LRG

But it doesn't have MTA's name in it!

So I guess the MTA will be providing the bus service then if they were to take over the SI Ferry, and instead of New York City Ferry, it would be called MTA Regional Ferry.

I wish the Orion Third Gens had the U-Shaped seating in the back like the Next Gens.

The MTA should take over the Staten Island Ferry and all the other boat services in New York City...the current Staten Island Ferry vessels will be sold off because they are too damn slow and cumbersome. Instead, the MTA would order small high-speed boats that would make the trip from Staten Island to Manhattan and vice versa in 15-20 minutes and not 25-30 minutes. These boats would operate every 10 minutes during the rush hours (6:30 - 9 a.m.; 4:30 - 7 p.m.), 15 minutes during midday hours and 20 minutes during weekends. Overnight service would operate every 45 minutes. This would cause weekend bus service at the ferry to be adjusted on some routes, especially the routes that operate every 15 minutes but only cover part of their trip under 15 minute frequency and the other part half an hour. (S74/S78 would operate every 20 minutes on weekends to Charleston, and not 15 minutes to Richmond Avenue and half hour service extended to Charleston). The new boats will carry 1500 people, which is justified because of the new frequency rush hour boats would have (10 minute frequency x 1500 passenger capacity = 15,000 people per hour, vs. 15 minute frequency x 3500 passenger capacity = 14,000 people per hour). The new boats will have capacity for six cars at a time. The fare for the boat would be 75 cents. Fare is collected by RFID sensors upon entering the boat with eight turnstiles lined side-by-side with each other, which future MetroCards will have (RFID sensors as well as the magnetic stripe, similar to how Chase cards with "blink" sensors on the back work). There will be two emergency gates at opposite ends of the turnstiles for people with a wheelchair, bike or stroller. People exiting the boat once they arrive to Staten Island or Manhattan will be allowed to use the gates to exit faster. The boats would be painted white, with black vinyl trim wrapped around the windows and a blue stripe located under the windows. There'll be a MTA logo smack in the middle of the boat and underneath the logo will the lettering for the new agency "New York City Ferry". Lollllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll

I'm gonna do some research and see how much flights should be.

Lol thanks, although with American Airlines about to go bankrupt I don't see why the MTA should jump in and enter the airline business.

Actually no...the airline company would actually be called MTA Regional Airlines (decided to rework the name) and flights would only operate in the Northeast region of the United States. Only flights to/from JFK or LaGuardia. The MTA would try to have low fares to eliminate competition to kick out all flights out of New York along the upper half of the Eastern Seaboard. But if someone wanted to take a plane from JFK to Jamaica there'd be a flat fee of $25. MTA Regional Airlines would consist of small planes for domestic service between JFK/Jamaica, operating every half hour. Service to Newark would operate weekdays only, every hour. Service outside of New York and Neward would have mid-capacity planes.

@checkmate, those are Xcelsiors (4800-series).

The driver is supposed to let you on after two read error attempts. Some will give you a hard time but if they have no control over the farebox not being able to pick up the fare then they really shoudn't throw a fit. I remember I had a card with $5.50 and was taking the X10 to Manhattan from CSI...the driver tried everything in his power for the fare to pick up off my card but the box kept on saying read error. He let me on eventually but I could tell he wasn't all too happy about it though.

Lolllllllll...those Novas are pretty serious. I'm not a low-floor fan but a Nova does me justice over an Orion 7 or a New Flyer any day of the week. I wish the 40' Novas had the elevated aisle-facing seats like the Nova Artics do.

You hate everything that's not an MCI, don't you?

The MTA should create an airlines division and name it MTA New York City Airlines...the tail of the plane would have a huge MTA logo on it and the plane would be wrapped with vinyl decals and such. Fares will vary based on distance traveled. Lollllllllllllllllllll

Well, when SI tested the original Orion 7s back in 2008, let me just say that things didn't work out so well....

Random: The MTA should order new fareboxes in which whenever someone tries to get on the bus without paying and the driver presses the F5 button it'll automatically say "lowlife" so this way if people don't want to get insulted by the farebox calling them a lowlife then pay the $2.25 or don't get on the bus at all. Lolllllllllllllllllllll (666th post in this thread)

Tooooooooooooo baaaaaaadddddd !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Orion 5s aren't going ANYWHERE for a while, so just put up with it and deal with it buddy. You can't get everything you want in life.

LMAO!

I don't know about you guys but this BusTime thing is SICK!!! I mean, not only can you know where your bus is but you can also find out what bus model is coming, whether it's an Orion 5, Orion 7, New Flyer, Nova, Prevost or MCI!!! This past Thursday my friend and I were able to find Orion Third Gens on the S86 Limited and he tipped me off in the evening when I was coming home about an Orion 5 on the S79 and I took that instead of a hybrid on the S53. Awesomeness!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's because there are some of Castleton's 4000s at Yukon, 4010 is there. Also on Friday, 6330 was on the S46 from looking at the BusTime GPS tracker on the MTA website but it has since returned back.

Since Nova and Prevost are under the same umbrella (Volvo), maybe the MTA should have the Nova and Prevost buses in the same depots: Seeing that Yukon has Prevosts, they should get Novas. Ulmer Park should keep their Novas and Prevosts. Let Castleton and Queens Village split the Orion Third Gens and Xcelsiors.

Lolllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll

Typical press....

Since we're on the topic of cfriends and friendships, do you have any stories of a strange way you ever met someone? Here's one, from back in 2009 when I registered for my first semester in college. It was mid-July, 17 at the time, and after I left CSI, I skateboarded to the mall to hang out in the Apple Store. I stood right next to these two girls who were taking pics with the computers and I was just saying to myself "what in the hell are they doing?" They were laughing and whatnot and then they noticed me giving them looks. One of them asked if I was bothering them but I politely said no and I continued doing what I was doing on the computer (I was actualy on the NYCTF website!). Then one of them decided to turn the computer right at him and take a picture of me, and it came out really bad. I was like "wtf are you doing?" but I tried not to be mean to them. Ended up making my first Staten Island friends lol. Next story: I was with my friend at CSI and I was editing a video while he lounged around, in December, two weeks before my birthday. Afterwards we skateboarded from CSI to the transit center along the S61 route down Travis Avenue because I needed to buy a MetroCard for the bus. Got on the S79 at the Transit Center (an Orion 7) and we both sit in the back. The stop after the S79 turns on to Hylan Boulevard these two girls got on the bus and they sit not too far from us and were talking to each other. Then my friend somehow joined in on their conversation and then they got me into the conversation. We all talked about skateboarding, working at the mall, school and other stuff. Both of the girls took our boards and were rolling it under their feet, which was no biggie cuz the back of the bus was empty. Even got their numbers before they got off. I don't know if its just me or that ever since I've "invaded" Staten Island on the regular starting in 2009 I've been making more friends out there than the other boroughs. Some of them have real snobby attitudes, not to mention the girls tend to be the biggest flirts and they have that Staten Island "accent" where they put an 'a' at the end of every sentence (I'm witness to the flirting part because a lot of girls at my job will comment about me in one way or the other, usually about my eye color becuase it's unusual to see a light-skinned kid like me with hazel eyes, and they'll try to make me give them a discount). But weed out the rotten apples and you have some really chill people out here, and almost everyone knows each other because it's not as big of an area population-wise like the outer boroughs.

Yup yup, and if they don't like it then maybe they shouldn't have been counterproductive in the beginning. Speaking of old friendships, I remember back in 2008 this girl and I stopped talking to each other. I forgot why, but in 2010 when I visited my old high school for a day I saw her and we greeted each other. I asked what happened two years before and she said I was siding with other people and I ended up turning on her and called her every bad name in the book. I felt bad because of that and I take responsibility for what I did, but we buried the hatchet on that and now we keep in touch on a regular basis. It's crazy that friendships can be revived after two years of dormancy.

So I was at Tottenville High School today (or Trashville) to check out the school trippers. I saw a lot of Orion 5s, some Orion Next Gens, and a Nova. The Nova was an S78; the other buses were S55/56/59/74/78s (surprised they have S74s there still). The thing is, that school has SO MANY BUSES at 2:50 dismissal time, like 3-5 buses every route. I think that place is overserved with school trippers, especially since most of those kids don't have their cards. Some of those runs should be cut.