Improved Silver Line: Nubian to Downtown

Go Boston 2030 makes an early action commitment to improve rapid bus service on the Silver Line from Nubian Square to Downtown.

Today, the Silver Line from Nubian to Downtown has protected bus shelters and an exclusive red bus lane for parts of its route. It's been two decades since the creation of the Silver Line on Washington Street. In that time, much has changed in our understanding of rapid bus service.

Our goal is to give residents relying on the Silver Line:

better access to Downtown
better access to healthcare at Boston University and Tufts Medical Centers, and
transfers to other transit lines.

We hope improved bus service will also bring more visitors to Nubian Square and increase the commercial activity and vitality of the area.

We've divided the corridor into two distinct segments. See below for project-specific details.

Improvement segments

Silver Line Improvements: Downtown

With this project, we'll be working with the MBTA to provide dedicated bus facilities in Chinatown and Downtown. As part of our work, we are:

supporting cyclists with a protected path
adding pickup and drop-off areas, and
concentrating loading zones Downtown.

Silver Line Improvements: Roxbury and South End

Dedicated funds have been set aside in the 2019-2020 City Capital Budget for bus lane repainting and maintenance across Boston. In spring 2020, we will repaint the existing red bus lanes to bring them to current City of Boston standards. In the process, we'll seek to fix existing challenges with safety, signage, and curb regulations. We plan to do this through near-term, localized improvements.