Astoria Line

307 pages and 1.5 years later and QJ is still getting people angry on this thread? :|

Hmmm random thoughts/proposals I have:

- I think something should be done about the Hillside Avenue corridor during the AM rush. I constantly see people getting flagged nearly every stop after F Lewis. (Which makes me glad that I take the 6X and don't have to deal with that mess.). I would make a solution but cannot put my mind on it, maybe someone could help...

I'll list more later when I get my mind to it

The 22 has severe OTP & crowding issues throughout it's entire route. And yes the RFM-Hicksville leg can get VERY crowded. Bunching is a huge issue, often in rush hour it will be an hour wait between buses, esp e/b from RFM in the PM, then a few come at once, the leader is crushloaded and the follower is empty. People will jam onto the 1st bus even when the next bus is right behind, not sure why, maybe they like being jammed?

Middays is surprisingly heavy too, I rarely even get a seat on the w/b buses in Westbury at this time. As for the n22x, it was better when it skipped Mineola. By having it stop at Mineola it gets bogged down in traffic, and often behind n22's ahead of it. Since most people at Mineola will take either an n22 or an n22x, it often leads to the n22 getting jammed while the n22x behind it is empty. I think loads were more evenly distributed when the n22x skipped Mineola and ran non-stop to Jamaica.

Out of sync & mistimed lights also cause delays and bunching. Remember a bus running behind schedule, perhaps from just missing a couple of lights, will get extra people, make more stops, causing it to run even later. Eventually the next bus catches up. The satellite tracking system can help dispatchers direct buses to keep moving, esp when there's a 2nd one behind, no need to stop for a pickup. 

As for the n22, the RFM-Hicksville leg needs buses every 10-15 minutes most times, the 30 min gap in middays makes the buses pretty crowded. Remember New Cassel has alot of poor ppl that rely on the bus, there's no LIRR there which also puts more ppl on the n22. As for the n22x, I think the old routing needs to be restored, but with a difference. It should run in both directions, and the n22L's should just be turned into regular n22's. West of RF the n22x would follow the old (n22a) routing, making stops at Willis Ave/Hillside (n23), NHP Road(n25), City Line, and then express to 179st subway.

This is why I'd rather crush on the 6/6X instead of taking those horrid 22's.

The two times I took the 22:

from RF-Jamaica, CRUSHED, making all stops.

from RF-Hicksville, pretty empty and smooth

N22x during the PM rush around 6pm is a waste.... While waiting for my train this evening, I saw 2 of them heading towards Jamaica.... 

Both left Mineola Intermodal with a combined 8 passengers (before it pulled into its appropriate lane, the first bus only had one poor bastard on it, and the 2nd bus had 3 ppl. on it).... the first bus left with 3 ppl on it & the 2nd bus left with a grand total of 5 ppl.....

 

I don't take NICE to/from work, but I'll just reiterate what a co-worker said to me....

"What they need to do to make those expresses (talking about the 22x) more useful is to add a stop at Glen Cove/Old country - There is always a crowd of people waiting at that stop during the rush hour back to Jamaica.... The problem is, once the 22 & the 24 take in everybody from the mall (talking about RFM), there's few people left to board the express".... He also said something about Willis av that I didn't quite pick up on, quite honestly b/c I couldn't relate to what he was saying.....

 

^^ Don't know if that's a good/viable idea or not, so I'll let you NICE experts chime in on that.....

 

 

side note.... Lol @ the lines for the N40 & N41 tonight.... Easily 50 ppl. each. 

I don't ride the 22's enough... I'm more of a 6/6X guy but everytime I've ridden the 22, it is always crushed bet. Jamaica and RFM, but empty after that (Hicksville-bound). I always kind of thought that that 22X should be in BOTH directions.. Sometimes in Jamaica, I see lines for the 22's wrapping around the block by 170th

That 40/41 is always crowded lolol, I believe they are way up there in terms of ridership (along with the 6/6X, 15, 22's and the 20's)

Those two routes together seem to really frequent though 

I picked up a Canon Rebel T5i the other day to replace my broken P&S. The camera cost nearly $1,000 which I find outrageous considering it is more of a closer to entry level consumer based DSLR, but I'm rather impressed with it. Maybe I'll put some photos up this week since its Winter Vacation

I stopped by at Jamaica Center tonight and NICE responded to my suggestion for separate n4 riders. They put n4 local sign up by n4 (next to Lane H sign. n4X sign is at next pole.

I noticed that too. Everytime I ride the n4x, the B/Os seem to not pay attention and still pick up next to the n4 local sign

I've been so busy for college applications... thank god its almost over.

1528 (this hasn't been around for a while, though)

1610

1616

1635

1637

1640

1664 (Orion V that got into an accident in October 2011, the destination sign is working now but the front stripes were never added back)

1693

 

I'm missing a few here, but those are the Orion Vs I've seen in service in the past month.  Pretty sparse now...

1637 was on the n4x this afternoon...

1660, 1570 and 1678 I see very commonly as well (the first two are typically on a HTC route, the latter is usually on the n15)

I never realized how many unwrapped NGs there are.... I rode 1751 on the n6x and 1777 on the n4x and they both were unwrapped. As well as my favorite NG, 1833

Well, the only ones *I* know (currently) making Hybrids in/for the USA (be that either on request or as an actual model) are:

 

-New Flyer

-Novabus

-NABI

-Van Hool

 

But as Turbo19 points out: there's not been a huge demand for Hybrid buses. Even here in Europe demand for actual hybrids is low.

Mainly because hybrids suck lol... which is why the MTA is converting some of their OGs to diesel as we speak..

I'm actually really glad that the NICE/LIB buses are CNG

1833 was on the n6 this morning ironically... It looks so much better in LIB livery

7:18 n6X HTC bound interlines with the 8:00 n54 Amityville

N40/N41 is a bit of a walk, but they can use Able Ride to get there also.

 

 

Was it crushed from the Terminal, 169th or 179th?

 

One good thing is that they extended n6X service until about 7:20pm.

 

 

That's their efficiency plan, I'm sure quite a few people got off at Roosevelt Field. If it got crushed at Nassau, it's not like they don't have the N16 and N6x to use.

 

It's like when people were complaining about the n23 getting full on Roslyn Road, everyone was able to get on and half the bus spilled out at Hillside Ave to take the n22 anyway, and so technically an additional bus would have been a waste of resources.

 

Not that I'm condoning their actions, since I now take the bus to commute and I avoid the n6 if I can, in the mornings I prefer the rush hour n1 trips, and if I know I'm going to miss the last one in the evening at 7:30pm, I'll find something to do which postpones my arrival in Jamaica till about 11pm, when the n6 isn't a clown car disguised as a bus.

 

I made a post the other day about how I can see why there was a drop in ridership, when I said I was on a bus with about 65 people on it, It wasn't hyperbole, there was literally about 65 people on the bus, all 41 seats filled and about 20+ standees. 

 

 

I wonder how they're going to implement the Automatic Passenger Counting systems. They should put them on every bus and log every trip so they know exactly what's going on. 

 

Do agencies that use these APC devices to schedule and interline short turns?

 

For example, if they know that a large group of riders take the n6 to Franklin Ave, then take the N25 to Great Neck, and also a lot of riders ride from Great Neck to Flushing, do they schedule a driver to do a

N6 - Jamaica - Franklin Square/Franklin Ave then change signs

N25 - Franklin Square - Great Neck then change signs

N20 - Great Neck - Flushing?

 

Does anyone know any systems that do that?

It was crushed from 169th. I'm actually happy that n6X service was extended. I think it should be until 8pm at least, but its a start

I'm sure you think service could be better, like an N6 LIMITED instead of the n6 Express being the only thing besides the local. And an N4 LIMITED making all the major stops needed to get the buses as busy as the locals. Right?

Here's what i think:

n6 - MAKE WESTMINSTER AN N6X stop again..... that will basically make it an LIB n6L

n4 - I actually think it is fine... I think the n4 operators are given too much time on the route (express and local). They drag or cruise a lot and ugh its aggravating. Oh and make Central Ave a n4X stop.

I was surprised it wasn't even a stop in the first place, Central Avenue has always been a major stop for n4 riders.

Ironically... every n4X I've taken (towards Freeport, but not Jamaica) still stops at Central....

I was on the 6:48 n6X out of 165 yesterday. Crushed all the way to the front all the way until Hilton. Really friendly B/O though, he was telling me and a few other passengers about how he thinks the MTA will come back. All the passengers were complaining and saying that service sucks worse on the n6 since Veolia took over.

I don't really have complaints, but I frequent three of the highest ridership NICE Bus routes (n6, n15 & n4) so I'm more fortunate than some of the other riders.

7:50 n6 out of Jamaica (Sunday) interlines with the 8:35 n27 Glen Cove out of Hempstead

NICE felt there were already enough connections between RF and Hempstead Transit Center.

They simply removed a NCC-Hempstead shuttle and added another one that is more highly traffic prone lmao.

I rode the 5:55 n4X Freeport out of Jamaica on Monday. The 5:50 n4 local in front was MIA. They still cruise/drag even on the express (-___-)

but this time, we actually got to RVC 3 minutes late (6:34 instead of 6:31). 

I can't wait for the iPhone 5S! It has fingerprint scanning and true-tone flash

 

Heres the link for 5S: http://www.apple.com/iphone-5s/

 

Also the 5C!

LOL its the same old garbage. I'm very weary of finger print scanning. I don't trust anything that requires me to get my finger print scanned tbh.

A lot of people at my school waste hundreds of dollars on this crap, meanwhile i have an awesome android that costs $50

lol @ people getting all riled up over trains

Scrolling Hanover sign:

 

*Not my video

Oh my god.... my voice sounds horrid in that vid 

Whats the new headways arrangement?

I meant 10 minutes during middays instead of 12.

I didn't ride the n4x. Going home, I was gonna catch the last one, but I got to Jamaica at 6:55 and missed it...(I will try to catch it Thursday or Friday evening).

On the bright side, the n6 and n6x was nice and calm today with the new headways arraignment.

I took the 10:40am n6 out of HTC and it was SRO and I actually made it to 165th on time

going home I took the 7:18pm (last of the day) n6x out of 165 (#1659) and made it to HTC on time (7:55pm) and it was SRO. Got a nice seat in the back both times.

The operator of my n6x interlines with the n54 at HTC. He dropped us off in the n54/n55 lane and immediately changed the sign to n54 to Amityville btw.

Aren't the headways already 15 min after 7:30pm? I agree there needs to be more buses on the n6 in evenings. Often the thinking is on weekends and evenings ridership drops off alot, but that drop isn't as big as it used to be. I looked at the new schedules and it does appear the headways have been lengthened eastbound out of Jamaica after 7:30pm to 15 min instead of 8pm. Seems there are more going west, probably because "reverse peak" numbers are usually higher. Perhaps they saw ridership levels drop at that point, I dunno, but if you must take the n6 make sure you get on one before 7:30pm. Otherwise take the 22 or 24 to Mineola or RF and transfer to other buses. The n6 needs artics and thats the bottom line. No matter how many buses they put on the line they will be packed. I once remember seeing 3 crush loaded n6's in Jamaica just minutes apart. 

Aren't the headways already 15 min after 7:30pm? I agree there needs to be more buses on the n6 in evenings. Often the thinking is on weekends and evenings ridership drops off alot, but that drop isn't as big as it used to be. I looked at the new schedules and it does appear the headways have been lengthened eastbound out of Jamaica after 7:30pm to 15 min instead of 8pm. Seems there are more going west, probably because "reverse peak" numbers are usually higher. Perhaps they saw ridership levels drop at that point, I dunno, but if you must take the n6 make sure you get on one before 7:30pm. Otherwise take the 22 or 24 to Mineola or RF and transfer to other buses. The n6 needs artics and thats the bottom line. No matter how many buses they put on the line they will be packed. I once remember seeing 3 crush loaded n6's in Jamaica just minutes apart. 

They are 10 mins until 8pm.. then it is 15 mins. Evening ridership doesn't drop as it seems, but on weekends yeah, at least on weekends I can fit on the bus if i get on at 179

Yesterday's commute was a nightmare...

That n6 is absolutely horrible... I think that 12 minute headways during the day is horrible..

I get on the 11:00 Jamaica n6 out of HTC and by Westminster, we are crush loaded with no room on the bus... and we kept dropping off at every stop. And then we got to Elmont Rd (10 mins late btw) and there is literally 20 people waiting for the n6...

We were supposed to be due 179 @ 11:43 and we didn't get there until 11:57..

Going home wasn't as bad, but was really uncomfortable..

I was waiting at 169 @ 8pm and teh 8:04 comes and all the seats are gone and there are quite a few standees from 165.. so the bus is completely crushed (worse than the n6 I took to Jamaica) and it is literally like this all the way to Elmont Rd (we didn't stop until then.)

I get to HTC @ 8:50 (only 2 mins late at least) and as im waiting for the 9:00 Long Beach n15, I see 3 HTC bound n6s coming in behind around 8:57. This route bunches up worse than the MTA routes  

I think something should be done about the traffic and the lights on Hempstead Tpke... Idk how none of the lights coordinate (one will be red, next will be green, next will be red, I thought this was a Nassau thing in general, but I don't really see those occurrences around WH & Lakeview..) and I think midday headways should be 8 or 10 minutes, not 12.

EDIT : As I'm reading the Sept 1 schedule for the n6/n6x seems like NICE has read my mind. Middays, headways are 10 mins...

but at night.... headways are 15 mins after 7:30 (currently, it is 10 mins until 8pm, where it is 15). (weekdays ofc).

For some reason,when the Metrocard was introduced to LIB, only certain 3rd-leg transfers from the subway to Nassau were allowed. For example: N4 to the N15 &32, N20,21 to the N57,58,25 & 23,N22,22A to the 25,N6 to the N1,2,3,etc. There might be others that I can't recall.

subway -> n4 -> n15 works? that's perfect!

In my experience subway -> n6 -> n15 or n72 has worked for me.