The 71 is the 73’s brother, down to the shared legacy of using trolleybuses until 2022. With that in mind, here’s the 73’s more urban twin.
The route begins by exiting out of the Harvard busway and into Harvard Square, turning down Mt. Auburn Street, where the route follows the 73. However, since riding the 73, the route is detoured due to construction, and some narrow side-streets have to be used. The MBTA attributed the decommissioning of the trolleybus catenary (& the buses themselves by extension) to this construction, which is supposed to be long-term. However, advocates called total bullshit. Well, I’m here to call total bullshit because instead of taking everything down, they could’ve used this for a multi-year rehabilitation project for the infrastructure AND have ordered new buses. Does anyone even still make trolleybuses for the U.S. market, though, or does New Flyer hold a monopoly? Anyways, I digress, one detour later and we’re back on track. Passing a graveyard, a bunch of shops, and entering Watertown, the 73 splits off at Belmont Street, and eventually reaching the Watertown Square bus loop. Now, why the HELL doesn’t this serve the Watertown Yard bus loop instead?! Who knows.
The good: It’s a direct route between Watertown and Harvard! It’s also rather frequent.
The bad: WHY THE FUCK DID THEY DELETE THE TROLLEYBUS INFRASTRUCTURE, WHAT WAS THE MBTA OF THE CHARLIE BAKER ERA SMOKING?! FURTHERMORE, WHY?! JUST WHY?! ALSO, WHY IS THIS NOT GOING TO THE WATERTOWN YARD?! WHY DOES WATERTOWN NEED TWO BUS LOOPS MERE FEET FROM EACH OTHER?!
Nearby points of interest: Mt. Auburn Hospital, various restaurants in Watertown Square, and apparently there’s even an Armenian museum! Interesting.
Overall, it’s not a bad route, it’s not terribly deviatory (with a rather low EDI), but I do have to ask “why the square and not the yard?”.
Rating: 8/10, but a 1/10 on the MBTA removing the electrical infrastructure for trolleybuses.
