UPDATED, Aug 25: Arlington now has more frequent bus service from the Alewife MBTA Red Line station through Lexington to Hanscom Field and the VA Hospital in Bedford, and see the return of Route 76, which was folded into Route 62 as part of the pandemic-era service adjustments.
The changes, which will include bus service to Lexington Center on Sundays for the first time, took effect on Aug. 24. The changes for the two separate bus routes have been posted at stops along the routes and will mean more options for commuters in the Heights and west side of town.
Route 62:
- Peak service, weekdays (7 a.m. to 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.), buses will run every 30 minutes.
- Saturday service returns. For the first time since 1998, Route 62 will operate on Saturdays, replacing the current 62/76 hybrid route.
- New Sunday service, Route 62 will operate on Sundays for the first time ever, with a schedule matching Saturday service.
- Route 62 will run from 5 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. on weekdays and from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.
Route 76:
- During peak service (7 a.m. to 9 a.m. and 4 to 6:30 p.m.), buses will run every 30 minutes.
- The 76 bus will now operate off-peak as well, as the MBTA is doing away with the combined 62/76 combined route that operated off-peak.
- It will run on weekdays from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.
For Arlington, the buses run on the pre-Covid routes from Alewife Station, through Arlington to Lexington Center. The 62 bus will continue on its current route, which has used Park Avenue for the last several years. Between Lexington Center and Alewife during peak hours, buses will arrive every 15 to 30 minutes as both routes serve Lexington Center.
The schedules are now available. For the 76, see here. For the 62, see here. Along with the service updates, MBTA bus stop signs along these routes have been updated.
Arlington has been working to restore public transportation to pre-pandemic levels, but the going has been slow. In the spring, the Route 77 service was increased to a bus about every 15 minutes. LexExpress, a bus service run by the town of Lexington, services the Arlington Heights bus depot on weekdays from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. The bus schedule can be viewed here.
Arlington OKs $3.5 million
Town Meeting approved the town’s MBTA of $3.5 million at its May 7 session. Unlike the past two years, the assessment – the amount Arlington pays the state agency for public transportation – was passed without comment in 2025 as part of the full $231.5 million budget for fiscal 2026, which begins July 1.
In both 2023 and 2024, Arlington’s Town Meeting considered warrant articles regarding the quality and type of service the town receives from the MBTA. Some five months after the 2024 public debate, MBTA General Manager Phillip Eng responded to the Town of Arlington over concerns related to public transportation, particularly bus service, in athree-page letter to the town.
But the budget approval comes as the MBTA is reworking bus service and at a time when town residents have raised questions about the service the town receives, particularly since Covid, when Routes 84 and 79, heavily used lines that connected to the Red Line, were eliminated. Eng’s 2024 letter confirmed those routes will not return.
The MBTA has been working on service to the town, including a promised return to the 77 bus running every 15 minutes, and Eng met with Arlington officials this spring, but no information on that discussion was released publicly.
As previously reported by YourArlington, that line would be replaced by a new, seven-day line – Route 54 – will “provide cross-town connections between Waltham, Belmont and Arlington—locations that are geographically proximate, but not well connected by the current radial bus network that forces riders to travel into the core and then back out,” Eng wrote. The elimination of the Route 67 bus means that one fewer Arlington route ends at the Alewife T station.
Eng’s letter confirmed that Route 79, which ran through Arlington, down Mass Avenue to the Alewife T station on weekdays and was much-used prior to Covid, will not return to service, according to Eng’s letter, nor will the former Route 84 that served Arlmont Village. Service from Arlington Center to West Medford is expected to be increased to every 20 minutes with improvements planned for Route 95, which connects Arlington to Medford, the Orange Line, and commuter rail lines. Eng wrote that bus service to the recently extended Green Line will be adjusted to eliminate duplication.
This story, published July 9, 2025, was prepared using public postings, field research, and YourArlington’s archives. It will be updated.
