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Free Bus Service "The Loop" To Debut With MGM Springfield Casino

WAMC

      Details have been announced about a free shuttle bus that will debut later this year with the opening of the MGM Springfield casino.

       MGM and the Pioneer Valley Transit Authority partnered to create the new service called “The Loop.”  

        The 40-passenger electric-power bus will travel a route that begins at Union Station and make scheduled stops at all the downtown hotels, major cultural attractions, entertainment venues, and the casino. 

        Mary Kay Wydra, president of the Greater Springfield Convention and Visitors Bureau said the impact on tourism will be significant.

        "I think it will move people around and help extend stays and by extending stays we extend the economic impact of that visitor in the area," said Wydra.

        MGM is paying the PVTA $200,000 a year to run the shuttle bus service.

        The service, which will operate Wednesday-Sunday from 10 a.m-10 p.m., is scheudled to start on August 24th, the day the $960 million casino is to have its grand opening.

The record-setting tenure of Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno. The 2011 tornado and its recovery that remade the largest city in Western Massachusetts. The fallout from the deadly COVID outbreak at the Holyoke Soldiers Home. Those are just a few of the thousands and thousands of stories WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill has covered for WAMC in his nearly 17 years with the station.