Amanda Chen and Rebecca Li contributed to interviews.

After a Saturday night out, Emma McNulty ’26 arrived at the 77 Mass Ave station in Cambridge at 1:30 a.m., prepared to catch the 1:35 a.m. Senate Bus back to Wellesley. However, as the clock ticked past 1:35 a.m., the scene remained eerily quiet: the bus was still nowhere in sight. Indeed, by 1:45 a.m., McNulty checked her phone to find she had received a notification within the Ride App — an app tracing the Local Motion buses’ location — confirming her fear: “The Senate Bus just broke down and won’t be able to do the last run.” 

“It was so late that all public transportation was closed down, and then I saw the message that ‘Oh, the bus broke down’ … My phone was at four percent, so it was good there were people around me. There were five of us, so we had to order a large Uber,” McNulty said.

This incident occurred in the early hours of last Sunday, Oct. 19, and it was one of several that students have reported this semester regarding the Wellesley-MIT Exchange Bus or Senate Bus, both commonly called “the Loco.”

For Charlotte Petersen ’28, another student at left at 77 Mass Ave on Oct. 19, the experience was part of a larger pattern of unreliable service that has disrupted her commutes to Boston, often for an MIT class, throughout the semester.

“[Prior to Sunday,] there have been two specific times in the past month that have been really frustrating with the Loco. The first one, the Loco broke down on our way to class … and we had to Uber from the broken down Loco on the side of the road to get to class,” Petersen said. “Then, at the beginning of the month, the shuttle left over five minutes early from Alumnae, and there was a group of us who still had to get to class.”

Peterson elaborated that on Sept. 30, she arrived at Alumnae Hall at 12:41 p.m. to catch the 12:45 p.m. Exchange Bus to attend an MIT class that afternoon. However, by 12:50 p.m., Petersen and a group of seven other students realized that the bus had left early from both the Alumnae Hall and Wellesley Chapel stops and that they would have to find their own way to make it to class.

“This really frustrated me because I had friends who were on the shuttle who told the driver that he should wait and that this wasn’t the schedule and there were still people coming who had to get to the class, and they left anyway,” Petersen said. 

Petersen ordered a $40 Uber for herself and three other students that day; another group of four students similarly ordered an Uber to reach MIT. 

According to Peter Eastment, Director of Faculty Housing & Transportation, students can request a reimbursement in such instances. 

“I report all service issues to our customer service representative asking that the circumstances be investigated, GPS/camera records checked as well as a conversation with the driver. If it is determined to be a Local Motion service failure and reimbursement is requested, they honor those requests,” Eastment said in an email statement to The News.

However, Petersen has still not received her reimbursement as of Oct. 18, despite contacting Local Motion multiple times over the past few weeks.

“I sent them my receipt, and then I didn’t get another email from them until two days ago. I followed up twice, once asking if they needed anything else for me and then again earlier this past week asking if I was going to get a response,” Petersen said.

While Petersen’s experiences have been more extreme, numerous students have encountered regular delays with the Exchange bus. 

Yolanda Zhang ’26 says that the Exchange bus is “pretty much always late.”

“It’s usually about 10 minutes late going to MIT, and on the way back to Wellesley, it’s usually about 20 minutes late,” Zhang said. 

For students who attend classes or participate in MIT’s Undergraduate Research Opportunities Programs (UROPs), such delays have caused significant challenges. 

Gaby Loredo ’27, who works in a UROP, recalled one morning when she planned to take the 9 a.m. Exchange bus “to get to MIT at 10 a.m., but it was late leaving and there was crazy traffic,” resulting in her arrival at 11 a.m—making her over an hour late. Due to the bus’s inconsistencies, Loredo has had to adjust her UROP schedule.

“I told them that I was going to start working from 9:30 a.m and now I changed it to 10:30 a.m. so that I don’t have to worry about the bus [being late],” Loredo said.

Many have simply grown accustomed to the buses not running on schedule.

“Yeah, usually it’s five to ten minutes late, but you know when you go to the doctor’s office, you have a 15-minute grace period. So it’s a little annoying, but [I give] a 15-minute grace period,” Vita Moss-Wang ’29 said.

Although several students agree that the bus is often 10 to 15 minutes late, others have encountered even more exaggerated delays.

“One time, I was five or 10 minutes early to the Loco station and I saw the Loco leaving. I thought it was leaving early, but it was actually the one from the hour before. I ran into the street, into traffic, and had to ask the driver to let me on,” Isabella Odenthal ’27, who rides the Loco almost everyday, said.

Although Wellesley has worked with Local Motion for seven years, students remarked that the delays seem to be a new issue this year.

“I think everybody on campus has noticed that this year it’s been a lot worse in terms of timing. I’ve spoken to a couple of people who say that the Loco just never came at certain points,” Odenthal said. 

On Oct. 3, Eastment responded to student concerns in a school-wide email, acknowledging what he called “the recent challenges and difficulties.”

He explained that from Sept. 28 to Oct. 3, there were three locations on the bus’s route where “regular road closures and detours are in place. These are causing chronic, lengthy delays in arrival/departure times. As these projects wind down and finish, the ability to stay on schedule will improve.”

Eastment elaborated that although the Local Motion’s Bus route has not changed since last year, the “conditions on the route have been more challenging this year.” 

“The route is one of the busiest, most heavily trafficked commuting routes in the Boston area. The drivers are logging a hour just to exit the Turnpike at the Cambridge exit and proceed to the MIT stops. The stops are also used by multiple other transit organizations, which means we are not allowed to park and wait at them,” Eastment said.

Students recognize that traffic and road conditions are beyond anyone’s control, and bus schedules cannot always be exact. 

“There are times where it makes sense [that the bus is late], like if there’s traffic. If it’s rush hour, I always expect it to be a little bit late,” McNulty said. 

Students also emphasized that they don’t see these delays as the drivers’ faults.

“It depends on the traffic of the day. There is nothing the driver can do, and I don’t blame them at all,” Odenthal said. 

According to Eastment, all the regular bus drivers are the same this year as last year, meaning they are all “familiar with the route.” In addition, Eastment notes that Local Motion has also been the College’s most dependable transportation partner to date, particularly after switching from Peter Pan Bus Lines in 2018.

“I have worked with three other bus companies since I began managing transportation,” Eastment said. “I have found Local Motion to be the most responsive/reliable vendor to date,” he said.

Moving forward, Eastment encourages all students to download the “Ride Systems” app, which allows one to track the bus’s live location. 

“It is important that all students planning to ride the buses download the tracker app in order to best monitor the progress and location of the buses. Local Motion is aware of the importance of ensuring the tracker app is activated and always available. I also always encourage students to share their feedback and experience with me,” Eastment said.

Ultimately, despite the breakdowns, delays, and early departures, students remain grateful for the Local Motion bus.

“There is nothing you can do in traffic. [Better] communication between students and the Local Motion Bus company  [would be good], but I really appreciate the general fact that there is a Loco that takes us to Boston for free,” Odenthal said. “I take it all the time, and I’m very happy it exists. In the grand scheme of things, it’s just a minor inconvenience that it’s late.”

Contact the editors responsible for this story: Jessica Chen