NORTH ANDOVER — The MeVa transit bus sweeps over the long, curving entrance to the enormous, 5-story Amazon distribution center and stops, air brakes sighing, at Osgood Landing’s two, new bus shelters.
It’s hard to imagine, now, at 3:30 p.m. on a quiet Wednesday afternoon, but this bus route, the 14, and a stop in the far corner on the Amazon campus have implications big and small for a large cross-section of the Merrimack Valley.
It has implications for workers and businesses; for traffic, emissions and congestion; for economic opportunity, healthcare; and even, higher education.
The two stops also have implications for North Andover housing. The town will seek a bylaw amendment at Town Meeting in May to zone for multifamily housing at Osgood Landing (and the North Andover Mall) to comply with the MBTA Communities Act, says Assistant Town Manager Andrew Shapiro.
Certainly, the soon-to-be bustling bus stop has implications for some of the 1,500 employees to be hired at the online retailer’s 3.8-million-square-foot warehouse, after it opens this year.
But here, on particular this afternoon, no one gets on or off the Route 14 bus at Amazon. The riders include six Cedar’s Mediterranean Foods employees who use the route daily to get to and from work at Ward Hill in Haverhill.
The route runs hourly on weekdays and Saturday from downtown Haverhill to Route 125 as far as Osgood Landing in North Andover and back.
That will be expanded if MeVa is successful in its pending application for a $2 million state innovation transportation grant to establish direct service between Lawrence and Amazon and Haverhill businesses.
The grant, which comes from a Legislative appropriation, would also fund creation of a new line — the 11 Route — connecting Lawrence, Methuen and Haverhill with Newburyport industrial parks, shops and restaurants.
These changes would offer users of public transportation more of the usual destinations in a timely fashion — visiting friends and family, shopping, exercise, getting medical and dental care — but are geared toward connecting workers and employers in an efficient and economical way.
All fares on MeVa lines are free through at least the end of this year, offering people with limited funds a means to broaden their employment options and limit their time getting to and from work.
As it stands now, Lawrence residents taking MeVa to Ward Hill or Amazon have to hop on two buses and ride for about an hour and 20 minutes. Compare that to a 22- to 27-minute ride, if the 14 is expanded.
Now, to get from Lawrence to the Newburyport Business and Industry Park at Graf Road or downtown Newburyport restaurants requires transfers and takes about 2½ hours.
The same trip on the new No. 11 bus would be under an hour.
Lawrence’s representative on the MeVa advisory board, Myra Ortiz, says the added routes will make sense if they take people where they need to go and get them there for the shift they are working.
Fewer cars on the road will improve air quality and reduce congestion, adds Ortiz, who uses public transportation to get to her job in Boston, taking the 4 bus to the 3 bus to the McGovern Transportation Center and boarding the MBTA to Boston.
MeVa transit development director Christina Minicucci says these transportation additions to the 14 and 11 routes will invigorate economic growth and provide more options for workers.
Minicucci and MeVa Administrator Noah Berger and other transit officials including Niorka Mendez and Jesus Guillermo and Juan Guillermo have met with regional employers, business groups, healthcare representatives, planners and others including their own drivers and riders to develop the route itineraries.
“Merrimack Valley employers have identified access to transportation as a top issue with regards to attraction and retention of workers,” Minicucci says.
The problem is magnified in the Valley because of the distances between where most people live — Lawrence, Methuen, and Haverhill — and outlying jobs in business and industrial parks, and many service jobs including restaurants and bakeries.
MeVa has 24 fixed bus routes that travel as distant as Lowell and Salisbury, serving 14 towns and cities.
Meanwhile, Amazon expects many of its Osgood employees to come from Lawrence, where, according to census data, the Merrimack Valley Planning Commission and the Community Health Needs Assessment, 25% of the households have no car, Minicucci says.
Almost 19% of households along the entire two routes do not have a vehicle, based on Census data, Minicucci says, adding that communities most impacted by the lack of targeted, cross-regional workforce transit are disproportionately lower income and communities of color.
About 20% of Lawrence residents, the largest city in MeVa’s service area, are living in poverty, according to Census information.
Other large employers connected via the 14 bus would include 6K Inc. in North Andover, Whittier Rehab, and companies at Ward Hill Industrial Park.
Shapiro says, “Along Route 125 we are seeing a growing employment base, led by Amazon, but it also includes newer companies.”
The expanded 14 Route would serve six large multi-family housing complexes, connect riders to municipal services and community support services, the new North Andover Senior Center and access to the MBTA’s Commuter Rail network.
The 2020 Comprehensive Regional Transit Plan by the Merrimack Valley Planning Organization identifies the need to connect Lawrence and Haverhill via Route 125 and recommends extending 14 Route from Osgood Landing to the McGovern Transportation Center in Lawrence, boosting intermodal (bus-train) transportation.
McGovern will become the new Lawrence bus hub, moving from the Buckley Transportation Center in downtown Lawrence, later this year.
The 14 and 11 bus routes would provide a direct connection between the Lawrence-Haverhill commuter rail line and the Newburyport commuter rail line, giving job seekers and others opportunities in hard to reach locations on Cape Ann and the North Shore, Minicucci says.
“Using a regional approach we can close equity gaps in education, career growth, food access, healthcare, and more,” Minicucci says.
The North Andover assistant town manager, also director of community and economic development, says there are a growing number of residential units along the 125 corridor, including 136 units at 505 Sutton and 190 units at Princeton Properties.
“We are advocating for additional bus service on 125,” Shapiro says. “There is a critical need for people in North Andover and those around the region.”
He also says the town is studying the benefits of adding an MBTA rail station. Residents in North Andover (pop. 31,000), which is large, geographically, 26 square miles, use commuter rail stations in Lawrence, Bradford and Andover.
The town’s proposed multi-family housing overlay district, to be put before town meeting, would be located on 93 acres at 350 Winthrop Avenue (North Andover Mall) and 1600 Osgood St., which includes the former Lucent Technologies plant in front of the newly constructed Amazon warehouse.
Healthcare is another area expanded public transportation would serve, for patients and employees getting to hospitals and medical care destination between Lawrence and Newburyport
The most recent Community Health Needs Assessment by greater Lawrence hospitals and health care providers identifies transportation as an area of high need.
“Lack of transportation has a significant impact on access to health care services and is a determinant of whether an individual or family has the ability to access the basic resources that allow them to live productive and fulfilling lives,” the assessment states.
It goes on to say affordable and reliable transportation is essential to addressing poverty and unemployment, by connecting people to work, school, healthy foods, recreational facilities and other resources.
MeVa’s administrator is confident the regional transit authority has a compelling application for the $2 million innovation grant. A decision is expected in the coming months.
Berger has been in talks with Amazon to seek funding to support public transportation but those discussions have not resulted in Amazon cutting any checks, he said.
“I think they should have skin in the game,” he said.
Amazon did construct the turnaround area in the corner of Osgood Landing, and the two glassed-in bus shelters.