Urban Safari: Boston to Providence
$10 Weekend "All You Can Ride" pass on the MBTA Commuter Rail!
Want to get out of Boston on the weekend? On the cheap?
The MBTA’s $10 “All You Can Ride” Commuter Rail Pass is practically a “deal of the century” and we took full advantage of it this past weekend when we went to Providence, R.I.
The $10 weekend pass is commuter rail only (you’ll still need your Charlie Card/monthly pass for bus and subway) (the ones that haven’t been taken off-line, that is), and is valid on all lines, all zones, all Saturdays and Sundays.
The pass can be purchased on board the train, at a hub station, or via the mTicket app. Weekend Passes are not available at fare vending machines or retail sales locations.
We boarded the train at the Hyde Park commuter rail stop and had a lovely hour-ish trip to Providence RI. Our intent was to to have dinner and watch the sunset near the mouth of the Providence river. The train took about the same amount of time as driving, but there was no traffic, we didn’t have to park, and we didn’t worry about how much we had to drink!!!
Choo-choo! Choo-choo! Day-yam, still love trains. LOVE TRAINS.
The train from Boston to Providence was pretty empty. One of the many benefits of riding a bi-level train, especially from the upper deck, is that we got to see scenery which you can’t see from driving a car on the highway! We sat at one of the seats with a table and looked out the window the entire ride. Because we are goobers 😉
Don’t tell anyone about the $10 weekend commuter rail pass, okay? We like having an entire car practically to ourselves…
We left the Hyde Park station around 4:30 pm and pulled into Providence approximately one hour later.
The trip was completely relaxing and stress-free, so much so that we have a suggestion for the mTicket app: ADD AN ALARM to the app to let you know that your stop is coming up!!! We could have fallen asleep from the gentle rocking of the train and missed our stop. Fortunately for us, Providence was the last stop and everyone had to disembark.
We’re here! Let the dining begin!
Providence
The Amtrak station is a 15-minute walk from Plant City and our dinner reservation wasn’t for another hour, so we availed ourselves of the “extra” time and meandered down the River Walk.
The vibe in Providence is young, modern, and clean (lots of colleges and good governance will do that to a city). We had a nice walk along the river, waved to the people taking a gondola ride (and got a song from the gondolier in return), then headed to the restaurant. Note: Our vegan dinner at Plant City was awesome! (Of course it was! Everything at Plant City is awesome!)
We walked down here, looked at that thing over there, ate this, then meandered over that. Perfect coupla hours in PROV.
We wrapped up the day with a leisurely stroll over the Providence Pedestrian Bridge to watch a lovely sunset.
Providence is for smoochers. Everybody knows this.
The gondolier continued to ply his trade up and down the river. We waved; he waved back.
We will definitely have to come back in the Fall during a WaterFire weekend, especially now that we know about this weekend commuter rail deal!
Wandering around Providence on a lovely Summer’s night? Fantastic.
Not having to drive to Providence to do it? Priceless!!! 
Even though it wasn’t a “school night,” we wanted to get back to Boston at a reasonable hour. When the Sun dropped below the horizon, we meandered back to the station for the 9:30 train, which got us back to the Hyde Park stop and home by 10:30.
The train station in Providence. Commuter rail and Amtrak. And yes, it glows like that all the time 😉
For people who do not enjoy driving at night, taking the commuter rail from Providence is a huge plus. We have a feeling that we’ll be making this “run” a few more times before the Summer is out (although the pass is good all year round, and one of us is already anticipating a HolidayGiftShopping trip in December).
“All a-BOARD!!!!”
Using mTicket app
The only thing slightly confusing about using the mTicket app was finding the “$10 deal.” One would think that the promotion would be front and center, but it is deeper down in the payment section of the booking path.
Steps:
- Download the mTicket app;
- Choose the “Starting from” and “Going to” stations/stops;
- The “$10” deal appears as one of the ticketing options;
- Reminder: this deal is good for Saturday and Sunday ONLY, but you get an unlimited number of rides to any station on the commuter rail system; i.e., you could go to Providence on Saturday and Rockport on Sunday, and the $10 would cover both;
- Pay for the ticket, but you don’t ACTIVATE it until the conductor asks you for it;
- Get on the commuter train of your choice and have a fun day!
Thanks for this great article. We hope to take advantage of it next weekend. The Hyde Park Sta. is the one in Readville, right!