The Scituate Loop, commonly known as “The Sloop,” is the town’s bus system designed to provide an easy, affordable, and simple way for residents to travel around town. Designed to assist those who need a ride from one part of town to another–and don’t have another mode of transportation–the Sloop should be a dependable source of transportation for Scituate citizens. Unfortunately, after further review, we’ve determined it is not reliable.

The Sloop’s website provides a schedule with their intended stops and times. After communicating with the Scituate Town Library, it was discovered that the website is not up to date, as it includes stops that are no longer in the Sloop’s loop.

We decided to test the consistency of The Sloop ourselves. After five attempts to catch the Sloop, we were never once successful. The Sloop never showed up at its stops at the posted website times. Even after contacting The Sloop’s customer service department to ask if there was any reason behind the Sloop being off-schedule, they did not have an answer for why it was not on the schedule.

Attempts to contact the driver of one of the Sloop buses were made, but they were unsuccessful. However, this unreliable experience is not universal. Senior Emily Love reported, “The Sloop has been a great experience for times when I didn’t have a ride before getting my license.” Love said her driver was very kind, and she “definitely wouldn’t mind the idea of using it again.”

The Sloop, in our experience, has proven to be unreliable and inconsistent. No one should be left stranded in the North Scituate Plaza or the library parking lot because of The Sloop’s inconsistency.