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Interested Rider

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  1. The stop at Avenue X and Nostrand Avenue has an electronic sign on the north side and the paper sign on the south side. I know when the B/44 SBS or local is coming along with the B/36 to Avenue U before I cross te street but if I want to know if a B/36 is going toward Coney Island, I have to rely on the paper sign. I do not have a phone except in my apartment so how do I know when the B/36 to Coney Island is arriving? This is another case where those who make decisions are totally out of touch with reality (as it is anything new?). It is contract time and the fan dance has started.
  2. I just looked at the MTA website and found the following gem: N,Q,R,W trains are delayed as the NYPD tries to catch a subway surfer between Times Square and 57th Street - 7th Avenue.
  3. Didn't we discuss this topic some time ago and if I remember most of the posters were in agreement that vision Zerowould be a falure. The growth in automobile usage was discussed in reference to the change in riding habits in the Sheepshead Bay area sometime ago and its impact upon bus service in the area. So for many of us this is nothing nnew except that every often who wants his name in the mdia brings it up againto show that he/she is doing something (Yea! right) I think that Michael Goodwin's column in the New York Post about what formerMayor Ed Koch did in the 1980 preisdential campaign shows how divorced from reality DeBlasio is and how it will hurt this city. I read many of the columns on the internet and heaven forbid this city runs into fiscal trouble (and for that matter the state as well), what former President Gerald Ford said to NYC during the last fiscal crisis will become the rallying call in response to our plea for help. Who will those elected leaders who helped to create thismess turn to for help? I have a suggestion, China, North Korea, Cuba or any of the other wonderful countires that many of these so called "progressvies" worship as better than the United States.
  4. It takes a lot for me to post anything on the forum now especially when it comes to propsals to change the routes on staten Island. What got me started is the sudden interest in the s/42 and the s/52 and the need for a history lesson for those who have not had the pleasure of reading Bernard Linder's excellent work on the history of the bus routes on Staten Island which is so unfortunately out of date. Before the bus route renumbering a long time ago, there were two sets of numbers for Staten Island. Of interest are the 5 (Jersey Street), 101 (Brighton Avenue) and 104 Tompkins Avenue.The 5 after the ferry followed Richmond Terrace to Jersey Street and then went south on Jersey Street and Cebra Avenue to Stapleton at Bay Street. The 101 followed the existing route with a rush hour service to Forest Avenue (Havenwood Road).. For many years these two routes were interconnected as during the non-rush hours when each route ran on a 30 minue headway and when a 5 arrived at the ferry, this bus would become a 101 and the 101 that arrived would become a 5. The weekend headway on the 101 was 60 minutes. The 104 went south from the ferry following the S/103 Hylan boulevard Line as it does now but instead of turning unto McClean Avenue it went straight on Sand Lane to South Beach Terminal. It had a 30 minute headway except during peak periods. All three routes (5, 101 & 104) were at the bottom when it came to passenger counts. In addition the Jersey Street area chnaged and no longer was a shopping destination in the late 1960's which as CheckmateChamp alluded to concenring his comments in reference to the S/66 and Port Richmond posted here (same reason). St. Vincent's hospital which was located on the 5 moved to the south shore so there was a need for direct service from Jersey Street to the hospital's new location. The 5 therefore became redundant as the 104 (now the 52) was changed to follow the 42 (formerly 101). The prolblem is the 5/42 combination was broken and now the s/42 becane a target based on its short route and its passenger loads. It became the paper pushers vs. the residents and the "dreaded" Staten Island hills with the 42 riders during the non-rush hours losing out. It is a shame as the hills on that part of the island are very steep and my sympathies to anyone who have to walk down Lafayette Avenue in.either direction. The S/66 (formerly the s/6) is a relic from the days when the S/106 Watchogue Road (now part S/57), S/111 Bradley Avenue (now S/61) and the S/112 (Travis) were extended to St. George Ferry only diuring rush hours as the S/6 was the Victory Boulevard Bus . When the S/111 and S/112 hours were changed to proivde more serivce to the ferry, the S/6 (now S/66) irdership dropped for the same reason as the S/5. The MTA's desire to get rid of all shuttle service in a way helped the S/66 survive except that again it is the paper pushers vs the residents. Weekend service is needed as anyone who has tried to walk up HowardAvenue from Clove Road prays for someone to offer a lift up the hill. The S/42 should have its non-rus hour service restored and S/66 should have weekend service via Grymes Hill. That's my opinion.
  5. Port Authority Transit (Pittsburgh) has been doing it for years and it is located on top of the front of the schedule where it should be. I would like to read the excuses that the suits will come up as to why this totally sensible suggestion had not been implemented years ago other cities have done it.
  6. I just saw this one on the MTA website Due to a passenger needing assistance at Avenue H, southbound Q trains are running express from Prospect Park to Kings Highway. Please use northbound service to bypassed stations. If you scroll down further, Northbound Q trains are running express from Kings Highway to Prospect Park from 5:45 AM to 9 PM today.
  7. This is true and as i stated in a previous post here, the IDC and the Republicans served as a check on the radical element in the democratic Party. It was the reason the the Governor refused to endorse primary challengers to members of the IDC over the years as the governor preferred divided government and rightfully so. In looking at the legislation that has been passed by the now one party state legislature, his concerns were correct. On many of the laws that were passed by this legislature, it could be said that what were they thinking as they have become a virtual laughing stock in most of the country. My use of the term "hard left"in reference to the one running for president (of what country I might add), it is based on what I read and hear as many of the commentators refer to him as when his name is mentioned. This is how he is perceived by the rest of the country even though most of us who live in this city despise him and wish he would just go away and stay away. The census is the key and while the loss of 1- 2 seats are possible, I am going with a higher number of 3 as New York and Illinois are the only states that have lost population since the last census. Upstate New York is losing population at an alarming rate so if 2 seats are eliminated, chances are it will be in Western and Central New York State, not in the city or the suburbs. If it is 3 seats then one seat would come from the city and it will not be AOC but one in Brooklyn. This can be just wild forecasting but it is my opinion that at least one more congressperson will retire by 2022 and again it is the age factor.
  8. There are many Democrats (and for that matter Republicans) who believe in working with the other party to pass legislation that benefits all of us. The Governor was able to work with the Republican majority in the State Senate and the moderate Democrats (not the radicals that are now in charge of New York State Senate). If you look at how these Democrats worked with Republicans to get help for their districts, you could see that many were successful. The problem was that in the eyes of many of the primary voters, the democrats were considered traitors and therefore they had to be defeated for they did the unthinkable in working with the opposite party. Just compare the legislation passed by this legislature and previous legislatures and it becomes clear thst the legislation passed by this legislature was far more radical as compared with previous legislatures. It is the reason that is my opinion that the governor has had no alternative but to move in the same direction. After all, we have drums banging in the city with our own house idiot who is constantly being given coverage on the national scene by the phony media and spews every radical idea from other far leftists. The rest of the country knows more about what emanates from him and when you are a politician with an ego bigger than Mount Rushmore (as most of them have), it hurts. I may have posted this before so forgive me if I am reposting it again. I tried to get approval to do a newsletter for my fellow party members in my assembly district three years ago. I offered to pay for the printing and the postage with older United States stamps to attract attention which would have included the profiles of our candidates so that our members would be able to discuss our candidates with the voters. Needless to say, I received a response six weeks later from the person I sent the letter to in the form of a telephone conversation on a Saturday night asking me to carry petitions for some useless individual who never even got on the ballot . After all how do you expect to win elections if no one knows who is the party representative is on the ballot. One of the best examples of a leader who reached agreement with the other party was President Bill Clinton. Today he is considered a traitor by his own party for what he did in terms of legislation. That is the problem that the governor is facing and members of the party throughout the country. The voices of cooperation and moderation are being drowned out by the radicals who with the help of the phony media are driving us further and further apart. ,
  9. The reason that I did not post on this subject up and until now is this is typical Albany politics and when the New York State Senate became Democratic this year, the situation became far worse as the Republicans in the State Senate alone with the Democrats that supported them kept a lot of situations from becoming far worse, I knew what to expect from Cuomo as that is the reason in 2010, I walked around my place of employment telling my co-workers to apply for the early retirement incentive being offered. The MTA board is a non-salaried position and it has to go to the governor and then the State Senate has to approve it. Unfortunately what happened this year is no different from other years when it was under republican leadership as they too rubber stamped his appointments of the MTA and all the other agencies under his control. As far as the local newspapers covering the Albany scene which would provide information as to what is going on up there, neither the Post nor the News have reporters up there anymore. I do not consider the New York times as a source of information on anything on any level. The Post had Fred Dicker and the News had Kenneth Lovett both of whom wrote columns on the Albany scene that provided us with information as the what is going up there and were not afraid to ask the tough questions of elected officials. The Albany Times-Union is not the same as it used to be and how many people bother to look at their website to find out what is going on in Albany? There is no real source for information today and that is why both the legislative and executive branches are able to do what they are doing now. The reason that people are resigned to a dictatorship under Cuomo is that the Republican party for all intensive purposes in this state is dead. When was the last time republicans won a statewide office was maybe 20 years ago? There are certain parts of the state where the republicans still hold congressional seats but that is becoming fewer and fewer in each election cycle. When you look at the ages of many of the Republican State Senators that were replaced in the election, some of them were older than me and I am bit over 70 years old. Cuomo has nothing to fear as when was the last time that the Republicans did any form of voter recruitment drives? I think the last time that may have done it was during Governor Rockefeller's time, if at all. So it could be said that the reason that he can get away with what he is doing is that the statewide Republican Party is just like the State Democratic Party with one major difference, the democrats have always been recruiting to join the party while the Republicans have done nothing. So for all intensive purposes, New York is a one party state and has been for many years and it s not going to get any better. That's my opinion.
  10. The B/3 was extended to East 74th street and Avenue X from approximately 6:45 AM - 9 PM only. 1 of every 2 (possibly 3) buses terminated there with the rest of the service terminated at East 71st Street at all times.
  11. That is the reason that I am furious that this person was let out on bail and only $10,000. Bail was being considered (and it is my opinion that it should have not been offered in the first place due to the seriousness of the offense) if it was it should have been 10 -20 times higher. This man is a danger to society in no uncertain terms and he must be kept locked up through trial. At least with him on Rikers Island, transit riders and employees will feel a bit safer (hopefully) unless we start to see copy cats. If this is the first stage of the judicial process for this person, then I am afraid what will happen at the following stages of the process when the plea bargaining starts occurring.
  12. I just read that he is now out on bail thanks to his mother. The bail was set at $10,000. Just what we needed, this individual back on the streets in two days flat.
  13. 4681 on the B/44 northbound from Avenue U this afternoon. I was on board that bus.
  14. It is Monday and I just checked trip planner for this morning 11:57 AM, and according to the trip planner, I have to ride a northbound train to Newkirk Plaza so that I can ride a southbound train to Sheepshead Bay today,. If a planned service change is cancelled, then trip planner should be updated to show the corrected change immediately. Since the change was posted here, then why was it not posted on trip planner unless the person who updates trip planner works Monday - Friday and thanks to the scared penny pinchers, it has to wait until the person comes in on Monday morning. If this is what happening, then it is no wonder that riders question the accuracy of the MTA providing information as to what is running and what is not? I will be posting a follow up on this change later this afternoon.
  15. There never was enough service on the s/79 on the weekends and I am going back 25 years. I remember when I worked weekends, it was next to the impossible to get a seat let alone sometimes board at Arthur Kill Road so I can imagine what is now. My major gripe when it comes to bus service is that those who plan and make the decisions for the rider must do time in the field. That is if they are going to cut service let them hear from and see the damage (yes) that their decision will do to the riders. It is my opinion that if they had to spend their time with the riders and not sitting in front of their computer screens babbling with the penny pinchers about this and that and came out into the real world, then service would be far better. The S/78 has always had a problem and I had posted information on this some time ago on the forum. What bothers me is that if more buses are added to the S/79 especially on the weekends, ridership would increase as the S/79 one of the few routes where a change from the terminal in St. George (Yes when the s/79 started operations, it ran from from there to the mall) to Brooklyn sent the ridership skyrocketing over the years. The S/78 is needed just like the S/74 is needed to Bricktown Mall with a decent headway as there is nothing else available (except SIRT but that is a considerable distance from both of these routes). south of Richmond Avenue. There is a difference between cutting bus service in the other boroughs as when the route is cut there (in some cases not in all) there is alternative service. Here is there is none.
  16. Thank you for the update on this change. When I posted it last Monday, I could not believe that someone would come up with something like this, knowing full well how heavily used these stations are during the non-rush hours. It made no sense for a rider from Avenue H to have to go all the way to Sheepshead Bay to board a train going to the city. I saw what work was being done and it could have been done late at night without disrupting service like it did this past week. It was crazy on the Q during the non-rush hours last week and when I got off at Sheepshead Bay on both Monday and Thursday in the early afternoon, the northbound platforms were as crowded as the rush hour. If it was that crowded at 2 PM I can't imagine how bad it was for most of the day Pardon me for asking but what genius came up with this total and unnecessary disruption of Brighton Line service at two of the most important stations on the line? In the 40+ years that I have rode the Brighton Line, I cannot remember when these two stations were closed at the same time during the non rush hours for a week (and if it had not been cancelled for the upcoming week) for work that could have been done at night (and for the record, I am not talking about track work). What may have happened here was that the penny pinchers were at work and quite honestly I doubt if they know anything about the Brighton Line let alone the system itself. What were they in state of panic over Cuomo's complaining about the overtime all over the media even the worst offender was the Long Island Railroad and the governor himself should take responsibility as he in charge of the agency and therefore helped settle the contracts which allowed the overtime? If you read the phony media, you will notice that the talk is about new contracts and how overtime has to be curtailed. I seem to have heard this talk going back 60 years and the end result is always that all it is "hot air". The same elected officials who did the most complaining are the same ones who negotiated the contracts over the years only to go through the same ritual with the next contract and the contract after that and after that. That's my opinion.
  17. Transit and politics go hand in hand on Staten Island and I am talking for about over 50 years. I have posted here sometime ago the saga of Borough President Robert Connor and his refusal to grant the MTA more than one year on express bus routes as he wanted to unload his ex-wife (a Pouch who owned Pouch Terminal). Then there was late Senator John Marchi who put into law 15% of all bus purchases must be sent to Staten Island, it did not help. I remember when they sent new buses to Staten Island and the right side mirror went crash as it went through the Bridge toll booth. It seems that nothing has changed on SI.
  18. An update on this change as it will be going on all week during the non-rush hours and will be in effect on this weekend as well. Q trains are running express northbound from Sheepshead Bay to Prospect Park. I went with the bus option going to Avenue M and ran into sewer construction on the B/9 from Nostrand Avenue to the Brighton Line. What this proved to me which was never look at the MTA website until I am about to leave home to take the trip.
  19. Today is Monday and for me, it means that I do a trip from Sheepshead Bay Station to Avenue M Station and back. I decided to check the MTA website as I usually do to see if the Q train will be stopping at Avenue M in either direction at about noon. When I entered the two stations northbound on their website, i saw an entry that the B is not stopping at Kings Highway and Church Avenue due to station maintenance and that I had to change at Newkirk Plaza for a southbound Q train. Fine but I asked about Avenue M and the Q train, not the B train and not about Kings Highway. Based on what was written, I have to read into the post that both the B and Q trains are running express in the northbound direction via the express track and that there is no local service from Sheepshead Bay to Prospect Park. If that is what is happening why is there nothing mentioned about the Q running express just like the B and not stopping at Kings Highway and Church Avenue? If I cannot understand this post then how can anyone who is not familiar with the system or speaks another language understand what is happening here? For the record, I will be checking MTA info before I leave and if the post is the same thing as it is now, I will go with my alternate route of the B/44 SBS to the B/9.
  20. The B/36 does not need to be re-routed as the Nostrand Avenue corridor is where it gets the bulk of its riders and almost all of the riders that transfer from the B/44 transfer at Avenue U and not further down the route. The B/36 is already crowded by the time it reaches the Avenue X stop and in many cases during the non-rush hour loaded with standees. As far as the Sheepshead-Nostrand houses are concerned, those closest to Avenue V they take the B/3 on Avenue U or walk to either the B/36 or B/44 local on Nostrand Avenue as they have for many years. Those closest to Avenue X go to either the B/36 or the B/44 local and SBS stop. There is another reason as on the corner of Nostrand Avenue and Avenue X there is a Dunkin donuts/Baskin Robbins where many of these riders pick up Coffee and other things prior to boarding the bus. As far as the high school (there are two schools as the high school is at Batchelder Street and there is a Junior High School at Brown Street) , many of the students take advantage of the Baskin Robbins/Dunkin Donuts in the morning and many of the fast food places in the afternoon. If you look at the B/44 Local and SBS schedules, there is a large number of buses that terminate at Avenue X that are available for the students. What this does for this community is that it provides reverse service in the morning (to the Plaza in the morning and from there in the afternoon . When others say that this community needs or will benefit from something be added to this community, they fail to understand how this community has changed over the years. First of all, it has the highest percentage of seniors in Brooklyn and and second many of the young people who live in this community now drive either to and from work or to go to other places. This provides the added mobility that enables the person to go to places outside the community. If you compare the B/36 schedule from 20 years ago wit today, you will notice how the ridership has changed since that time. For those who want further information on what I just wrote see my previous post on the subject and look at google maps for Nostrand Evenue (#s 3500 -3700) and then compare it with Knapp Street (2200 on down).
  21. As my fellow posters have written on this thread, Knapp Street is one of those two way streets that has nothing for most of its length. Yet it seems like it comes up on the radar for a bus route every so often. This is one of those ideas that unless research is done on the community, it will pop up as a proposed bus route that makes no sense at all. Some time ago, it was the extension of the B/4 to Avenue U via Knapp Street which landed up being destroyed and rightfully so. Nostrand Avenue (for those who are not familiar with this area) from Avenue U to Avenue Z is the center of business activity in this area which is known as Kings Bay. There are some scatter sites on Avenue U and V close to Gerritsen Avenue and Avenue X near the schools as well but for the most part Nostrand Avenue is the center of the community. People come from both sides of the Avenue to do their business here as this is the cultural and commercial center of the community. There are many people who live close to Knapp street who walk or drive to this area to shop. There are some streets such as Avenue U west of Nostrand Avenue and sheepshead Bay Road that are the other commercial centers of this part of Sheepshead Bay however, it is Nostrand Avenue that is the eastern center of this community
  22. It is a Queens division proposal that impacts upon Brooklyn and while you may think that it should not be posted there, it has to be posted there as your proposal will impact upon where I live in Brooklyn.This is why it has to be posted there as well as while your proposal is listed here , some persons who are not interested in Queens but are interested in Brooklyn will not see it. As far as any extension from the Rockaways to Sheepshead Bay, it has been talked to death on the Brooklyn Proposals thread. It is bad enough that the parking situation has gotten worse as had the traffic at all hours and there is no place to turn the bus in the area. . The q/22 has it own problems in Rockaway and since it is the only route that operates on the peninsula for its entire route and to extend it into Brooklyn will exacerbate the problems even more.
  23. If you want to discuss the extension of routes on the Rockaway peninsula to Sheepshead Bay Station, I would suggest that the extension to the station be discussed on the brooklyn bus Proposals thread as it impacts upon the B/3, B/4, B/41 which are Brooklyn routes. Checking through some of the previous postings on that thread will reveal that this subject has been covered there as well. The subject of the Q/79 to Bellerose station has been mentioned and I think that there was a proposed extension to Floral Park station which was shot down by the NIMBYS there some time ago.
  24. Thank you as about 8:10 am, I saw it headed toward Avenue U at Nostrand Avenue and Avenue X and about 8:30 AM, it was on its way back to Coney Island. 5108 was observed going toward Coney Island at about 1:25 PM. It seems that Monday was the last day that these two RTS were in service as they are now in Eastchester
  25. Happy Easter to all the posters who are celebrating today and will be celebrating over the next couple of weeks. Happy Passover to all those posters that are celebrating the Passover holidays this week.
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