LAWRENCE — To the beach, and relief from the unrelenting heat.
MeVa transit picked the right summer to double its Route 23 Beach Express weekend bus service to Salisbury Beach from Lawrence.
On Saturdays and Sundays through Sept. 1, the Route 23 bus leaves the Buckley Transportation Center at 9:15 a.m. and 11:15 a.m.
It swings to the nearby McGovern Transportation Center, at 9:25 and 11:25, and arrives to the beach at 10:05 and 12:05.
The return trips leave Salisbury at 3 p.m. and 5 p.m., and parking is free at McGovern for Beach Express riders.
Last year MeVa offered a single express bus to the beach and back.
Riders from Haverhill can catch the 17 Route, hourly, seven days a week, year-round, to Salisbury, via Amesbury and Merrimac. All MeVa bus rides are fare free.
“There’s no better place to be than the beach during this weather,” says MeVa administrator Noah Berger.
In other MeVa news, the transition of the transit authority’s hub in North Lawrence, to its new, roomier Lawrence bus hub, the Senator Patricia A. McGovern Transportation Center, in South Lawrence, is on schedule to take effect on Sept. 1.
The project’s cost is $2.8 million.
Construction on McGovern bus berths and pedestrian walkways is complete, and painting is underway. Improvements to the waiting area will be ongoing.
Installment of digital signs and art work, including murals, is slated for later in the fall.
The prominent MVRTA (Merrimack Valley Regional Transit Authority) lettering on the parking garage will be replaced with the authority’s new acronym, MeVa, as well.
In other changes, the pick-up and drop-off of bus passengers at MeVa’s busy bus service at the North Andover Mall was moved on Monday to the opposite side of Market Basket, at the south end of the strip mall.
The move is to accommodate construction to support Market Basket’s move in 2025 (about a year from now) to the former Kohl’s department store location in the middle of the mall. Kohl’s will move into the supermarket’s current spot.
As of July 1, former MeVa office coordinator Nataylia Curet became the transit authority’s outreach coordinator, engaging with the communities MeVa serves.
MeVa travels as far as Lowell and Salisbury, and serves 14 towns and cities on 24 fixed bus routes. MeVa also provides paratransit transportation on its mini-buses.
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