Route 86 is a local bus route in Boston, Cambridge, and Somerville, Massachusetts, operated by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) as part of MBTA bus service. It operates on a circumferential route between Sullivan Square station and Reservoir station via Union Square, Somerville, Harvard Square, and Brighton Center. In 2018, it had the 18th-highest weekday ridership on the system, though it ranked 37th by number of weekday trips. A 2018–19 MBTA review of its bus system found that route 86 had infrequent and unreliable service, including irregular scheduled headways, despite its high ridership and significance as a crosstown connecting route.
A route 86 bus on Chestnut Hill Avenue in March 2022
Streetcar tracks on Market Street in Brighton in 1930
A route 86 bus at Sullivan Square in 2006
The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) operates 152 bus routes in the Greater Boston area. The MBTA has a policy objective to provide transit service within walking distance for all residents living in areas with population densities greater than 5,000 inhabitants per square mile (1,900/km2) within the MBTA's service district. Much of this service is provided by bus. In 2023, the system had a ridership of 91,459,700, or about 303,300 per weekday as of the fourth quarter of 2023.
A New Flyer XDE40 bus in Somerville in 2022
Buses at Arborway Yard in 1967
A Blue Hill Bus Lines vehicle on the Canton–Mattapan route, now the #716 route, in 1967
World Trade Center station in the South Boston Piers Transitway