Via Garibaldi 8

Came out good... I guess I should have the BxM2 done. I see it in the photo... @Lawrence St

7 hours ago, engineerboy6561 said:

  I'd argue it's complicated because the subway desert in southeastern Queens means that QBL expresses are running 30tph packed to the gills during rush, and so there isn't really enough peak capacity on QBL to handle those loads coming in. There are a variety of ways we could fix that over the longer term; LIRR fare integration would allow people going from SE Queens to the midtown core only paying $3-$4 and get a transfer to subway and local buses, but the total available capacity on the LIRR isn't necessarily high enough to put a huge dent in that load, especially during rush when LIRR trains are likely coming into Jamaica already SRO.

As far as I'm aware, the maximum theoretical bidirectional throughput of the LIRR into Manhattan is about 80tph (30tph through ESA, then 60 total TPH into Penn via the East River tubes, but subtract about 10 slots an hour for NJT moves to and from Sunnyside and Amtrak slots); the mainline is quad-tracked east of Woodside, which would allow about 60 total tph coming in from Jamaica. Jamaica in turn sees trains from nine branches (including Montauk and Oyster Bay) that it can allocate slots to. In a world where rolling stock issues are resolved and LIRR has a fleet of dual-mode MUs that can fit into GCM and keep pace with the M7s and M9s you could just treat all runs evenly, and that means you could allot each branch a slot into Manhattan every 9 minutes (the Port Washington branch is its own thing because of the way the tracks are laid out, but that could run every 5 minutes during rush to take a load off the if we wanted, assuming we double-tracked the line from Manhasset to Port Washington and turned every other train at Great Neck. Realistically speaking, though, making that happen would likely take 20-30 years at least and take a degree of focus and self-discipline the MTA currently doesn't have, and I don't have a good sense of how much pressure it would actually wind up relieving on the QBL.

Honestly the only way I could see a sweeping reorganization of the MTA actually happen is as the "stick" half of a bailout bill. You could tie a reorganization of the MTA board into a locally elected body to the next bailout bill to come through Albany; the idea would be that counties that get MTA service get board seats apportioned by population (so Putnam County gets 1, Dutchess gets 3, Orange gets 3, Rockland gets 4, Westchester gets 10, Nassau gets 14, Suffolk gets 15, Fairfield gets 10, New Haven gets 9, the Bronx gets 14, Manhattan gets 16, Queens gets 23, Brooklyn gets 26, Staten Island gets 5). If you added NJ into the mix, Hudson County gets 7, Bergen County gets 10, Essex County gets 9, Union County gets 6, Morris gets 5, Middlesex gets 8, Monmouth gets 6, Ocean gets 6, and Mercer gets 4. All told, your board size would be 214 members, of which New York City proper would have 84.

On the one hand that's about the size of the NY state legislature; on the other hand you'd wind up with a properly regional institution with meaningful local accountability. Now it's also possible with a board that size that you'd be trading a few appointed fools and wastrels for a lot of elected fools and firebrands, but an organization set up that way would at least be somewhat accountable to the people they're supposed to be serving (which is better than what we have now). If need be you could add a layer of management more concerned with short-term execution and day-to-day management that the big board would be responsible for hiring and firing, as well as setting the long-term agenda for, but layers of management are expensive and don't necessarily add a ton of value. The idea would be that a combination of fares and service taxes on county residents and people who work in NYC would cover most of the costs of running and expanding the system, and that a reorganization of this nature would refocus board members on providing quality transit rather than hanging out in sinecures or rewarding their buddies.

Sounds like you're all over the place. If we're talking about more service for subway deserts that's another thing entirely and there could be a need for more of it. Be that as it may, there are a host of reasons why people opt for the subway vs the LIRR or MNRR. Generally speaking, the commuter rail stations in most areas of the City are not that accessible, so they are a pain to reach and take you to a handful of destinations.  The price is less of an issue now.

19 minutes ago, TMC said:

Yes, we already have good peak frequency, now we just need to adjust the service patterns to allow space for more off-peak and reverse-peak trains.

If there was demand for more service, it would already be running. You obviously do not use the commuter rails as I do to see what ridership is like.  I am speaking as a commuter.  Both MNRR & LIRR are still down over 30% in terms of ridership because most riders are still work from home and likely will be permanently, so you are proposing to run service for the hell of it, which makes no sense.

22 minutes ago, engineerboy6561 said:

I mean, I think it's worth pursuing fare integration, through-running, and related services in order to convert MNR/LIRR/NJT from commuter rail into high-frequency regional rail that serves as an express/super-express transport layer within the city. Unfortunately, making that happen would require NY, NJ, and CT to jointly agree to merge their services into a single giant RTA that would cover north and central Jersey rail and bus ops, PATH, NYC subway, NYC buses, NYC subway, MNR, and LIRR. Furthermore, if you kept a similar internal structure to the current MTA and NJT for the new agency you'd get a place where all three governors appoint their friends to the board, raid the cash box, get into jurisdictional food fights, and ram through ribbon cuttings for poorly conceived pet projects in election years and the trains still wouldn't be integrated or run on time. Making integrated regional transit work for NYC in the way you're describing would require a regional agency where nearly all the board members were elected and NYC has a clear majority in its own right, and getting NY, NJ, and CT politicos to cooperatively establish a structure through which a lot of money will flow without being subject to their influence is going to be an absolutely massive uphill battle.

Public transportation doesn't run on air. It takes money to fund, so the idea that "politicos" are just going to "step aside" is comical.  Each region wants their slice of the pie relative to what they spend in terms of funding their services.  That's why CT has always acted the way that they have when it comes to MNRR service.  They are focused on their taxpayers and the services they use, not subsidizing someone else's commutes.

6 minutes ago, TMC said:

Where do you think all of the riders are? If they're not taking the train for trips, they sure as hell are driving (other than subway/bus). Queens Blvd is also quite overcrowded, and the Main Line provides good relief to it.

A better question is how many people NEED Grand Central or Penn Station as their destination vs the tons of other places that the four subway lines go along Queens Blvd?  You're talking about two big destinations, yes, but the subways cover far more destinations than the LIRR do.

13 minutes ago, TMC said:

I'm not saying we need to send a train every 5 minutes into suburbia. I'm saying that along urban trunk lines, we need frequent service and lower fares to act as pseudo-subways. Run simplified service patterns and give stations like Forest Hills and Kew Gardens a train every 15 minutes all day.

Oh please. Forest Hills and Kew Gardens both have subways and both have pretty frequent LIRR service already where necessary, with CityTicket to boot.  You have to understand that such communities have a balance of people that use public transit (subways, express buses, LIRR) and then there are people that drive.  Queens generally speaking is not as connected to Manhattan to have a need for such frequent service, no matter how cheap the fares were.  If we were comparing Kew Gardens, Forest Hills and my neighborhood, I would say Riverdale is more of a bedroom community out of the three where you will see more commuting to Manhattan, and even here you have a chunk of people that drive into Manhattan for work, leisure, etc.  

There's also the density factor.  Neither of these neighborhoods are that dense to need a commuter rail running that frequently.  That's just a fact. Both neighborhoods have a chunk of people that own and either live or work in Queens and/or drive. If they didn't have a subway, then you'd have a better argument, but even if they ran every 15 minutes, they would be hard pressed to compete with the subway lines on Queens Blvd.

There's also the work from home factor that takes away some ridership.  If more people rode, they would have more frequent service. Hell even in my area we get a train every 30 minutes off-peak. The Riverdale and Spuyten Duyvil stations both see good usage, but during off-peak, neither station is ever packed.  Goes back to what I noted earlier.

Then there's the other issue. They only go to Grand Central or Penn Station. The subways and express buses both cover more areas. That's exactly why my use of Metro-North is lower compared to the other options.  It's only worth taking Metro-North if my destination is Grand Central or the surrounding areas.

7 minutes ago, ABCDEFGJLMNQRSSSWZ said:

While I generally agree with your point, there are examples where commuter rails are frequent and high capacity, and offer through service in the CBD, most notably Tokyo.

In NYC though, most people who live our of Long Island are pretty disconnected to the city; few have to regularly commute into work from Suffolk County. Japan tends to be a lot more interconnected and denser throughout making their commuter rails play a bigger role.

Commuter rail service is frequent in Japan because Japan is a pretty dense and compact country overall.  The suburbs of NYC are not as dense, therefore less ridership. If there was demand for more service, sure.  That said, the suburbs have already been moving to increase housing by commuter stations, so whatever growth is going to happen will happen (organically). The railroads have also been adamantly clear that they cannot compete with the subway, nor do they have the capacity to run service like a subway because they are railroads.

15 minutes ago, TMC said:

The commuter railroads would be serving a ton more people if designed and operated correctly, along with through-running. They should be providing subway-level service within the city and inner-suburbs.

They are commuter railroads, not subways.  People really need to stop with this nonsense.

@Lawrence St The 84th & Madison Av BxM3/BxM4 stop has been updated with new signage.  I think that's it right? The other BxM3 stop was addressed some weeks ago with new signage.

11 minutes ago, Lawrence St said:

Where in the hell are they going to put an elevator at 242nd St?

2 minutes ago, Kingsbridgeviewer382 said:

I could see them sacrificing one of the staircases on either side of Broadway to place the elevator (Most likely the one by the park or the one that's barely used by those coming off the bee line buses).

Elevators... There will be one on each side, just like W 231st.  If they are as slow as the ones on W 231st, forget it.  Definitely needed though. The community asked for elevators at that station years ago, the  refused to install them.  Only took them several years later.

9 minutes ago, N6 Limited said:

I also forgot that once you get to the Mezz level you have to take stairs down to the  platforms.

There are so few stations up here with elevators.  It's another reason I absolutely hate taking the subway.  If you're going to Manhattan along the  before it heads underground, you are walking up stairs the entire trip. Walk up several flights of stairs to reach the platform, then walk up stairs when you get off. Then there are the endless transfers.  Felt like I ran a marathon (a bus and three trains later - no thanks).

9 minutes ago, N6 Limited said:

Wasn’t 168th St  closed recently to install new elevators?

That was only to replace the ones that take you to the  platform, which were God awful, but not for ADA accessibility.  This is basically to allow for people to take an elevator from street level to then reach those elevators if they need the . They need to use someone that knows what their doing because each time that they've replaced elevators in Upper Manhattan, they have started breaking down a few days later.  

1 hour ago, RSMG106 said:

I can understand what you are saying. I know most depots' maintenance varies, but I wanted to check every depot to see if they are basically the same when it comes to maintenance.

What you're asking for is almost impossible because some depots have more demanding lines than others.  

39 minutes ago, IAlam said:

I'm not sure how their system works but it shouldn't be that hard, it's not 90-era computers and technology they're working with. Just a couple extra if/else conditions in the code are needed to differentiate what type of card/device is being used. I'm pretty sure somewhere in the metadata it identifies what type of card is being used. 

True, but unfortunately, a lot of the delays with the rollout of OMNY has been due to software issues.

14 minutes ago, N6 Limited said:

This really shouldn’t be an issue where they have a bus command center and GPS tracking of all buses.

Pretty much, and when they were actually starting to have tangible service improvements, Cuomo runs Byford away...

The MTA has to not only provide service, but improve intermodal transfers via timing and consideration. Especially, later in the evenings when the buses and trains run less frequently. They know where all the trains and buses are, they can’t hold for connections during certain times? (Especially terminal stations). Some buses have even longer than 20 min headway at times. I’ve also seen conductors quick to close the doors in the station when someone is running to the train when theres a gap in service for the next train.

The conductor/T.O. should be aware of the train ahead and behind them to make supporting customer service decisions. If the doors are open and a train is coming in across the platform, and the next train behind you is in 15 mins, you may want to hold the doors to allow transfers.

If you had heavy QBL trackwork delays and you have bunched  or  trains arriving at Jamaica Center/179th st, could they hold the buses for a few mins?

My stance is that they need to have more eyes on the buses out on the street, not having everything come from the Command Center.  As far as Byford goes, he was more approachable than previous predecessors, but the bus service was actually terrible under him.  He gets all sorts of praise, but my commutes were becoming unbearable under his watch, both via bus and subway.  The only thing I could rely on was Metro-North, but otherwise, couldn't depend on anything showing up.  Missing scheduled buses morning and night. The subways were a disaster meaning either arriving late to my meetings or having to run out of the station and grab an Uber (and this was only in Manhattan for subway trips - I can't imagine the outer boroughs).  Maybe he meant well and I've heard that from a number of people at the  off the record, but he was also not aware of the political aspects of the job.  Trying to push through ambitious bus redesigns that were masked service cuts is an example. To his credit though, he showed up to a number of events in person to speak directly to riders.

As far as the subway goes, I just found long waits (and still do whenever I have taken it lately), so my stance is to try to avoid it whenever possible. I will say the last time I took it, I saw cops in the actual cars themselves and no homeless people anywhere, which was shocking. I was just waiting to see some mentally disturbed individual either at a train station or on the train.  Must've been my lucky day. lol

5 minutes ago, Lawrence St said:

On the topic of bus lanes, the biggest issue I have with the 5th Ave bus lanes is no one knows how to properly use them to make a right turn. You have people making the right from 3 lanes across because they don't know they can make it from within the bus lane itself as long as they entered in the previous block.

Even if they are using it correctly, you'd still have the back-up because the side streets have overflow onto 5th Av, plus all of the vehicles having to turn.  There is no easy solution and the DOT at this time is not interested in fixing it because it would mean that they would have to make tweaks to the traffic signals for a chunk of Midtown.  

1 hour ago, IAlam said:

I've noticed this as well it's only certain trips too, I went as far as reading the entire MTA tariffs doc to find nothing on it either. 

I'd also add the amount on the card for those using reloadable OMNY cards, it could just be on the bottom or top.

If you're tapping with your phone that is linked to a credit or debit card, I don't know how that would work.  Probably one of those things that's either all in or nothing.

1 hour ago, NewFlyer 230 said:

I am well aware that people of all races farebeat, I see it with my own eyes all the time. As a person who comes from the descendants of African slaves (aka black), I used the word homie as if I were talking to a friend given what I stated in the previous line about police enforcing the fare and the excuses some like to make when they get caught in the wrong. It is very easy to scapegoat versus taking accountability for your own actions. However I wasn’t specifically singling out one specific group of people, because people of all ages and all races farebeat and that is due to the lack of enforcement in general. I would say the same thing to anyone who wants to ride for free and they on have nice clothing on, have a very expensive phone in their hand but want to make it seem like they can’t afford $2.75. It’s not an issue of race and or poverty but just the disorderly culture that has plagued NY for so long. If little old ladies for example on a fixed income can deposit $1.35 in the farebox with no problem there is no excuse why a grown woman with a nice drink in one hand and a Pro model iPhone in the other can’t put $2.75 in the farebox. I personally believe that one of the reasons why the MTA & the city is not serious about enforcing the fares on buses and the subway is, because of the potential of racial tension. Especially after what took place in 2020 with Mr. Floyd what I see stemming from the strict enforcement of the fare are some people screaming “oh you are picking on me because I’m black” when in fact it’s because you didn’t pay your fare. The last thing the city wants is rioting and more disorder and if you can reduce the interaction between the police and the public, outside of more serious crimes the better it is for maintaining peace. I think this proposal gives off the idea of if you can’t beat them, join them. 

I agree with you 100% when you stated how some advocacy groups use the excuse that poverty is the reason for farebeating. And similarly to some politicians they throw race in the conversation to make it seem that due to the color of your skin, you are automatically less likely to be able to do what other people do whether that is paying the fare, voting, having internet access, becoming a CEO, etc. It’s that same type of talk over and over again that make some people feel incapable so then they use those talking points as an excuse to be disorderly.

For what it's worth, I guess you could say that farebeating has always existed to some degree. I remember the seniors throwing in a few coins into the farebox and no one would ever say anything because they were seniors so I guess the attitude was they've already paid into the system. Other than that you didn't see such rampant farebeating.

I think one of the reasons you have electeds just saying to make it free is #1 farebeating is not being prosecuted (the DAs have made this abundantly clear), therefore the police aren't going to bother anymore enforcing something that won't be upheld by the DAs (and I don't blame them either).

#2 In the past people used public transit because they were kind of forced to just because of how many people traveled at the same time. Now WFH has changed that so people can drive and are and they don't need to use the . Some bus operators used to say "If you don't like the service, take a taxi or drive". Well that's exactly what is happening. lol Now the City I believe is very much concerned about that. People not using mass transit not only hurts the  but also hurts the City. You have less economic activity for one and less tax revenues being generated, meaning less money for the City. It's already happening in the commercial real estate and if it doesn't change with the , they will have to cut a chunk of service. That is approaching sooner rather than later. Making it free, you have a chance to convert people and get people back perhaps that are in between. You likely are not getting back people that switched to driving at all times. I hear more and more such stories in fact. You are correct though... They really need to work on improving the service. Below I'll list the things I see just with the local buses:

-Lots of service cancelled with no notice.

-Excessively long waits because trips are cancelled without notice.

-Poor/lack of dispatching. They only seem to actively dispatch on SBS lines and the other local lines, forget it. I noticed this when I would use the M79 and M86. If the M86 had bunching, they would work aggressively to fix the gaps in service. Not so with the regular local lines.

-The product/quality of service has deteriorated so much that they've pushed people out of the system and they will have a hard time getting them back.

14 minutes ago, IAlam said:

I've seen traffic cops at that intersection help get those buses turned a lot faster, What they usually do is either stop cross traffic temporarily or let an extra bus or 2 turn once the light turns. They force the cars to go straight which prevents the a car taking up of the vehicles turning each light. They also prevent cars from blocking the intersection too which can do quite a bit. 

Then they can have one or two more traffic agents assist, but sometimes they actually make things worse.

45 minutes ago, NewFlyer 230 said:

I might be in the minority but I’m totally opposed to making transportation free in NYC for the fact that someone has to pay for it and most likely that would be through the means of us paying higher taxes. Wise people have told me at various times in my life that nothing in life is free and there is a cost to everything. So yeah it may seem good that people can ride the buses for free but at what cost because maintenance still has to be performed, buses have to be fueled and while the fares recovered only cover a fraction of the MTA’s expenses at least that is less of a financial burden to us residents of NYC and users of the mass transportation system. 

NYC just has a long history of disorder and nobody wants to tackle the cities issues head on so they have to take this cowardly approach to doing so and maintaining the peace. They don’t want police out there enforcing the law because it will cause more conflict between the public and police. Some people will get upset with the police enforcing the fare and will cry the excuse you are targeting us because of skin color but homie you are breaking the law by not paying and on top of that half the time the cats I see farebeating wear expensive clothing, got a more recent iPhone than me (still stuck on the iPhone 11 from four years ago) and I’ve seen on multiple occasions people saying they have no fare just to then get off the bus at some point just to walk into a smoke shop or a dessert spot and etc. The level of entitlement people feel nowadays is mind blowing. Many expect everything to be handed to them while not wanting to work for anything and the people who really need the help get overlooked. While we are at it let’s make gas for cars free too so that we can get to where we need to go faster without having to rely on crappy public transit. Who wants to deal with the endless delays the Queens Blvd line faces most evenings out of the year with the  sometimes taking an hour to get from Court Square to Forest Hills or who wants to wait 30 minutes or more for a bus route like the Q25 which has bus lanes it can take advantage of in both Flushing and Jamaica but still can bunch in 3’s on a Sunday morning at a time where there are less cars on the road. 

I'm not sure why you're talking about "homie" when people of ALL colors are farebeating these days... That means Whites, Blacks, Latinos and so on and that includes the express buses. Now there isn't much fare beating on the express bus compared to the local buses, but the last few people that have got on the bus with either a sob story or had the wrong Metrocard were all White.  We had a young White chick get on at 63rd & Broadway with some story. Driver gave her a talking to and let her on.  A few years ago, we had this hippie looking White guy where I live in Riverdale that not only wanted to ride for free, BUT thought he needed to ride in style to boot.  A few times he got on and after that the drivers stopped allowing it.  He approached me once asking for me to dip for him. Absolutely not. No one gets a free dip from me unless you are paying for it and since I had seen him before and knew his little scheme it disgusted me even more because I got the feeling that he was just trying to get over. If he was truly broke he can take the bus to the subway.

I've also seen some Latino kids get on the Bx10 and ask to ride for free here and there, which I don't get since they get a free pass. This was in the morning, so I don't understand how they could've used all of their rides that early.  Obviously they lived elsewhere, as they were coming from one of the schools, but that means you took one trip from home to school and then the return trip, so what happened to the Metrocard?  I saw this a lot when I lived on Staten Island too with school kids of all backgrounds seemingly not having their Metrocard as if they were letting someone else use it or something.

Speaking of farebeating, on Staten Island people of various backgrounds farebeat, esp. the local buses and occasionally the express bus, so the whole "homie" remark is comical. 

It's also comical that some "advocacy" groups out here like the Riders Alliance come up with the excuse that people are hopping the turnstiles because of poverty and then they bring color into it when I see plenty of people that are doing just fine not paying.  That is such BS and actually it is an underhanded way putting down certain groups.  As someone of mixed background, I find it offensive because it assumes that certain groups always "need a hand", as if they are either too incompetent or incapable of doing better.... In other words, it's like saying that they are inherently unable to do better.

13 minutes ago, Mtatransit said:

The fare is not the incentive for people to take transit/reduce congestion. Transit is already the cheapest way to get around. Having better service is. That means not having buses that is suppose to run every 20 minutes at night skip a interval, having subway service that bunch when it is already scheduled to run every 12 minutes , endless constructions and slow orders..

I like their 6 minutes proposal more. Many cities around the world operate 6 min or better service on their lines with less interlining though. Even having every 8 min on weekend would be a massive improvement. 
 

As for buses, I’m glad MTA have so far has not been going back to the old ways where they cut service every month because of their guidelines and wonder why the ridership drops afterwards. (They just don’t fill runs now but that’s another story) 

The six minute proposal is not from the . It was proposed by the Riders Alliance. 

14 hours ago, IAlam said:

The MTA needs to really coordinate with the NYPD inorder to keep buses moving for the  shuttle. Whoever thought it was a good idea to send a bus running up Roosevelt Ave every 2 min and then making a left on the Main St ended up causing so much congestion, with the heavy crowds and the heavy traffic it was a nightmare to get through to Flushing today. Normally it's hard enough for buses to turn onto Main from Roosevelt and usually 1 or 2 max can turn per light. But not only was there a huge flux of additionally buses with all the cars ignoring the busway and no turn rules adding even more congestion, it ended up having a knock on effect on the other bus lines too. I think one of the hardest hit lines was the Q20 with almost 2/3 of its the buses operating stuck on Main St at one point. 

This is the same busway that has camera enforcement, so all of those people should be ticketed automatically, and thus no need for the NYPD. As the tickets mount, those people will stop doing it.  That is usually how it works.  Photo is taken of the license plate and the ticket is mailed accordingly.

---

I'll add something that I forgot to mention.  The reason that camera enforcement was opted for is because it is more effective (both in terms of cost and enforcement) than having the NYPD chase people out of the bus lanes all day.  Previously under the de Blasio administration, NYCDOT came up with a program where they had traffic agents go around and literally chase drivers out of bus lanes, bus stops, etc. - I saw it along 6th Av a few times. 

There are simply not enough agents to go around doing that, and in some cases, I'd see a traffic agent chasing one guy out of the bus lane or a bus stop on one block and on the next block you'd have another violator, so that program was ended rather quickly (I confirmed with the DOT during one meeting on bus lanes) and they are moving to camera enforcement, both at street level AND on the actual local buses. The pilot program started on a few local lines and is being expanded, but it needs to be funded, as it is costly. The  also must receive approval from Albany to do what they want to do, which is expand the camera program to more lines #1 and to cover more than just bus lanes, but also bus stops. 

10 hours ago, Lawrence St said:

You mean the BxM5?

No. The BxM5 was a proposed rush-hour only route to cover Woodlawn and a small part of the BxM11 (as well as a new segment of service near the City border), which didn't make sense as it was. BxM11 riders were very clear that they did not want to go to Bronxdale Av for the BxM11. They preferred the bus as it is on White Plains Rd. In any event, the current BxM11 serves the same segment of Boston Rd that the proposed BxM11 does and only because of the street layout in that area (subway pillars, etc.). At that point, Boston Rd is basically like a North-South corridor, and not an East-West corridor, which is what you're getting at. Express buses function mainly North-South (yes I know some run East-West for segments), but some of that is due to a lack of subway. The distance on Boston Road is such that people can make their way to the BxM10 or BxM11. In other words, I don't see how a dedicated express bus along Boston Road competing with two other express bus lines would make sense.

29 minutes ago, mikecintel said:

Yes I had a 2nd transfer last year but then it was a glitch in the system.  Now I don't have that anymore.  Lucky you they have that for you.  Yes true what you said is the screen is so big people can see your info but if it only says transfer then it should be OK because it will not display other things.

I don't know when I get it and why until I check my account later on and I believe twice now I've had it, but they are trips I do all the time, so I'm not sure what led to the second transfer.  As for the screen, if they programmed it only to show Xfer, sure, but anything more than that wouldn't be good. The Metrocard screen showed more in part because most people could not see their transactions online so easily (some people were aware and could, esp. if they had an EasyPay Metrocard, but most could not).  With OMNY anyone can.

3 minutes ago, engineerboy6561 said:

That's fair; I could see the subway becoming the thing you do for situations where you need to be somewhere significantly more quickly than the buses, but then the buses become the default mode of transport for most people. Like you could totally do a commute from East Midtown up to North Riverdale on local buses and it wouldn't actually be that bad (M101 from East Midtown to 68 St, M98 from 68 St to 179th and Broadway, then Bx7 from 179th and Broadway up to North Riverdale; hell, back when I was living with my parents on Sedgwick and Van Cortlandt sometimes I'd take the M98 up to 179th and Amsterdam, then take the Bx3 most of the rest of the way home.

I'm speaking from experience.  When we had hurricane Sandy and they made the express buses free, they were packed as in either every seat filled or standing room only (every trip - to say I was annoyed is putting it mildly).  People that normally wouldn't take it rode because why not? It's free. lol  Even if the trips on the local buses were longer and some transfers were needed, if you don't care about time, people will ride them because it saves them technically $5.50 round trip or more depending on how many places they are going.  What I've been hearing now from people esp. now with the hybrid schedule or WFH, when they do transit, quite a few of them have noted that they'll take the local bus, even though it takes 2-3 times longer because they are concerned about safety.  Making it free would just give them another reason to ride.

Now of course people that are in a rush will either opt for Uber or the subway depending on how much they are willing to spend, but anytime you have something being provided for free, people will make sacrifices to take advantage of it.

5 hours ago, N6 Limited said:

I thought about this while using metrocard, how will riders know immediately if they got a free transfer, if the screen just says “GO”?

Easiest solution is just to link whatever payment method you use for OMNY to your OMNY account online. You can log-in and see what you were charged.  Sometimes I'm surprised to learn that I get a SECOND transfer thereby saving me a fare.  What's important is that you use the same payment method for your entire trip, so if you tap with your phone to start, continue to do so for the trip and the OMNY reader will see the transfer stored and apply it to your trip.  Now yesterday OMNY was down so you couldn't see anything. It's up today, but I can tell what I was charged just by looking at my balance on OMNY card.

5 hours ago, mikecintel said:

You will not using OMNY.  You will have to login to your OMNY account if you created an account and then it will say free transfer.  You know they can modify the software so it can display the "Transfer or Xfer" like the Metro card machine swipe on the subway/buses. 

I prefer it just saying "GO".  The screen is so big that everyone would be able to see your information. That's another reason I switched to any OMNY card was because I don't want my card information displayed when tapping... People can see what bank you bank with your credit cards, card info, etc. all while tapping. No thanks.

3 hours ago, engineerboy6561 said:

Some, but probably not as much as in the worst case scenario. The Q66 is scheduled to take 57 minutes to an hour to cover the same distance as the covers in 23 minutes and the covers in 17, the Q60 takes 75 minutes to cover what the plus walking covers in 48, and the B25 takes 45 minutes to an hour to do what the does in 13-15 minutes. You'll lose some folks to the buses, but I don't think there's going to be a huge number of people who are going to be willing to incur that sort of time penalty on longer trips.

You're underestimating how many people would avoid it.  When the local buses were free they were a lot more crowded than they are now and that was at the peak of COVID.  I would say with inflation being what it is, I could see a number of people riding them, even with long trips. Some people already ride the local buses now because they are concerned about safety on the train (and that's for long trips), but making the local buses free would absolutely increase ridership substantially.  If you rode the local buses all the time, you'd essentially have free transportation vs. whatever you'd pay for the subway.

57 minutes ago, Lawrence St said:

Has there ever been some sort of proposal to have an express route on Boston Road? Perhaps a branch of the BxM11?

For what? The BxM10 terminates at Boston Rd as it is. Most of the residents drive, go down and take the BxM10, use the subway or the BxM11.