Prior to the FRTA, Greenfield and its surrounding areas were served by the intermunicipal Greenfield and Montague Transportation Area (GMTA), an authority created with the purchase of assets of the defunct Connecticut Valley Street Railway in 1924.

FRTA is the largest public transit authority in Massachusetts by territory.

In 1999, the FRTA and the Fitchburg-based Montachusett Regional Transit Authority (MART) cooperated to form a route to Athol and Orange, Massachusetts, linking Greenfield to the MART terminal in Gardner.

[citation needed] As of May 2023[update], there are seven active routes:[1] The John W. Olver Transit Center houses the FRTA offices and the Franklin Regional Council of Governments, the successor organization to the Franklin County county government.

All FRTA bus routes service the JWO Transit Center.