JubaionBx12+SBS

So the MTA is fine with those 2-3 minute rush hour headways for the B46+ on top of the service being provided by the local? I find it downright hypocritical that we have artics on the majority of high ridership routes in Bronx and Manhattan, in addition to the Q10, Q44, Guy R. Brewer routes and B44 while the B46 which consistently ranks top 3 in the city for ridership is fine without artics. What kind of nonsense is that?

This mess has gone on for so long I believe that sentence of yours. MTA is looking for way to make the rush hour only without providing 4 minute midday headways for the Pelham local stops.

Inmates are not running the asylum on the Bx12 Select. When riders like myself try to be polite and give people space to exit there is nowhere to go except into the crowd of people trying to exit. That might not be such an issue if the aisle between the middle and rear door of the LFSA (model used on said route) were wider than a tightrope.

Or buses with wider aisles. Getting on and off of Bx12 SBS buses is a PITA since there's no room most of the time for me to move around and let passengers out and when getting on it's difficult to move into the bus.

Given the B46 carries similarly to the Bx12 and M15 which both use artics I would wonder what would lead someone to belive that artics on the B46 wouldn't help matters.

I'm sure the heads downtown will reject this idea so that service between Co-op City and Pelham Bay isn't "over saturated". Although if they found something to cut (let's not give them any ideas) I'm sure this plan would go amazingly well.

I'm worried that at some point the Bx12 Select will start losing riders if this messy service keeps up. Then the MTA will end up reducing service and the main feature attracting users (the low headways) will be less appealing. It's bad enough that 15+ minute gaps are rather common on 5-6 minute headways so what's going to happen if the headways get any higher?

There's a huge gap in Bx12 SBS service heading West from Co-op City a little while ago and someone had the nerve to just run buses light to Pelham Bay like it's nothing. When a bus finally picks up the crowds it's so packed that some riders are left behind meaning the gap is even wider for these folks. Seeing 20 passengers waiting at Bartow/Edson after a half hour of no buses (buses did pass that went NIS to PBP) and then a bus comes so packed that none of them can get on is ridiculous. They might as well just not serve Co-op City at all at this rate.

Friday schedules shouldn't be a systemwide practice. I would leave it just for routes that have major differences in commute times/patterns on Friday vs the rest of the week or routes that are underserved on Monday-Thursday. In the latter case the Friday schedule wouldserve as a test for possible increases to be made on Monday-Thursday.

I was on the Bx38 on Sunday and at each stop an automated recording played that stated 'this is the Bx38 bus to Bay Plaza Co-op City via Gun hill Rd via Drieser Loop. This bus will not go to Section 5. Is this some oddball thing or are other buses also having such recordings play. FYI, the bus number was 8340.

What I notice is that when Bx12 Select bus run light in either direction there ends up being a bus that actually started from the terminal right behind. I can't tell you how many buses I've seen run light to Pelham Bay heading west and only a minute of so later a packed bus pulls in. I've been on packed buses out of Inwood that sometimes end up at Sedgwick bunched behind buses that started there. The only good thing is that the bus from Inwood mainly drops off passengers from there on out and isn't all that crowded.

I happen to think that some members of the Eagle Team must live in the NE Bronx given that nearly all of my Eagle Team sightings on the Bx12 Select are either at PBP or one of the Co-op City stops. Just today I catch three members out at PBP and when walking home I see another three eating from some outdoor West Indian spot on Bartow and Ely that is so obscure (it's a couple of dudes with a grill and some tents over grass) that only people with extensive experience in the neighborhood would check it out. I also saw the van parked on Bartow and the dudes in there getting grub where the same ones that are there when buses get checked at PBP or points N/E. I thought the Eagle Team stops were supposed to be random and that each crew would be spread around between the routes.

I feel Co-op City has too many local buses serving it for any improvements to the BxM7 to make a big difference in terms of gaining ridership back. I'm someone who likes to take advantage of all the services avaliable in my area and still can't find a reason to use the BxM7 or the BxM10 for that matter. The BxM7 with no PM variants is still a shorter run than the BxM10 and the BxM10 isn't a ridiculously long route so whatever savings you would gain with PM variants would just go to waste making things more confusing.

Out of curiosity, how many runs are assigned to the Bx12 (local and SBS combined) and how many of those are interlined?

The headways on the Bx41 SBS aren't so great so it's more likely people are waiting it out to see if a local shows up before getting their SBS ticket. Better examples to look at would be the B46 or M15.

I'm getting on a Bay Plaza bound Bx5 at PBP today and as I'm getting on the driver is screaming Bay Plaza as if he's calling Bay Plaza bound passengers to get on his bus. I tell him that those people (referring to Bay Plaza bound passengers) are going for the Bx12 SBS and as I say that I point to the crowd of 40+ waiting for the Bx12 SBS. He shakes his head at me and says "dummies". Said Bx5 bus ends up with pulling into Co-op with less than 15 passengers while the Bx12 SBS that closely followed was an absolute sardine can with nearly as many passengers crushed in front of the white line as there were total on the Bx5. At least the Bx5 is useful for the people who don't want to board sardine cans.

- I don't know how this is but I was able to get intel from a relative that is a B/O out of GunHill Depot and that intel suggested that the Bx22 is one of the best performing routes in the depot and one that senior drivers like to pick. Given the general discussion that's been had about this route I'm shocked that the drivers would be real content with it. - I'm also seeing a lot of empty Bx31 buses in my neck of the woods these days. I think something serious needs to be done with it but can't put a finger on exactly what though.

I've noticed a couple of Eastbound Bx12 SBS buses not make any stops until Fordham Plaza. That's about as close to one as i've seen.

Manhattan crosstowns are too short of routes (distance wise) for POP savings to make a real difference in trip times. I'm not a big fan of any of these Manhattan crosstown SBS routes currently in operation.

It should not be considered for that route.

That's a yearly tradition over the summer to give the local high frequencies for the weekend Orchard Beach crowds. The SBS is currently running on 4-5 minute headways as I post so it should be about even between them.

This is another systemwide issue that needs to be looked at. I've been vocal about wide gaps in Bx12 SBS service that can at times be nearly 30 minutes wide and given what I observe on BusTime other high frequency routes are having such problems as well. You get these seriously wide gaps and then a whole swarm of buses come in close together to close the gap. There's no way you're maximizing ridership on the high ridership routes with buses running like that.

Speaking of high ridership routes, the Bx12's annual summer schedule is online. I'm incredibly pleased with the weekend service levels being provided. For the vast majority of the day on Saturday and a decent chunk of Sunday Bx12 local and SBS service will combine to exceed 20 BPH with some hours seeing close to 30 BPH. I'm not impressed with the severe weekday peak reductions though. 17 BPH during the AM Rush gets cut down to 12 Westbound and 11 Eastbound on the SBS and the local will run on a flat 10 minute headway for the entire duration of weekday Orchard Beach service which includes rush hours.

All of these were taken about 35-40 minutes ago. SMH.

At this point we have to call bunching a systemwide problem. To add another route here, I was on Fordham Road about to get on the Bx12 and walking towards Webster I see three NB Bx41 SBS buses pass within a one minute span. I was thinking to myself that traffic on Webster is never that backed up to where an 8 BPH service should have three buses bunched up. At this point I think there is some practice going on where bunching is encouraged.