Cooperative Shuttles Stand the Test of Time
On the road now for 35 years, The Grid is 128 Business Council’s system of 10 shuttle routes, currently serving 34 member companies and 2 member municipalities. While these routes are primarily funded through private-sector memberships—each company investing an amount proportional to their size—nine of our ten routes are open to the public.
By consolidating members’ resources into a cooperative system, The Grid prevents the proliferation of overlapping private shuttles while expanding the surrounding communities’ public transit network. This empowers smaller companies (whose employee count wouldn’t support a dedicated shuttle) to solve their last-mile challenges, while offering a higher level of service to large and small companies alike.
Our current members include real estate developers, property managers, and companies in the healthcare, biopharmaceutical, biotechnology, software, robotics, travel, hospitality, and entertainment sectors.
We also engage with 15 additional tenant companies that are already provided membership through their landlords but choose to additionally contribute by participating in our fare-free boarding program.
The Grid’s unified fleet of ADA-accessible vehicles fans out across Greater Boston’s Route 128 West Corridor to reach 53 different stops. Totaling across all these routes and stops, riders can choose between 98 daily departure options.
At our largest transit hub, Alewife Station, we manage more rush-hour bus departures than the MBTA.
Balancing the needs of our many members, stops, and routes requires continuous logistical finesse, but the effort is undeniably effective: In October 2024 alone, The Grid provided 14,375 rides, which represents a 19% increase over October 2023, a 61% increase over October 2022, and a 137% increase over October 2021. On most routes, we currently carry more riders per revenue service hour than we carried in 2019. Our 12-month total (November 2023-October 2024) is 143,230 rides, and we intend to drive toward higher numbers in 2025!
