N4 Via Merrick Rd

http://www.newsday.com/long-island/transportation/nice-bus-to-give-free-metrocards-to-low-income-residents-1.13082312 Just came across this.

 

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There have been plans to expand the system further into Queens. A lot of opposition from communities and, of course, money have not permitted this to come to fruition.

 

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GA Mall has already become Queens (Center Mall at Valley Stream). I'm glad I've never spent any more than 30 minutes near RFM at a time.

It doesn't help that they opened the Commons there.

 

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I was also on 1697 (7:01 northbound from Hempstead), and yes, that screeching noise was indeed terrible. It always seems that an Orion V plows that trip.

Seems like we were on the same bus... I took it from RVC around 6:25-6:30ish

 

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i wonder how many orion V's are left

There's still a handful of them, I just stepped off 1697. It had a really bad screeching noise.

 

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I can agree with that idea for the Elmont Flexi. Rockaway is a faster, straighter road than Corona, is closer to more residences/businesses, as well as only a block away from the current route, so current riders don't need to walk much further.

 

As for the other three:

 

-With the Mercy Medical Shuttle, why would you extend it all the way to Merrick? It's quite a long ways away, and I don't see how the shuttle will gain much more in terms of riders.

-The n43 could probably be extended during rush hours to Bellmore, but with the current budget situation, I doubt that would happen.

-I'd personally cut the Jericho Quad leg of the n48. If it MUST be kept, I would certainly switch to utilizing minibuses.

I think it's Merrick Road/Park Av in RVC. To avoid having to cross Sunrise Hwy.

 

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N43:

-6:55 AM from Freeport to RF should be scheduled to leave at 7:00 AM to allow time for passengers on the N4 which arrives at 6:55 AM at Freeport.

-There should be 3-4 N43 Limited runs in the morning from 7AM to 9AM towards NCC and 4 to 5 in the PM from 3-5PM towards Freeport making Local stops between Roosevelt Field and NCC then stops at

-Hempstead Turnpike

-Front Street

-Jerusalem Ave

-Pennywood Ave

-Freeport LIRR

These runs will leave Freeport 7-10 minutes before the local. From NCC to Freeport can take up to 45 minutes alone. It's an idea worth trying. There's a lack of Limited-Stop service on the North South routes.

Elmont Flexi: Reduce to hourly.

FCS: Eliminate

 

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One idea I had to balance passenger load between Hempstead and Roosevelt Field/NCC is to do the following:

 

-Mid-day n6x trips to/from NCC would be eliminated.

-The n15 would run via the current n16 route to Roosevelt Field. County Seat Drive service would also be eliminated as part of this.

-The n16 would run via Clinton Road to Roosevelt Field, then down Stewart Avenue, and would terminate at the East Campus bus loop.

-The n35 would remain as-is in terms of alignment, but instead of every other mid-day trip turning back at Hempstead, those trips would terminate at East Campus loop.

 

Pros of this plan include:

-Balanced frequencies via Clinton Road (every 15 minutes with the n16/n35 combined)

-Probable cost savings (I'd imagine that even by extending some mid-day n35 trips, money would be saved by eliminated the n15 via County Seat as well as mid-day NCC service via the n6x)

-Improved service to NCC campus (currently, service to Hempstead is six buses per hour mid-day, this would increase the amount to seven buses per hour).

-Less bunching of buses at NCC (currently, the n6x and n16 arrive within minutes of each other, for example)

 

Cons of this plan include:

-No more County Seat Drive service (This could cause some more crowding on rush hour n40/41 trips.)

-Slightly longer trip times to/from Hempstead

-Increased unreliability of n15 service (It's already a long route, and adding a big ridership generator will probably make things worse. However, need be, the n15 could probably sustain artics, as it has much more ridership south of Hempstead than the n16).

-NCC students will need to walk a few extra minutes depending on where they are on campus for more frequent service (they're gonna be quite annoyed if they typically use the Student Union stop.)

-Some trips at times during which classes start/finish (such as around 1:40 PM on Monday/Wednesday) will probably be overcrowded due to the more evenly spaced timing

Also, the DSS stop is also another choke point on the route. The midday 6X trips tend to pick up a lot of riders. I rode the 12:40 trip to NCC, it was standing room only. I'd have the 6X start going to Jamaica every 40 minutes as opposed to terminating at Hempstead. Also, to mitigate the crowding on the n6 during the midday.

 

Those n24 trips to East Meadow should be routed to serve the college instead. A one seat ride from Mineola to NCC.

There's still people who use the n35 to get to the Mall, and don't want to wait the extra few minutes at the HTC for the n15 to show up. NCC students also prefer the 35 because it's routing along Stewart Ave between the Mall and Selfridge is much more direct than the n16, or the n6x.

Yup, the 35 is usually arrives a few seconds behind the 6X at Hempstead.

 

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I still don't understand why the N19 is on the list. Sometimes I'm there to see the 8:30AM from Freeport and almost every seat is taken by the time it leaves.

 

 

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"n19 Freeport Babylon"? When did the n19 start going to Babylon again?

 

 

I agree, I love the livery! I've been waiting and hoping a long time they'd switch the blue and orange (I even mentioned it here), the old mostly orange livery was getting kinda stale (and if they order all buses like this it will be easy to spot new buses).

The orange especially looks disgusting when it fades away like many of the 1700s already have. Hopefully the blue diminishes that.

 

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Are all the XN40's ordered on property yet? Saw 1961 yesterday on the n20G in Flushing.

Yes, I thought the order went 1937-1969, I guess not. I had 1964 on the n6x a few weeks ago.

 

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The XN60 is at Mitchel Field. Just saw from the n6x.

 

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I passed by a towtruck with an NG on the hooks earlier. If only I wasn't driving and it wasn't dark, I would have caught the bus number.

Where was this? It was probably #1700-59. Those are the most deplorable of the entire fleet.

Remind me, what is that strobe light for? The light on the top of the bus. Emergencies?

 

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1965 is an XN40 smh... Looks like an able ride vehicle just stretched out. It looks nice.

 

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The n43 most likely killed the n45's service. All the people living along Uniondale Avenue have more or less accepted the n43 their NCC-Roosevelt Field route. What also helps the n43's case is that is gets more customers along Corporate Drive than the n45 does along Stewart Avenue, plus it's routing to Freeport which give those along Main Street a one seat ride to the Mall without having to take the n40/41 to Hempstead and then xfer for another bus to Roosevelt Field.

 

With the n35, I'm guessing that they're trying to get more people on the n15 for Roosevelt Field, which uses Clinton Avenue between HTC and RFM, and then let the n6x and n16 handle the NCC crowd.

Yeah the n43 is used more because it's more frequent too. The 45 is like every hour. If they do cut the 35, they should have some runs on the 15 run up Clinton. The n6x and n16 is as crowded as it gets during the AM. The 6x pulls into to HTC from Jamaica to let off the crowds just to get crowded again to go to NCC.

 

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It's still the experience that makes it horrible. It takes forever to get anywhere and most of this is because there are only 2-3 buses an hour on all but a few routes.

Sometimes the runs go missing. Like yesterday, I tried taking the n6x to NHP Rd. To get the Lynbrook n25. The n25 showed up 20 minutes late. The other day, there were three n4s missing. The drivers never bother waiting for a late connection.

 

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I've never understood why they don't make those East Meadow n24s stop on the campus. I feel it'd be put to better use.

 

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The N19,36,45,54/55 will also be eliminated. Also,the Rockville Ctr. depot will be shut down entirely.

I meant the 6x trips. The rest is blasphemous.

 

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I can sympathize with them on that one. n6x isn't really utilized during off peak hours. I'd keep the 1:00 1:20 1:40 westbound trips. They fill up a bit.

 

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Has anyone else noticed that 1885 and 1886 run the n4/4X sometimes the n25 on the weekdays? So they belong to RVC now?

 

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Regarding the n20 split, they better fix the timing of the bus on the timetable between Great Neck and Flushing because 20 minutes is not enough, buses always arrive late. The same goes with the N4.

I agree, in the morning they should run the 4 more frequently in the EB direction.

Both a 40 ft and a 60 ft bus have a 44' turning radius.

 

Do you think NICE or the MTA would get a fully-electric bus for their fleet from New Flyer?

I never mentioned anything about a fully-electric bus.

Boy, look at all them tags in that comment box lol.

I hope that the seating arrangement is much better than the Orions....

From the pics that I've seen on IG, the XN40 has a capacity of 39 seats and 35 standees. The trade off is 4-5 less seats than the Vs and VIIs.

NICE got their first XN40 earlier today #1885. They say it should hit service by November 1, pending NYDOT inspections

Yeah.https://instagram.com/p/8OJO7zFMQy/ Here's a sneak peek.

The n20 as a route is fine as is, however as many before said, xfers need to improve. I could totally see someone waiting 1-2 hrs for an xfer from the 20 to the 27. But as said by many NICE fails on so many levels.