlie Card at any of the larger T stops (South Station, Back Bay, possibly Harvard Square, etc).</p>
<p>General information about local transportation in Boston: <a href=“http://www.mbta.com/[/url]”>http://www.mbta.com/</a></p>
<p>3) The commuter rail. The nearest station is Wellesley Square which is walking distance to campus. It is on the Framingham-Worcester line and you take it inbound to South Station or Back Bay. Once you get to either of these stops, you can take the T to anywhere in the city. From South Station, you can also take buses (Greyhound, Peter Pan, Funghwa, etc) to other places in MA, CT, NY, etc. The commuter rail cost from Wellesley Square to South Station is $5.25 one way. </p>
<p>Commuter rail schedules can be found here: <a href=“Schedules & Maps | MBTA”>Framingham/Worcester Line | Commuter Rail | MBTA;
Make sure you specify weekend, weekday and inbound (to Boston) or outbound (to Wellesley)</p>
<p>4) The Exchange Bus. This is the bus from Wellesley to MIT, Monday through Friday. The first bus leaves Wellesley at 7am and it gets to MIT around 7:40 or so. The last bus leaves Wellesley at 11pm. There are various stops around MIT so you can choose which one you want to get off at, and the time of course will vary a bit depending on what stop you get off at. This bus also stops at the intersection of Commonwealth Ave and Massachusetts Ave (aka Boston). This bus is free and runs every hour. </p>
<p>5) The Senate Bus. This is the bus from Wellesley to Harvard/MIT/Boston on Friday evenings (starting leaving campus at 6:15pm), Saturdays, and Sundays. The first bus on Saturdays and Sundays is at 10am. The buses leave every hour. Each way is $3. You can buy a punch pass which has 10 passes on it (basically 5 round trip tickets) for $30, or you can buy individual tokens/tickets. Tickets and punch passes are available at the Information Desk in the Campus Center and they are open I believe from 5-8pm during the week and possibly some time on Saturday as well. Punch passes are also available in the bookstore and there is a token machine in the campus center as well.</p>
<p>All Wellesley bus schedules can be found here: [Wellesley</a> College Transportation](<a href=“http://www.wellesley.edu/Transportation/]Wellesley”>Redirect to Wellesley College web site)</p>
<p>There are also buses to the Natick Collection (largest mall in New England) and the surrounding shopping areas (Target, etc) on Saturdays for $3 round trip (eg. 1 ticket/punch). </p>
<p>And there is a free shuttle that circles between Wellesley, Babson, and Olin during the day for classes. There is also a shuttle at night to Olin/Babson that is $2 I believe.</p>
<p>It is definitely easy to get confused by all this, but once you’re on campus you’ll understand everything. Also, transportation is currently under revision so some changes may be put in place by the fall that we do not know about yet.</p>
<p>As a freshman, you probably won’t have a car. Most likely you will rely on the Senate/MIT-Wellesley Exchange bus (the Peter Pan bus) to get off campus, and once you are in Boston you might use the T to get around if you don’t want to walk or use a taxi. If you want the option of having a car, there are also Zip Cars available, which I know some girls take advantage of. I should really sign up for that, haha.</p>
<p>Zip Cars are also another valid option for quick transportation around town. They are a short term rental car service founded by Wellesley alum, Robin Chase. You first have to register for a Zip Car account (you can do this online) and then afterwards you pay around 8 or 9 dollars an hour for however many hours you use the car. You pick up and return the car from campus police and you can reserve the car online also. More information about this: [Zipcar</a> : Organizations : Wellesley College](<a href=“http://www.zipcar.com/wellesley/]Zipcar”>Wellesley College | Zipcar)</p>
<p>Do many people use the Zip Cars? How have peoples’ experiences with them been?</p>
<p>I have used Zipcar in Cambridge, but I never bothered at Wellesley. I have used the service three times, and have had no major problems. The “per-use” cost is huge, but if you divided the cost of a car permit by the times I used my car during the year plus gas, It would be comparable (I didn’t drive much). A handful of my friends had a zipcar membership. It’s worth looking into.</p>
<p>Since when is there a bus to Olin/Babson at night?</p>
<p>If I would’ve known this, it would’ve saved my friends and i so much money/hassle on cabs.</p>
<p>I have no idea when it started but I know a lot of first years who take the “Olin party bus”… maybe they have special connections?? who knows… but apparently it does exist!</p>
<p>Jessica,</p>
<p>I’ll give a succinct answer to your original question. Besides using a car,
the main modes of transportation you can use</p>
<p>1) the EXCHANGE BUS (goes to MIT, Monday-Friday); FREE TRANSPORTATION</p>
<p>2) the SENATE BUS (goes to Harvard, MIT and Boston, Friday evenings to Sunday evenings); $3/way</p>
<p>3) the COMMUTER RAIL which is off-campus but accessible by foot.
It stops at South Station where you can get the “T” (Boston’s term for the subway), trains and even buses. It costs $5.25/way from Wellesley to South Station.</p>
<p>See Post #2 for a more thorough answer. </p>
<p>At Wellesley, I primarily used both the Exchange Bus during the week and
the Senate Bus on weekends. They both pick you up on campus. If you need
to get to a specific place in Boston, you can get off at either Harvard or MIT,
and take the subway from there. The subway is right in Harvard Square and
also right by one of the stops at MIT.</p>
<p>Jessica,</p>
<p>I’ll give a succinct answer to your original question. Besides using a car,
the main modes of transportation you can use</p>
<p>1) the EXCHANGE BUS (goes to MIT, Monday-Friday); FREE TRANSPORTATION</p>
<p>2) the SENATE BUS (goes to Harvard, MIT and Boston, Friday evenings to Sunday evenings); $3/way</p>
<p>3) the COMMUTER RAIL which is off-campus but accessible by foot.
It stops at South Station where you can get the “T” (Boston’s term for the subway), trains and even buses. It costs $5.25/way from Wellesley to South Station.</p>
<p>See Post #2 for a more thorough answer. </p>
<p>At Wellesley, I primarily used both the Exchange Bus during the week and
the Senate Bus on weekends. They both pick you up on campus. If you need
to get to a specific place in Boston, you can get off at either Harvard or MIT,
and take the subway from there. The subway is right in Harvard Square and
also right by one of the stops at MIT.</p>