R188 7857

Screens are on the 44 now. 5265 and 5903 have it, and the announcements aren't in yet but the signs with the ads and GPS are working. 

7281 was in an accident with an unnumbered Orion VII OG, assumingly from FP.

Just saw the pictures on FB. Looks like 7281 might have frame damage. The dude must've been speeding pretty badly to bang up a bus like that. 

Or maybe you haven't ridden enough 7000s with fast drivers....

I've heard before that the 7000s have really slow acceleration, even when I do get fast drivers the bus seems to drag. 

I never really noticed until today, but 5987 is A LOT faster than the 7000 series XD40s. Being on a 74xx after riding 5987 feels slow and horrible. Why can't they adjust the Allisons on the XD40s? Those buses are way to slow when accelerating.  

I don't know if he's referring to the Q76 or what, but as far as alternatives (or lack thereof), that's one of the reasons the Q28 sees the loads that it does now..... The further you get away from Bell before you hit Northern, you practically have none.... The Q31 isn't an alternative to the Q28 & neither is the Q76.....

 

The Q28 is heralded over the Q13 because it's by far more direct....

The Q28 is slowed by Northern itself... The Q13 is slowed by Northern blvd & parts of Bell Blvd...

 

I had wanted move out to Bay Terrace, but I'm glad I thought better of it.... Although I like riding the Q28, I couldn't do the Flushing shuffle as part of any normal commute....

During the PM rush, the Q28 is slowed by 39th and Union as well. You would have cars stuck at that one intersection (39th and Union) waiting to turn, preventing buses to get to the bus stop (especially b/c the Q28 is all the way in the front). The traffic is so bad there that sometimes the cars block the intersection so cars can't even make turns. Then you get on to Union Street, where there are double parked police cars in front of the precinct. There's angled car parking on Union for a quarter of a block after 37th Av(why?), which messes up traffic even further (considering one lane is occupied by double parked police cars and another is occupied by cars waiting to turn left onto 37th) on the block before. Sometimes, the buses themselves cant squish through the cars and make the slight left because of the angled parking. They need to re-evaluate the routing and traffic patterns there, because it's definitely a big problem. 

My prediction is that ridership will continue to decrease on the Q28. People are finding a bunch of alternates around the route. It will probably be axed in the next couple of years.

There's no way that it's gonna happen as long as Bayside High School is around. Buses are full in both directions during the AM rush (as long as Flushing bound buses run on time, which rarely happens nowadays).

EDIT: 

If anything, have the Q31 run all the way up Corporal Kennedy, through 23rd Ave, left on Bell onto the Cross Island Pkwy, then right on Utopia to Le Havre. It could be a way to give them direct access to Bay Terrace.  

People in my area (Northeast Queens) don't prefer the bus, and I can see where they come from. Routes like the Q76 bunch too often, it's not an uncommon sight to see two buses to come at once. This happens on weekends too, which makes no sense because buses are supposed to be 30 minutes apart.  The Q28 is more frequent, but it's still not reliable. I've been counting multiple Saturdays (in a row) where buses are all bunched up at one terminal. A typical Saturday evening on the Q28 will have three to four buses going in the same direction within a half-mile stretch, zero buses in the opposite direction, and multiple buses deadheading from terminal to terminal to fill in the service gap. There are also lots of short turns that result from this service pattern, leaving some people to wait in the cold. This just gives people another reason to take the LIRR to/from Manhattan (why not walk to the LIRR if you're gonna wait the same amount of time for a bus). Not to mention that rush hour on Northern Blvd and Union Street are HORRIBLE. Union Street always gets clogged up during the evenings, it can take up to 10 minutes for a bus to go two blocks. The parking spaces should be turned into a rush hour bus lane on Northern Blvd(in areas where traffic is common), it really makes a difference with all the traffic that goes on. It might seem like a bizarre idea, but there are already areas were no parking is allowed during specific times of the day. The Q31 is also a problem, they should really adjust that route because barely anyone rides it past 32nd and Corporal Kennedy. Service seems to end a bit too early on the weekends, it might be good if they add a few more buses. I'm not the only one frustrated with the horrible service, I've seen many others express their frustration on the Q76 and Q28 as well. 

4695 was on the Q20 today, still had JA stickers. Don't know if it's a loan or a transfer. 

Had a funny encounter tonight. Some annoying kid was playing with the stop request button before his stop (woke me up b/c the bus driver had to tell him to stop) and the guy blew fast his stop as fast as he could. The kid got mad at him, but in my opinion, he deserved it. 

M23 SBS been running for few days now and has no photos posted, no buzz, etc

 

 

There's so many SBS routes now the debut of new ones apparently aren't exciting anymore.  

The XD60 on the 44, XN40 on the 35, the return, and the R179 testing are just some of the things that are making people forget about other things. For example, nobody has really tried to get one of the buses with the displays and announcements either. I guess some stuff is just more important than others, because there is that much stuff happening. 

Welp, I checked at around 8 and the service pattern still persisted. There were 5 buses (not bunched, but all on Northern) going towards Flushing. The only other bus on the line was 5 minutes away from Bay Terrace. Now that some of the buses have went OOS, things seem to be going back to normal bit by bit. I still would love to know what the hell happened to make bus service that horrible for 2-3 hours.... 

There were 4 Q28 buses bunched at Bay Terrace, while the other two buses were going to Flushing. Those four buses are now going to Flushing, with only ONE bus going to Bay Terrace (that just left Flushing). I know someone who had to wait one hour, their bus is so packed that there are still people waiting on line. How does this happen on a bus line where buses are supposed to come every 10 minutes? I get bus bunching is horrible enough, but to have NO buses going in a single direction for one whole hour is another level. Now, people traveling to Flushing will enjoy their one hour wait as the 6 buses currently running on the bus line are all somewhere near the Flushing area, with only one of them going to Bay Terrace. The fact that none of these buses are going NIS to Bay Terrace right now really makes me wonder what the hell is going on.

I got the XD60 again today, and the A/C was on this time. There was this weird whine that went off the whole time that the A/C was on. Wonder if it was the bus itself or if that's supposed to happen. 

That, unfortunately, is the norm for the Q44. Parkchester screws up the line the most. I hate that part of the line the most.

I'd say the Jamaica section is pretty bad too. Usually there's 5 buses at the terminal that don't leave for 10-20 minutes, then all of them leave within 5-10 minutes and end up bunching together. It's pretty annoying when 2 buses leave, and the next is half an hour away (especially at times where buses are supposed to come every 6 or so mins).

Sounds like a regular day on the Q44 lol

Welp, anyone traveling towards Jamaica is kinda screwed. The 6 (soon to be 7) buses aren't moving and the last bus that left for Jamaica is at Flushing.

EDIT: Service alert just popped up.

I hope some buses go straight to Queens to start service, they better close that service gap between Flushing & Bronx Zoo...

n/b Q44SBS buses are running with delays, due to a road obstruction at Hugh Grant Circle. Allow additional travel time.

What the hell can explain why there are 6 Q44s bunched together in the same location in the Bronx right now? A crash?? (All this info was from BusTime)

5987 on the q44 right now According to bustime

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I might be jumping too far ahead, but does anyone have a clue as to when 5987 (or any XD60) will enter service on the Q44? 

After riding the XD60 for the first time the other day, man those things are nice compared to the LFSA buses on the Q44. Really wish I could ride them more. The ride is smooth and I like the layout of those buses more than that of the LFSA. 

4129 also at CS. 

4174, 4111, and 4116 are at Stengel 

Thank god the person is OK.

http://abc7ny.com/news/li-bus-driver-saves-disabled-passenger-after-bus-bursts-into-flames/1379395/

I had quite an unpleasant ride on 5922. The A/C wasn't on (first thing I said to myself when all the windows were open) and the lights weren't on either. Wonder what's up with that. 

On Tracker, you mean? Because it rarely showed up on Tracker. It is at Casey Stengel, but it's operated by the "Winner of the 2015 Stellar Bus Operator Award".

 

IMG_7344 by GojiMet86, on Flickr

And 7436 only operates on the Q26 because that's operated by the winner of the 2015 MTA Bus Roadeo. Never really knew about 7437, however. 

Where was this taken at because at first I thought it was at Utopia and Jewel on the Q30/Q31 route.

Main Street & Melbourne if I remember correctly, that LFSA is heading towards Jewel.