Robert Spire
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Posts posted by Robert Spire
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On 4/30/2024 at 1:40 PM, Kingsbridgeviewer382 said:
A fleet expansion as they're going to beef up some express routes for congestion pricing.
They aren't adding that many trips, just a few trips here and there. If anything I wouldn't be surprised if they were used to retire the remaining 2005-06 MCI's on the property at MTA Bus.
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6 hours ago, JAzumah said:
For those interested: The MTA plans to implement the Queens changes in Spring 2025. It might happen in two phases, with the Brooklyn/Queens stuff happening later.
I wonder if they'll leave the express alone like they did with the Bronx?
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On 3/30/2024 at 12:48 AM, JAzumah said:
Many years ago, Larry Littlefield (IIRC) thought that the MTA would reduce frequencies everywhere down to 15-30 minutes and the city would encourage more bicycling to offset the issue. If the bus system were to become free, I could see your "superroutes" becoming a reality with a 40% articulated fleet.
100%. That's my beef with most transit supporters. They do not understand that the less they pay for the buses, the less buses they will get. That does not mean they have to pay 100%, but 0% means that the bus funding will be subject to the political winds or fluctuating streams of money.
In a free bus system and a paid rail system, we become WMATA overnight in terms of demographics. Outside of Manhattan, the class divide on the subways is not that strong today.
The thing is with bicycling is that Citibike is operating at a loss and Lyft may be looking to dump it. The same people wanting publicly subsidized bike share complain about express bus and commuter rail subsidies.
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On 3/29/2024 at 7:29 PM, B35 via Church said:
Quite frankly, the educational level of the 2 poor souls they threw to the wolves is rather irrelevant to me (all things considered)... This debacle represents a new low the MTA has hit... Anyone would have to be a fool at this point to believe the MTA is still in it to provide optimal public transit for the NYC region... But of course, the kool-aid drinkers will still slurp-slurp & go AHhhHHhhh at this f***in' bullshit....
I think it is more than that. Some of the kool aid drinkers are part of groups like Riders Alliance who are there to take advantage of the lack of solidarity between non express bus riders to claim to speak for ALL transit riders when they really speak for the big tech, hedge fund and other corporate interests that fund them.
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3 hours ago, JAzumah said:
Hospital & school cluster in the area.
That was the original route but was changed due to 2nd Avenue Subway construction. They reverted back to the original route as many drivers were using it anyways. There's even some drivers who use the FDR Drive to 96th street.
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On 3/26/2024 at 5:00 PM, Kingsbridgeviewer382 said:
I would argue to making the bus system free, but it's pretty f'n obvious not a single person would want to have that conversation without screaming entitlement or not wanting to pay the taxes necessary to fund it. And I recognize that this is a complicated subject topic altogether that can't be solved easily (as much as people like to think it would be by just throwing more police onto buses).
The bus system being free wouldn't make much of a difference. Most bus customers transfer to and from the subway and theoretically pay the subway fare anyway. Those who take unlimited rides would likely ride subways enough times that you could get them all there. My plan would be make the entire local bus network free, but have the subway fare be $3 with no unlimited rides.
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4 hours ago, QM1to6Ave said:
I'm sure they figure they will just pick a different line. Given the crazy high absenteeism level, there is more than enough work to go around to just barely fill service, even if they made cuts.
Now the majority of bus operators at MTA Bus are from what's called the consolidated list which are operators hired after June 6, 2009. If they cut CP express service, if they want to work express that bad they can always pick into EC or YO the next year. I'll make a point of saying there's no more people hired from Queens or Steinway Transit driving anymore and only about 65 or so Queens Surface operators still driving at CP out of about 560 operators.
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11 hours ago, Lawrence St said:
Actually, they were fully planning on using those new 500's on the 4C's because they thought the riding public wouldn't care. That was quickly changed the two times a 500 ran on the 4C and the county got over 100 complaints.
I also wouldn't count on the 4C going away just yet, the last three times they tried to get rid of it, the public fought to keep it.
I have a gut feeling this time is the charm
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4 hours ago, Gotham Bus Co. said:
Empty buses is a great way for them to lose work due to service cuts.
MTA wants that because they don't like express anyways. In terms of College Point operators behaving badly, one of the unofficial reasons the QM4 was moved to Baisley Park in 2016 was because College Point had poor attendance and moving the QM4 and having less express work at College Point was supposed to send a message to the union leadership
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On 3/23/2024 at 7:39 AM, JAzumah said:
I am not sure why anyone thought that wouldn't happen. If you are paying railroad prices for a bus, you expect similar seats to the railroad. They don't care how new the bus is if their butt hurts when they get off.
They could've bought some retiring MTA Bus MCI's on the cheap?
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1 hour ago, Lex said:
So what's the plan for nights and weekends?
Have the
run via 63rd Street weekends? But that would create another merge.
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Bureaucratic inertia?
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On 2/17/2024 at 12:54 PM, mikecintel said:
I just heard that the MTA states they don't when they will phase out the Metro Card from this podcast at Gothamist:
Scroll down to hear the post cast. Go to time 3:55-4:05 and it will "briefly" talk about that. They said there is "no time line" when they will discontinue the Metro Card. This article is talking about buses not using OMNY readers at the back of the bus and it will not turn on and the reason why it will not be turned on. Well know why and it is "not paying the fares".
One thing I am noticing for several months, each new Metrocard has an expiration date of 1/31/2025, none of them have later expiration dates as was the practice before. I am getting the sense that there may be a non reduced fare switchover to OMNY around that time. Otherwise why are new Metrocards given a 1/31/2025 expiration date when its 2/29/2024. Also Metrocards given out by MTA customer service when filing a claim this month have expiration dates of 9/30/2024 when its usually more than a year as was the practice before.
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13 hours ago, Gotham Bus Co. said:
...or sell itself to someone else?
I would assume Westchester County will be cutting Liberty Lines a nice check as a result of this redesign and everything will be competitively bid with the redesigned routes. The Bernacchia family doesn't necessarily only do buses, they own restaurants too.
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On 2/24/2024 at 1:59 AM, Cait Sith said:
Deadline was a few weeks ago. We'll find out in Late March/Early April.
Are they going to actually get rid of Liberty Lines? Is Liberty Lines deciding to exit?
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On 2/1/2024 at 7:03 AM, JAzumah said:
NYC Ferry is a real estate project sweetener. They will only kill it as a last resort. It was designed to raise property values, not transport people. In that respect, it is working.
It's run by NYCEDC. NYCEDC gave up the SIM23 and SIM24 so that they aren't considered a transit agency so that they can run ferries.
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On 12/30/2023 at 7:18 AM, JAzumah said:
That is correct, especially when one bus stop justified the "Q" portion of the name.
To the MTA's credit (bookmark that I said that), the B103 was one of the first routes that they poured resources into to grow ridership. They boosted service to every 15 minutes with every RTS CNG that could keep alive and the route took off. I remember it like yesterday. They also tried to break down the company silos as much as possible to make the system work better. The city could have done the same thing on its own, but they had no interest in investing those resources. To this point, they have also kept paying for the better service in its entirety.
In the 1970s and 1980s during the Pioneer Bus and early Command days, the BQM1 didn't even stop at Linden Blvd and 79th Street. It meant that the bus went via Queens to Manhattan.
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On 12/30/2023 at 7:18 AM, JAzumah said:
That is correct, especially when one bus stop justified the "Q" portion of the name.
To the MTA's credit (bookmark that I said that), the B103 was one of the first routes that they poured resources into to grow ridership. They boosted service to every 15 minutes with every RTS CNG that could keep alive and the route took off. I remember it like yesterday. They also tried to break down the company silos as much as possible to make the system work better. The city could have done the same thing on its own, but they had no interest in investing those resources. To this point, they have also kept paying for the better service in its entirety.
They're paying for this service in its entirety because MTA Bus Company is a no man's land. The city doesn't want to be directly accountable for bus service, the MTA does its thing and no one upsets the apple cart. This is partly why I believe the proposed express bus cuts in 2018 were stopped, this is why the Bronx express bus routes haven't been redesigned, this is why in the final plan MTA is more willing to leave Queens alone compared to before. The moment NYC upsets the apple cart for any reason is when this all breaks down.
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On 12/14/2023 at 1:03 AM, QM1to6Ave said:
If I'm reading the Union Tpke Exp bus changes correctly:
They walked back the most egregious cuts (weekends and midday), and will have both the QM1/31 and QM5/35 continue to serve Union Tpke west of 188th St
BUT, the QM6/36 will still be cut west of 188th street.
I don't understand why they are so insistent on cutting the West of 188th street service! That is where a majority of ridership comes from, even on the QM6. The QM6/36 will now basically be private service for North Shore Towers.
With congestion pricing, I really don't understand why they would reduce options, especially if congestion pricing should theoretically be reducing traffic overall, which means that the time savings on the QM6 would not be needed.
How much time and money was wasted on those ridiculous plans (there was the Q46 that would go all the way down 108th Street, and all those crazy renumbered routes with T's and all sorts of nonsense)??
I think it is cover for the MTA to continue to insist on other cuts. So when the public hearing comes around they'll walk back this cutback and keep other cuts.
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On 12/2/2023 at 10:56 PM, EastFlatbushLarry said:
they really have no choice but to keep JA active. even if BP or JFK weren't in Bus Co./different union locals, i can't imagine them being able to help much capacity wise.
They would have big problems with seniority since ATU 1056 depots have depot seniority and you can't move from one depot to another.
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Worth noting when the College Point depot was built, the old QTC/QSC facility stayed open throughout.
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10 hours ago, B35 via Church said:
I certainly remember the Qm22.... (I) should've been more specific, by stating that I wonder how a local route would fare.....
The Q101R was carved from the old rendition of the Q101 that ran from Manhattan to Rikers Island... When the Q101R was created:
- the Q101 remained running to Manhattan, but got cut back to 19th av.
- it (the Q101R) got a] bumped over to 21st st. & b] ran no further south than QBP
So in short, the Q101R never ran to Manhattan & the Q101 always ran along Steinway st.... Neither of the old routings fulfilled my inquiry/inquisitivity...
Your reply to my post is blank.
The Q101R when started under Steinway Transit did run to Manhattan. It was Queens Surface in the early 1990s that got it cut back to Queens Plaza.
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44 minutes ago, B35 via Church said:
No, the waterfront didn't need its own route.... Astoria doesn't need a direct route to Downtown Brooklyn, either.....
For all I care, they can do away with the waterfront service; the weakest portion of the current B32 is the Williamsburg segment..... The Greenpoint segment gets its riders, as current B62 service/reliability is abysmal......
At the same time, I still say they're ignoring the need for connecting WBP - LIC, just as much as they're ignoring the need to connect Astoria - 21st st & QBP (both the proposed B62 & proposed Q69 bypass it).... It's one thing to try to declutter an area (QBP), but if you're sending buses directly to areas where there's even less of a demand to (B62 from Astoria to Downtown Brooklyn & Q69 to Hunters Point Ferry, both skipping QBP in the process), it defeats the purpose.... The current Q101 goes directly to Manhattan, but I would honestly like to see how a 21st st. service running to Manhattan would fare.....
We had a 21st Street service running to Manhattan, the QM22. When it started in 1988 (as an unsubsidized route along with today's QM24, QM25 and QM34 which were also unsubsidized) it had a 7:15, 7:30, 7:45, 8:00, 8:15, 8:35, 9:00 to 6th Avenue and a 7:20, 7:40, 8:00 trip to 3rd Avenue. Eventually trips were taken off the QM22 and given to the QM24 which by 1990 actually carried more riders than other subsidized express routes. When Triboro Coach got the subsidy in 1990 (the QM22 riders have the QM24 riders who fought to thank for that routes survival), they had to do a "spending reduction plan" and as part of that plan, they found out it was the one 6th Avenue and one 3rd Avenue that carried and that's how the QM22 got the schedule it did from 1990 until it was cut in 2010. The other issue is that Astoria has gentrified so much that the target market for a Manhattan to Astoria service either uses the subway or ubers/lyfts on the regular. Since uber and lyft came on the scene, the issue of taxi drivers refusing to serve Astoria is no longer an issue.
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On 10/6/2023 at 2:03 PM, CyclonicTrainLookout said:
To be fair, the are only two ways to access Manhattan from Roosevelt Island, and neither is by road. I guess the MTA would rather prolong the 63rd Street construction just to give the island people direct access to Manhattan and the subway there.
There is a vehicular bridge to Roosevelt Island.
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run via 63rd Street weekends? But that would create another merge.
LIRR And MNRR Random Thoughts Thread
in MTA Railroads
Posted
Fare evasion on express buses has increased on Bronx and Staten Island express buses.