How I almost missed the bus last night

Last night after work, I took the MBTA's #442 bus from Haymarket to Marblehead to attend a show at the me & thee coffeehouse. The show ended earlier than I expected, and the next bus wasn't scheduled to leave Marblehead until 10:15 pm, so I had about a half-hour to kill.

Old Marblehead is a beautiful place to walk around, and the weather was pleasant. So I figured, instead of waiting here, why not stroll to the end of the bus line, check out the harbor, and get on the bus there? As I began walking down Washington Street, the outbound bus passed me. I fully expected it to go to the end and wait there until the scheduled 10:15 pm departure time. Right?

Imagine my surprise when the bus came back up Washington Street around 10:00, a full 15 minutes ahead of schedule. After it passed me, I quickly turned around and began running after it. Fortunately, the bus driver was nice and stopped to wait for me, but as I got on, I asked him, why are you leaving so early? He told me that at this hour, nobody ever gets on the bus in Marblehead, and that he'd rather not keep the residents awake by idling at the bus line's terminal in a crowded residential area.

Instead, after picking me up, he drove for another half mile and then stopped on Pleasant Street, near National Grand Bank. There he waited for 10 minutes until the scheduled 10:15 departure time (and took a bathroom break at a nearby store). He then drove the rest of the route into Boston uneventfully, although he still managed to leave Lynn Central Square at least 8 minutes before the scheduled stop there.

Now, as I said, the driver was very nice to me. But if I hadn't been alert, or had decided to wander off the bus route instead of along it before 10:15, I would have missed it and had to wait over an hour for the next one. As would anyone else who depended on the printed schedule to mean what it says. So with some reluctance, I think I'll have to report this to the T.

Has anyone else here had a similar experience?