A bus stop is finally slated to return to Danvers Square this fall after the downtown has gone without an MBTA connection for five years.

MBTA bus service is expected to return to the square beginning Tuesday, Sept. 6, Danvers Director of Land Use and Community Services Aaron Henry announced at last week’s Select Board meeting.

The stop will be at its old spot adjacent to the High Street parking lot and across from the M&T Bank administrative building, Henry said. Buses will come every 60-65 minutes between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. on weekdays and 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. on weekends, including Sunday service for the first time.

The stop will be serviced by a slightly modified version of the 465 route that previously came to the square, and will directly connect to the Liberty Tree Mall, the Market Basket and Mass General Brigham Healthcare Center on Endicott Street, and Salem Depot.

The change will see bus route 465 become a shorter, more direct route behind the mall to streamline the Danvers loop. Route 435 will also return to the terminus it had at Liberty Tree before the COVID-19 pandemic to avoid redundancy.

“This is all good news and something we have been striving for,” Henry said. “(This need) was identified in the housing production plan, identified in the Strategic Danvers (plan). So this is something that we’ve been working toward behind the scenes for some time.”

The Danvers Square stop will technically be on a one-year pilot program, but the MBTA is working to make it a permanent change, Henry said.

The MBTA will hold a public listening session on the service change during a meeting at the Peabody Institute Library on Tuesday, July 28, from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Other bus service changes on the North Shore will also be discussed that night.

Henry called this a procedural step that has to be taken before the stop can resume service.

“We’ve been assured today through multiple contacts that our service resumes on Sept. 6,” he said.

The stop was restored largely through the advocacy of state Rep. Sally Kerans, D- Danvers, Danvers resident George Saluto and other local officials and residents.

“We’re delighted that come fall, we’ll see the bus rolling through town once again,” Kerans told The Salem News.

“Restoring MBTA bus service to downtown Danvers helps those who cannot drive get to Salem or to Endicott Street. It provides commuters to Boston with a cleaner option to reach the train and it helps our downtown area as well. It’s another tool in the clean transportation toolbox.”

The Danvers Square stop was removed from service in 2021, when MBTA officials said ridership data showed a low demand for the stop.

Locals disagreed that the stop was not needed. Those who did rely on the bus were often low income or disabled residents who could not drive a car, and needed this transportation to get to grocery stores, doctor’s appointments and Commuter Rail stops.

The timing also collided with a push for mixed-use developments downtown, which draw in public transit-oriented tenants by nature.

At the time, Danvers officials had approved a Maple Square project that planned for a nearly 150-unit apartment building with new storefronts on its street level. More developments have since been proposed for downtown, including a mixed-use project with commercial space and 30 housing units proposed for 156-158 Maple St., a request filed with the Planning Board earlier this year.

Kerans filed language to restore the Danvers Square stop in a Transportation Bond Bill that cleared both the state Senate and House of Representatives in 2022, but then Gov. Charlie Baker vetoed the bill.

The MBTA also did not bring back the stop as part of its overhaul of eastern Massachusetts bus routes in 2022, despite Kerans, Saluto and others advocating for Danvers throughout that initiative’s process.

“The MBTA’s general manager, and now acting secretary, Phil Eng gave us his word in the Toomey Room at Danvers Town Hall following our tour and conversation two years ago that they’d (bring back our stop),” Kerans said. “He’s kept his word.”

The restoration of the bus stop also comes as the Salem Skipper, a local ride-sharing service, sunsets service in Salem, Danvers and Beverly this year.

“I’m happy to see this (bus stop) come back,” Select Board member Dan Bennett said Tuesday. “It was a shame that they cut it when they did, and didn’t listen to us until people got up in arms, like Sally and George.

“I look forward to this serving the community and the folks that need the bus. A lot of people need that bus.”

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