North Shore Line

Nice, I like how you broke it down piece-by-piece. Basically that is just a rough idea. I don't see why Grymes Hill became so important lately? The S66 is fine and the S57 is ok where it's at as well. They are basically school routes like the S54-56 with the added bonus of picking people up lol. For $2.50, you and a couple of other people get a personal driver across staten island. For the S63 or S67, have it travel on Narrows Road North and South instead and make no changes to the S53. It would run from Bay Ridge via Narrows Road, Clove, Victory, via CSI, via Goethals Rd. And to Bay Ridge, via Goethals Road, via CSI, Victory, Clove, Narrows Road. Maybe for the buses sake, Goethals Road north could be turned into a two-way street and a walkway built over the expressway at some point. A free 2nd transfer could be made between the S53 and S63. The ridership potential from this route would be very high, it would be a local X10 in a way like the S79 is or was a local X1.

Here's an idea I had for CSI service: Split the S53 into two routes, S63 CSI to Bay Ridge via Victory, Clove and South Beach and the S53 Port Richmond to Bay Ridge via Narrows Road North and South. Weekdays S93 Limited Bay Ridge-CSI and some S53s via South Beach as well. No new S53 limited is required that way. S63/S93 would run out of Yukon so that it could interline with the S61 and S62. Also, to extend that idea even further, the 63 route could run through CSI and onto the Goethals Road area that checkmate's S67 would travel to.

Exactly, the way they have things running on staten island is very wise and working pretty well in a business sense considering that most of SI uses their cars and have more than 1 car in most cases. That is very stiff competition for the MTA compared to dollar vans, cabs and subway lines in other boros. My point being that there cannot be all these new routes created on SI without explaining how you are going to redistribute the effects of needing more buses for running new lines and/or extensions onto exisiting lines and some do not do that here. For example, the S48 needs a limited, ok that's good so the S48 gets midday S98 service but they want to keep the costs the same. So the S48 would have to run every 20 minutes and the S98 every 30 minutes to match the current S48 12 minute service.

You see, the MTA runs staten island's buses as a way to make the most money for the least amount of money. Headways as long as possible without having people sitting outside the bus and for the rush hour express lines, they must be at capacity. When service is added to a route on Staten Island,riders somewhere else on the island suffer as a result by a cut run or longer waits. They also do not do duplicate routes in Staten Island like they do in other boros. That's why the 2nd transfer system exists on Staten Island so that you have to transfer and the MTA is not stuck paying for and running semi-empty buses everywhere for everyone like some kind of local bus access-a-ride. We will never see a Staten Island local bus running beyond Bay Ridge 4th/86th. There was once a connection to the B8 for S. Brooklyn but it was a very long ride compared to hopping on the subway. Case in point, this january a couple castleton lines had their headways reduced to make way for a few more runs on the S93 Limited.

The S52 has many hills where the buses bottom out, but I don't think any bus was worst than the novas. Just scraping up all of the street pavement like nobody's business!

Exactly, when the S99 is running the S98 is also running in the opposite direction so Forest Avenue gets bi-directional limited service for the first time. Now about the express buses, the X30 and X14 are both very expensive for the MTA to run and that's why they only operate during rush hours when the buses are sure to be packed. The X10 still has a lot of room to grow, overnight service, 20 and 15 minute service instead of 30 minutes or even a midtown-fdr-23rd st branch. I would dare to say the X12, but I don't think we'll see any other route besides the X1, X10, and X17 off-peak for many years to come.

Eh, South Shore bus service isn't anything to write home about especially midday service which is worst than north shore service at midday. Castleton has been taking care of them, the 3gs are the best local fleet in the MTA right now.

I'm not trying to debate anything checkmate , we both realized how that's the only bus improvement plan that the MTA ever came up with for the north shore since the 1990s and how rediculous a couple of the proposals are and also how they do not cover any new areas like the one you mention. There are also a few proposals there that should already be in place regardless of the results of the study.

In the map above: - S40 and S90 Eliminated - S46 and S96 to Goethals Road North, West Shore Plaza service replaced by S99. - S53 and S83 Limited to Mariner's Harbor-South Avenue via Richmond Terrace - S57 and S59 to St George via Richmond Terrace - S99 to Teleport and West Shore Plaza via Forest Avenue - X21 Teleport and Manhattan If it wasn't known before, it is now known after sandy that over 50% of the North Shore right of way was actually in Zone A (and still is) meaning that the MTA may have to go with the bus option! A good portion of the line or busway would have been submerged in water entirely. My idea for that replacement was to run a new S44 Select Bus Service with two routes, one to West Shore Plaza via the S46 after Walker/Morningstar and the main route to SI Mall. That is my idea though and any plan to improve service on Staten Island is a good one. About the bus option above, riders east of Port Richmond would be very happy to have two routes to St George on Richmond Terrace while Mariner's Harbor would only have the S46. How is that an improvement over what exists now? The plan would also erase the S46 from South Avenue and send it to Goethals Road like the S40. The S99 would introduce bi-directional limited service to Forest Avenue for the first time and give a faster ride than the S46 to the West Shore. The X21 to Teleport would also be an excellent route if it serves CSI and the stops along the expressway backing up the X10.

This is the proposal released in 2011 by the MTA's North Shore Busway study for those wondering:

I sincerely believe it is only a matter of time before the MTA introduces a true and much needed S53 limited route but let's hope they do it right. The original S83 plan had limited buses only in the peak rush hour direction and the most recent S53 busway plan does not mention a limited S53 at all, only that it will be extended to a "Mariner's Harbor Transit Center" of some sort. The best S53 limited would run at least 6 days a week and in both directions for the better half of the day. Extending any of the staten island routes to 59th street would be nice but it would only make the lines more unreliable. I say instead maybe the MTA can introduce a 24/7 bus, preferably express between Atlantic Avenue-Barclay's Center and Staten Island.

Also, some changes are coming in April 2013 and they are north shore related although nothing major. S40/S90 - extra PM rush hour service (10 to 9 minutes) S44/S94 - AM peak (9 to 8 minutes) PM Peak (8 to 7 minutes) Late Afternoon Sunday (15 to 10 minutes) S46 - AM peak (6 to 5.5 minutes) Midday (12 to 15 minutes) ---makes sense 12 minutes headways actually made it harder to catch the ferry and the buses bunch up often meaning 12+ minute waits anyway. S48 - Late Morning and Evening Sunday (20 to 30 minutes) ---another change that makes it easier to catch the ferry. Late Afternoon Sunday (20 to 15 minutes)

Improving Staten Island Bus 2013-2014 Staten Island's bus network has improved greatly in 2012, although much of that is a direct effect of MTA BusTime. The buses run on-time, are spaced apart and there are very rarely missing runs these days. One thing that has not improved and actually got worse is travel times on Staten Island's buses. Traffic is getting consistently worse on the island and ridership is growing each year as basic bus service levels remain the same more or less for a decade. There are certainly ways for the MTA to cheaply improve travel times on Staten Island and leave an impressive and lasting impact for riders. MTA BusTime forces buses to be held at stop or drive very slowly, and due to Staten Island's ridership patterns, higher frequency is not the end-all-be-all solution if the buses are not allowed to pass and also due to the ferry schedule. 1 - New Weekday Service to St George for S54, S57 or S59 The North Shore Busway plan calls for all three routes listed above to be extended to St George when the busway is completed. However, until the busway is open, one of the three routes should be extended to St George running no more often than the ferry itself. Will be most beneficial during the morning rush hour period. 2 - New Full-Time Limited Service on the S96 and/or s98 Short-turn locals and full-length limiteds would allow for faster travel across the north shore. Also running no more often than the ferry. 7 day service would be most ideal. 3 - New S53 Service via Staten Island Expressway Service Road The MTA teased a new s53 limited service in 2009 as an alternative to the North Shore Busway although this plan should be implemented right away. The route could be named s43, s53 limited, s53a, s83, etc.. this is a huge necessity for 2013 Staten Island. I am deeply considering starting a petition for this plan when warmer weather arrives. This would save a significant amount of time by avoiding South Beach. There are a number of ways that the MTA can implement this without any major costs whether it be short turning South Beach S53s, splitting the s53 into two routes, limited via Steuben Street or even just hoping that ridership revenue increases with new service improvements. I would have weekdays s53 clove/victory to bay ridge 10 minutes. New s43 port Richmond to bay ridge via service road every 10, 12 or 15 minutes. Weekends, post-MTA BusTime s53 is very speedy and may not require any changes. 4 - New Limited Service on Hylan Blvd Oh wait.... Fantastic job although sandy may have impacted ridership somewhat on the select 79.