7-express

The new lane configuration with both spans of the Kosciusko is working wonders to alleviate northbound traffic. Southbound traffic is still a crap shoot but hopefully it will keep improving as they finish out work on the approaches and finalize the lane configuration. Sadly, I can see huge cuts coming for Queens express buses too. However, Queens has much fewer subway options than the Bronx so there is a chance the cuts may not be as steep.

Wouldn't be surprised if they released it over the holidays so fewer people will notice after all the flak they're getting for the Bronx.

Buried in the board meeting notes for this month was the express bus award to Prevost for 250ish express buses. The only crappy part is the timeline. Demo buses will arrive next year but the bulk of the orders are not due till the 21/22 time frame. Going to be another few years with these aging MCIs.

I thought it was to control for noise through the curve and to help prevent excessive rail wear.

I thought they already boosted the speeds on the and as part of the CBTC/ATO roll out that completed earlier this year. Is he saying the speeds currently programmed into the signal system can be increased even further?

I thought they kept deferring the purchase of new express buses. They were supposed to start coming in this year but it might be another year or so till they show up. It will be welcome to have new buses to replace the oldest buses in the CP fleet.

Same thing occurred with the 1600 QM20 today. Traffic wasn't too terrible today so it didn't cost too much in the way of time and they stayed more or less on schedule.

Taking the 57th/Madison shortcut even though it's official on the maps. Seems like half the drivers keep on going down 59th.

This afternoon's rush was pretty normal for the first time this week. My QM20 showed up on time with no issues. Traffic enforcement is still beefed up and they have 2-3 traffic agents at multiple intersections along 59th Street so that definitely helped keep things going. I just wish the drivers would stop taking 59th and take the 57th/Madison shortcut. It seems to be happening less often with this pick.

A cost neutral schedule adjustment like that would be a good idea if the MTA can implement it. It's not standing room on these buses but many if not most two-seaters are taken up on these buses. People just don't work 9-5 schedules anymore and schedules should be adjust to reflect that and service the early commuters.

Well I took the QM2 earlier this afternoon and it wasn't that bad. Seemed the buses were running 10-20 mins late through Lexington/59th but they were moving. I quickly glanced at BusTime just now and it seems the QM2/20 are actually making it out of the city today but running a bit behind schedule. Still way better than the conga line that happened over the last 2 days. They really shouldn't have kept sending buses into the Midtown disaster on Monday and Tuesday. It reminded me of the 2010 blizzard where they just kept sending buses out even though they would never make out and back.

They didn't do much better today. I count 7 QM2s meandering through Midtown right now...pretty sure some have been there for 2 hours at this point. Subway out of the city is the only way to go this week unfortunately.

I feel sorry for any poor soul who is taking the QM2/20 today. Most of the rush hour buses have been stuck in Midtown for 1-2 hours and haven't even made it to bridge yet. They ended up conga lining out of the city. If only the MTA could be more dynamic and just say every bus this week will be a SX to avoid the disaster in Midtown.

Isn't the Q34 kind of like a school route? I thought it routes kids from the Mitchell-Linden complex to the schools next to Memorial Field.

I've had a MVM mess up my card before but not really a SBS machine. Though I have heard of an SBS machine overcharging a card on a single "swipe"