How much of Wakefield's fall calendar can you get to on a free ride? This Saturday, The Link can take you to the Wakefield Farmers Market at Hall Park and then to an art exhibit on Albion Street. If you want to see Hocus Pocus with a live orchestra at Galvin Middle School that night, you'll need another way there, because the shuttle stops running three hours before the show starts.
The Link is a free, all-electric, on-demand shuttle that Circuit runs for Wakefield and Reading. It started carrying riders on August 24 and has been running for about two months. Its service area covers both towns completely. Its hours cover daytime only. For the rest of this fall, the hours will decide more of your plans than the map will.
The map is bigger than most people assume
The Link is a one-year pilot paid for by a microtransit grant from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation. The town of Wakefield announced it with a ribbon cutting on August 31. According to The Reading Post's launch coverage, the Wakefield and Reading ceremony took place at 11 a.m. at Colonel Connelly Park, 146 Route 129. A separate ceremony at 10 a.m. at the Anderson Transportation Center in Woburn launched the other half of the system.
That other half matters. The Link runs in two separate service zones, Reading-Wakefield and Woburn-Burlington, and you can ride anywhere within your own zone. If you start in Wakefield, the map looks like this:
- Anywhere in Wakefield. Reading's handout says "town-wide."
- Anywhere in Reading, also town-wide.
- Lahey Clinic in Burlington, which you can reach from either zone.
- Winchester Hospital, which you can also reach from either zone.
Apart from Lahey Clinic, trips into Woburn or Burlington are not part of the Reading-Wakefield service. In practice, a Wakefield rider's free map covers two full towns and two hospitals. That makes it a much bigger network than "a shuttle around downtown," and it means Reading's calendar is as reachable as Wakefield's.
The clock is what actually limits you
Circuit's service page for The Link lists the hours:
- Monday through Friday: 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
- Saturday: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
- Sunday: closed
The Saturday window is the important one. It's eight hours long, starts two hours later than on weekdays, and ends two hours earlier. Most of the free, daytime community calendar falls inside it. Ticketed evening events fall outside it.
Here is how the next few weeks line up against those hours. The weekday and Saturday cutoffs are the only things that change the answer.
| Event | Where | When | Fits The Link's hours? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trick or Treat Storytime and costume parade | Reading Public Library | Fri., Oct. 23, 10 to 11 a.m. | Yes |
| Wakefield Farmers Market | Hall Park, North Avenue | Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., through Oct. 31 | Yes |
| Wakefield Arts Collaborative fall exhibit | Albion Cultural Exchange, 9 Albion St. | Sat., Oct. 24, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. | Yes |
| Hocus Pocus in Concert, Firebird Pops Orchestra | Galvin Middle School, 525 Main St. | Sat., Oct. 24, 8 p.m. | No; Saturday service ends at 5 p.m. |
| Pumpkins on the Plaza | Lucius Beebe Memorial Library, 345 Main St. | Thu., Oct. 29, 6 to 8 p.m. | There, yes; home, no |
| Halloween Hustle | Lower Common, Church Street | Sat., Oct. 31, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. | Yes |
| Pumpkin Smash | Reading Memorial High School Performing Arts Center parking lot | Sat., Nov. 7, 9 a.m. to noon | Yes |
| Fall-iday Fair | Church of the Good Shepherd, 95 Woburn St., Reading | Sat., Nov. 21, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. | Yes |
Six of these eight events fit inside the hours, and the other two run into the evening. The Hocus Pocus concert, according to its Patch calendar listing, starts at 8 p.m. on a Saturday, three hours after the last Saturday ride. Pumpkins on the Plaza is a closer case. Wakefield High School art students will display their carved pumpkins at the Beebe Library from 6 to 8 p.m. on a Thursday, so a 6 p.m. drop-off works. The ride home doesn't, because weekday service ends at 7.
Two Saturdays show what the service was built for
The last two Saturdays in October show how the daytime window works.
On October 24, the farmers market runs at Hall Park from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. The Wakefield Arts Collaborative fall exhibit opens at the Albion Cultural Exchange, 9 Albion St., from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. You could ride to North Avenue in the morning, take a second ride downtown to Albion Street, and get home with hours left before the 5 p.m. cutoff. That evening's concert at Galvin is the one stop on the day that needs a car.
On October 31, the market has its final Saturday of the season. The Wakefield Firefighter's Relief Association holds its Halloween Hustle on the Lower Common, off Church Street, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Both events end hours before service stops. The farmers market site has also announced two indoor holiday markets at Galvin Middle School. Their dates and times are posted as images, so check wakefieldfarmersmarket.org for the schedule.
This is the service working as designed. When Town Administrator Denise Y. Casey described it in the town's launch announcement, she talked about everyday daytime trips:
"This door-to-door service can be used to get to a local appointment, grab lunch with friends, head to our Farmers Market, connect to the MBTA, and so much more."
Reading's handout lists the same kinds of trips, including shopping downtown, community events, the library, the parks, and errands. Those uses fit a 7-to-7 weekday and a 9-to-5 Saturday, and Saturday night concerts don't.
Reading's daytime calendar counts too
Because the zone includes all of Reading, the next town over is included in the free map. The Reading Public Library is holding a Trick or Treat Storytime and costume parade on Friday, October 23, from 10 to 11 a.m. That falls on a weekday morning, comfortably within service. On Saturday, November 7, Reading holds its first annual Pumpkin Smash from 9 a.m. to noon in the Reading Memorial High School Performing Arts Center parking lot. On Saturday, November 21, the Church of the Good Shepherd at 95 Woburn St. hosts its Fall-iday Fair from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
All three are Saturday-morning or weekday-morning events. None of them requires a ride home after the shuttle stops.
How a ride actually works
Booking takes a few steps, and Circuit lists a few details that change how you should plan a trip.
- Request the ride. Use the Ride Circuit app, available on the App Store and Google Play, or call (781) 782-2521.
- Enter your pickup and drop-off locations, then get connected to a driver.
- Count your group. Circuit sets a limit of 5 passengers per request, so a family of six needs two requests.
- Expect company. Rides are pooled, so you may share the vehicle with people outside your party.
- Be ready to walk a little. Circuit says riders may be asked to walk a short distance to meet the driver, for safety and efficiency.
Rides cost nothing. Pooling and the short walk to the pickup point are how a free door-to-door service covers two whole towns with one fleet. On a busy Saturday morning, when the market, the Lower Common, and a Reading event overlap, give yourself extra time.
The pilot's clock
The Link is a one-year pilot. At launch, Casey said the town looks forward "to hearing from participants about how the service can best meet the community's needs." As of this week, neither town has published ridership numbers, early feedback results, or a decision on what happens after the first year. If you ride and find the hours too short on Saturdays, or wish the shuttle reached somewhere it doesn't, the town's Link Shuttle page is where Wakefield has pointed riders for more information. That feedback is what the town asked for when it launched the pilot.
For now, the service area covers every part of Wakefield and Reading from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, and the last two farmers market Saturdays, October 24 and October 31, both fall inside those hours.
A free shuttle that reaches all of Wakefield and Reading is the kind of local detail that changes how a household plans its week, from Saturday errands to rides to Winchester Hospital. If you're thinking about how much of daily life in Wakefield can happen without a second car, or about what a nearby service like The Link means for your own home, Nikki Palladino is happy to talk through the specifics with you. Let's Connect.
