Gotham Bus Co.

5 hours ago, JAzumah said:

NJT interstate buses incur tolls and platform fees to operate between NY and NJ. That cost has to be allocated.

A flat surcharge is regressive. It spikes our friends along the NJ waterfront with inflated fares. Spreading out the impact across zones is much better.

Then maybe every route should get the Interstate/Intra-commuter zone structure.

11 hours ago, MNR Beacon Line said:

They will kick you off. If the bus is crowded or depending on the driver you might get away with it. But others will remember people's faces and they will stop the bus and make you pay more or kick you off.

What if you get off the bus and then get back on? 

16 minutes ago, JAzumah said:

Interstate operations ARE more expensive per mile because of tolls and charges at the PABT.

If I board the bus in ThisTown and ride to ThatTown, why do I pay less to cross the zone barrier than someone else who boarded in NY?

10 hours ago, Mtatransit said:

https://www.njtransit.com/hearing

Questions:

 Why are passengers traveling interstate not allowed to buy or use transfers?

 Why are fares lower in the Southern Division than in the Northern Division?

 Why are zone increments higher for interstate routes than for intrastate? NJT's costs for continuing from one town to the next don't change based on where the passenger boarded, yet one passenger might pay 50 cents extra while another pays 75 cents extra. (My thought: Maybe keep the fare at $2 for the first local zone, $0.75 for each additional zone, and a flat surcharge to cross the river.)

On 1/16/2024 at 2:52 PM, BrooklynBus said:

A test would be a great idea. Something the MTA does not do. I was thinking of it more for commuters than for people going to the beach. 

Is there any actual demand for such a route (beyond the one person who wants it)?

On a political level, it is very difficult to "fix" anything when so many people have a vested interest in preserving the problem (whether real or perceived).

6 hours ago, Fire Mountain said:

About 73rd Avenue, it would’ve been actually put to good use if they had the 75 there. I can see some decent ridership from that avenue 

They tried that and the NIMBYs got loud.

22 minutes ago, MysteriousBtrain said:

Another thing I would change is giving the QM63/64/68 direct access to Bellevue during AM hours. It's easy access from FDR and idk why it would be skipped if the stop is retained during PM hrs. (Although 2 Av is the added, I don't see this stop being a suitable replacement if there's enough Bellevue riders that complain.)

I think the idea was to have them mimic the QM21. The block from 2nd Avenue to 1st Avenue isn't too far to walk, and using 2nd Avenue is faster than the 34th-FDR slog.

7 minutes ago, NewFlyer 230 said:

The Q75 that the MTA proposed is a waste. In my opinion the route should travel down 73rd Street between Springfield Blvd all the way to Main Street. 

NIMBYs along 73rd Avenue have already shot down that concept.

8 minutes ago, NewFlyer 230 said:

I am not a fan of the QM5 staying on Union Turnpike. Instead of it looping around 64th Ave to head back to Union Turnpike the route should continue north on 188th street and make a left on the Horace Harding and I would have the QM5 serve a new area that doesn’t have express service. My QM5 would stop at Utopia Parkway, 164th street, Parsons Blvd, Kissena Blvd, 150th Street and Main Street then it will continue onto the L.I.E to Midtown. The QM1 would pick up the slack on Union Turnpike between 188th street and Main Street along with the QM6. 

May as well combine QM4/44 and QM5/35 into one route.

1 hour ago, TDL said:

None from Breezy, but from Rockaway its difficult enough to get anywhere without driving. Far Rockaway is a low-income area so many don't have cars, and those that do may not want to sit in endless traffic. Its good to have the options to get to places so close yet so far. Speaking of usch, a Rockaway-Lake Success route via. Green Acres and Queens Village LIRR would be nice, theres definitely demand for Green Acres and LIJ.

Devil's Advocate: Does every neighborhood need a direct bus to every CUNY college?  (Far Rockaway already has relatively easy transit access to York, Queens, and Brooklyn Colleges.) 

17 minutes ago, TDL said:

And last I checked Breezy Point is part of the Rockaways. And while they dont have public buses, they have shuttles to the Q22 and Q35 at Beach 169th. Those same shuttles would connect to the Q116.

And how much actual demand is there for this?

6 hours ago, TDL said:

Yes. It is inexcusable that Kingsboro Community College students may face a 2 hour commute to the Rockaways when you can see Rockaway from the school 

From KCC, you're looking at the neighborhood of Breezy Point, which has no public bus service (and wants to keep it that way)  — and barely wants to admit being part of NYC. 

2 hours ago, shiznit1987 said:

This is why I suggested breaking up the Q44: 

Q44 SBS: Fordham to Flushing

Q45 SBS: Flushing to Jamaica w/ possible extention to JFK. 

I like the idea of separate routes, but there may be too much through riding for a complete split.

My preference would be the following:

• Q94 Limited/Express:  Fordham to Jamaica with stops only at Fordham Plaza, St. Barnabas, West Farms, Parkchester, Lafayette, Main St , Horace Harding, Jewel Av, Union Turnpike, Jamaica LIRR, Merrick/Archer. (If it were a subway or light rail line, where would the stations be?)

• Q44 or Bx44:  West Farms to Flushing, local with a few stops removed.

• Q20:  Enhanced service along full route, local with a few stops removed, short trips if needed south of Roosevelt. 

10 hours ago, checkmatechamp13 said:

I think the general Bx7/10/20 structure works well. The Bx10 can handle any Spuyten Duyvil riders heading north of 246th Street, and the Bx7 acts as the direct link from the northern section of Riverdale down to the subway. Adding the "A" branch would cause imbalanced spacing on either one end or the other (the Manhattan end or the Riverdale end). 

I agree about the imbalance. I would keep the branches "blended" along Broadway in both directions.  Or maybe forget about "blending" and schedule the branches individually (compare with M14A/M14D).

1 hour ago, Kingsbridgeviewer382 said:

If they did, the 44 would of had to turn onto Webster and Fordham Rd a la Bx55 to go back down.

Of it could drop off on 3rd Avenue with the Bx17, then right Fordham, right Washington to lay over, then right 189th to pick up with Bee-Line, then left 3rd Avenue.

2 hours ago, Cait Sith said:

At one point in time before the 2010 cuts, the MTA had concepts of a few "new" routes that could have been a reality. The Q94, a "super-limited" type of route that would supplement the Q44. It would've went from Flushing to 205th Street during school days(one trip) with all other trips ending at Fordham Plaza with the intent of replacing the x32 with that one tripper, and the Bx50 from Fordham to LaGuardia. The B62 was also going to be a route that went from Williamsburg to Manhattan in a weird roundabout routing via Greenpoint and Long Island City. The Q75 pre-2010 cuts was also proposed to be extended to Queensborough Community College, which would have done wonders at the time.

There was also the Q12 to Great Neck (using Great Neck Road instead of Middle Neck Road).

2 hours ago, Cait Sith said:

The Q75 pre-2010 cuts was also proposed to be extended to Queensborough Community College, which would have done wonders at the time.

It would have approached QCC using East Hampton Blvd and 56th Avenue, but the whole concept was NIMBYed away.

9 hours ago, xD4nn said:

They could just route every Q30 to Little Neck and into and out of QCC rather than having short turns. Hardly anyone uses that short turn except the high school students.

Eastbound to Little Neck via QCC:

• HHE, left Springfield, right 56th Ave, right East Hampton Blvd, into West Alley Road.
• Short trips end at 56th Ave & 223rd Street.

Westbound from Little Neck via QCC:

• HHE, West Alley Road, East Hampton Blvd, left 56th Ave, left 223rd, right 58th Ave, left Springfield, right HHE.
• Short trips start from 223rd Street & 56th Av.

Drawback:  NIMBYs along 56th Ave and East Hampton Blvd.

7 hours ago, MysteriousBtrain said:

Hmm, the Q75 via 73 Av to Forest Hills sounds ok. 

Or basically, a Q73/75 combo.

I like that idea, too, but the NIMBYs along 73rd Avenue (west of 188th) don't like it at all.

I might have made this Q75 an extension of the  (via Jewel, 164th, Horace Harding). 

3 hours ago, B35 via Church said:

On a lesser note though, something else that would alleviate matters is to take the M60 from 106th & end it where the former Bx15/current M125 does, along W. 125th.... Whenever they get around to revamping Manhattan's network, that's something I fully expect to see proposed for the M60...

The Columbia University crowd would complain very loudly if that were proposed. They love the M60 (they just didn't like it ending and laying over at 116th (1994-1995).

12 hours ago, The TransitMan said:

The M35 to Astoria COULD do some good. Especially since the M60 is ALWAYS crowded. It COULD reduce crowds from Astoria to 125th St. Now yes, the traffic on the Triborough is another story but there are days when traffic is moving. Should it travel the old pattern of 37th St and 24th Av? I don't think it should because I live a few blocks south of that location and today it would not gain that much ridership. HOWEVER, if you terminate the bus at Steinway St and Astoria Blvd North (westbound) and serve ALL Q19 bus stops up to the bridge, you might gain some ridership.

Except that an M35 from Astoria would get "thisclose" to Manhattan and then jump off the bridge to take the grand tour of Randalls and Wards Islands before returning to the bridge.  The Astoria-Harlem crowd voted with their feet when the M60 started and never looked back.

A Wards Island-to-Queens link probably should be a separate route (Q89 based at LGA or CS?) with a stop in Astoria and then continuing to Jackson Heights (to maximize transfer opportunities). 

For the M35 itself, is Lexington/125th the right place, or should it end somewhere else?

2 hours ago, The TransitMan said:

Believe it or not, this COULD be something to think about for the Manhattan Bus Redesign. Obviously, we can have fun and speculate BUT I know this COULD be a topic once that process gets started.

What is your concept? Revisit the three-headed hydra? A new Wards Island route to Queens?

On 12/26/2023 at 9:12 PM, BrooklynBus said:

Who is making that assumption? What I was saying is that someone who works at odd hours cannot use public transportation. It isn’t fair to ask him or her to wait 60 minutes for a bus. 

Yet you conveniently refuse to recommend more frequent overnight service.  

 It's the age-old principle of "if there is even 1 person who won't benefit from this, then nobody should be allowed to benefit from this."

On 12/17/2023 at 11:04 PM, 4 via Mosholu said:

Thanks for these updates concerning 82nd Street - Jackson Heights and 111th Street - NY Hall of Science. Hopefully both stops would look good when they reopen for Manhattan bound service out of Main Street - Flushing. I'm hoping that 69th and 52nd Streets would retain their secondary names that they've had for a while (that is, Fisk for 69th and Lincoln for 52nd). 90th Street - Elmhurst Avenue and Willets Point should have been part of the planned renewals; it was a mistake for Grand, Washington, Beebe, and Hoyt Avenues to be dropped from 30th, 36th, 39th Avenues and Astoria Boulevard - in my honest opinion.

I'd actually prefer to scrap the alternate names entirely, on the grounds that they are outdated and do not reflect those streets' current actual names. Obviously, lots of people would object to that — and some might even push to scrap the current names in favor of the old names. (I would ask them which specific historic names are accepted by the U.S. Postal Service.)

At most, the secondary name should appear in a smaller font with parentheses, to indicate that both names refer to the exact same street. For example...  46 St (Bliss St)

(I've heard some conductors override the automated announcements to announce "46th Street and Bliss Street" as if they were separate and distinct streets that happened to intersect there.) 

On 12/18/2023 at 6:56 AM, Janine Mantzaris said:

Please do not charge New Yorkers [who can not afford it] to drive to their essential jobs every day in order to serve the city.

Please do not assume that public transportation has never existed in NYC at any time in the history of history.

47 minutes ago, NBTA said:

The amount of buses on a branch shouldn’t determine the ridership, but hey, I could be wrong.

It should be the reverse: The ridership should determine levels of service.