XcelsiorBoii4888

Service cuts only sound bad because normally service cuts mean SRO buses and longer waits etc. However, this is a different type of service cut (more like "efficient service integration") because the ridership is not there and clearly the driver availability is not there at all. I support service cuts (when needed) as long as it doesn't lead to SRO buses or severely long wait times, which is not what we're proposing anyways. I hate every morning waiting for the express bus and you don't know if your bus is going to run today, until you get to the stop. Or if the bus or two buses before yours didn't run and now your bus is unexpectedly crowded and late. Every day its something new and it gets irritating.

You gotta stop with the entitlement.

I know that's not happening....I clearly said What's happening now is they have schedules posted and they cant fill the schedules across the board, while WASTING their current resources in the process. If 20% the drivers on Friday didn't have set work on Friday and were extras or those putting in for OT, they could've made the service. There's clearly too much service open to meet the demand, and the service is not even needed across the board. Ridership is NOT what it was pre pandemic right now, and the social distancing nonsense is over. If ridership is down 50% or 40%, then the overall schedules should be down 50% or 40%. Not the schedules at 100%. That's the issue. If the schedules were down to match ridership, you'd have fuller buses, trips that can actually be assigned, more drivers available to cover work, and more service reliability (not a guessing game each day on which trips are to be canceled). You're looking at solutions from the surface, we're looking at the domino effect that's causing these issues.

He has a point. There are routes with lots of runs that aren't even filling up a majority of the buses. Like the SIM6 for example has buses running every 5mins in the morning. If you pay attention to the number of people on those buses, some buses leave SI with 7 or 8 people, some leave with 12-13, some with 25+. You can easily trim down the service from every 5mins to every 10mins at some points (especially runs where buses are not even near capacity). They can also implement a varying schedule. Have the schedule fluctuate to run more frequently when more people are boarding, and then decreasing and increasing again. There's A LOT of wasted resources in the morning and I can confirm that commuting from SI in the mornings. Yes some routes get hit hard but there are also runs and routes that are carrying AIR. All he's saying is for the time being, shift resources to meet demand until there are enough drivers to meet the normal demand. Ridership is not where it was at pre-pandemic. I'd have no problem if the schedule was adjusted to decrease frequency for my route, as long as I know those buses were definitely coming (so I can plan my commute) and those trips are to be filled with drivers. What's happening now is they have schedules posted and they cant fill the schedules across the board, while WASTING their current resources in the process.

It definitely is giving SJW. With the unlimited cards its hard to do that because of the 18min rule between swipes. OMNY doesn't have an unlimited option its only pay per ride so once people hit that spent $33 rule...does it switch to unlimited features/restrictions or will it just have an override option? I guess we'll learn more in the future.

Exactly...no where it excludes express buses. I'm just a bit confused to if the weeks will be fixed MTA weeks, or will they start when you make your first OMNY tap, and recycle every 7 days after that. Some interesting comments from that article... "This scheme seems skewed in favor of high-income transit users in transit oases while discriminatory against populations living in transit deserts and otherwise necessarily thrifty with their decisions to hop on or off the bus or train. The essential worker transit commuter might benefit after a six-day workweek assuming they had the time or energy left to go on those free discretionary trips before the Sunday night reset. The answer to this otherwise noble pursuit would be to dip into that massive pile of cash that is the New York City municipal budget, now at $100 billion, that for all the mayoral cant about redistribution seems largely to go nowhere useful. Liquidate some of all that de Blasian lard sufficient to subsidize such a scheme more generously, perhaps a daily cap of three or four dollars. Then watch transit and the city bloom as we finally move past these unfortunate eight years." "What’s to prevent fraud? Can a person pay for multiple people’s fares on the same card? If a tourist family of 5 all go through together on one card is their weekly fare going to be capped after a day? If someone stands at the turnstile selling fares for a dollar all day are those fares going to be free? Hopefully this doesn’t just create a new category of crime for the NYPD to deal with."

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/12/13/nyregion/omny-nyc-subway-fare-capping.html Starting in March.... Take the express bus 5 times, rest of the week is free. Take the local bus or subway 12 times, rest of the week is free. Do any type of mix and match and spend $33 within a week, the rest of the week is free. Faster you use up $33 on transit, the more free rides you can get for the rest of the week. If you use OMNY March 2, you have until March 9 to spend $33 commuting. If you spend $33 in between these dates, any extra rides are a free ride (long as you continue using the same OMNY payment type). The cycle restarts every 7 days from the first time you use OMNY after March 1st. I will definitely be taking advantage of this.

I'm looking at NYCT as well and I see 345 artic buses + 1090 standard buses through 2024...the heck they tryna do retire all standard/articulated diesel buses built before 2014? Man...the 4800s have their replacements proposed already...felt like 5 years ago they just entered service.

The C40LFs have special tanks designed to last 20+ years. And the buses are holding up very well so I don't see the need to retire them prematurely. They will be around till 2030 earliest.

I did not know about the Capital Program...wow this document is amazing. The MTA Bus Co summary is on Page 134, full breakdown on page 216. For MTA Bus Co, 874 buses are proposed. 250 express buses (256 now...2021 Prevost) 545 standard buses (25 of them all-electric....that's for EC) 79 articulated buses (I know LGA has 13 XD60s to return to NYCT)...but I cannot tell you which depots those artics are for. All I know is if they go to CP or SC, there's a bunch of C40LFs that cannot be shifted anywhere else. Which means the artics are probably for BP (Q64), JFK (Q7, Q60), and LGA (replace NYCT XD60s).

Everyone always mentioning uniformity and trying to have depots maintain one fleet type unless it's a special case like Quill, West Farms, Grand Ave, etc. I guess I should expect Xcelsiors and Novas anywhere and everywhere as those are basically the future.

Only reason why i didn't include BP was due to the fact that they have XD60s. Why give them LFS for such a small depot?

I don't see how it would be a tour of SI if it's a super express. Half of the current routes provide a "tour of Staten Island". Heck you gotta go through SI to get out of it. It'll be quicker than SIM2s SI runtime, the SIM6, SIM10, SIM15 (which is a real tour), SIM30 (which is another real tour), etc. The park and ride is only gonna be useful if there's service to it. Before the redesign it was just the X22A, not as frequent. Now it's the unreliable SIM24. Let the SIM4X/SIM8X (considering they are frequent super expresses), you'll have a game changer for the south shore. And as far as run time. It takes 9 mins for the SIM4X/SIM8X to get from SI Mall P&R to Christopher Ln, add +5 mins to get to ETC, +10mins to get to Outerbridge P&R. That's 24 mins in the island which is not a "tour of Staten Island". That's actually very quick compared to many other routes. Ask your SI commuters how they would feel about that. I'm sure they would love it (except the regular 8x riders who will now have to deal with crowded buses).

My thing is, why do we need the SIM24 serving the Outerbridge Park and Ride? I personally wish the SIM4X/SIM8X could've did that. Start at the Outerbridge Park n Ride with its 20-25min headways, then head to Eltingville Transit Center Park n Ride via Korean War Vets and then head to SI Mall Park n Ride via Richmond Ave, then the Christopher Lane stop, then they both branch off to the SIE. Would solve everyone's problems. Edit: You can also throw in a stop at Drumgoole/Maguire, Drumgoole/Arden, IF NEEDED by having the buses get on/off the highway.

That's exactly why nothing is being done. You really can't do much unless you remove a row. The first row is chained off so if they really wanted to sacrifice and remove 4 seats permanently to adjust the legroom on the rest of the seats by an extra 2inches while still giving the driver some space, that could happen. But realistically its not gonna happen. Well in regard to specs all I know is MTA opted for the restyled X3-45 instead of the traditional one that is running on the X27/37/28/38 and a majority of the S.I. lines. I'm not sure about the reason with Prevost, but I assume less space=cheaper costs. The bus is still 45ft in length but it has more electrical amenities and a different engine/HVAC system so I guess that was the reasoning. I don't know what MCI does but they clearly emphasize comfort. Another reasons why I wish MTA and VanHool can come to terms. If MTA had a bulk order of CX-45s, mann drivers, maintenance and passengers would absolutely love them. Those are some solid coach buses and they are very comfortable.

I can definitely see them getting Allison Novas. I just hope Nova can come to terms with a better roofline for these new buses. 8755 looked hideous. 135 buses for MTA Bus? Yeah its definitely for Far Rock/JFK. I thought ECH was supposed to get hybrids or electrics?

I know you don't pay attention to specs and stuff, but yes the new Prevost cannot be compared to the older Prevost because its a completely different frame. Yes it might still be the same 45ft base platform, but it has a new frame, different window dimensions, and a smaller interior volume to account for newer electric, insulation and newer HVAC compartments. That's the main issue, the interior length is slightly smaller and they still wanted to keep the same 57 seat capacity. Apparently also the ADA door area is built differently to accommodate wheelchairs better so that spacing has been increased to accommodate bigger motor wheelchairs. So you know how x amount of rows need to be pushed back so wheelchairs can fit? They made that space wider, which means the all the fixed rows had their legroom decreased. The only thing is all the rows don't have the same amount of legroom, so I'm curious as to how they decided to space them out. The right side of the bus has more legroom overall because the 13 paired seats has more length to be divided along the span due to the boarding steps taking up less space compared to the drivers side taking up more space on the left side of the bus. The left side 13 rows have the worse legroom because of the drivers area.

Thanks, I was loosing track for a minute. So 9001-9012, 9017-9080, 9083-9092, 9097-9102, 9105-9110, 9113-9118, 9123-9124, 9133-9136, 9139-9142 (116 cars) are all in service. 9013-9016, 9081-9082, 9093-9096. 9103-9104, 9111-9112, 9119-9122, 9125-9132, 9137-9138, and 9143-9148 (32 cars) are still testing. 9149-9202 (54 cars) are still pending delivery.

I wonder why they stopped installing screens on the buses...seems like we're all looking for buses that got it months/years ago that were never mentioned. All buses 2011 and newer were supposed to get the screens installed. Then it was supposed to be all buses in the new blue and yellow scheme...now you have the all the 2015-2017 XD60s without screens, and half of the new LFSAs without screens. I was really expecting those to be priority, especially since most of them are used on SBS routes.

Man I rode a College Point C40LF today, 619. When I tell you those buses are SOLID....they are SOLID!! Yoo those buses are by FAR the best built and highest quality fleet of buses in the MTA fleet. 10 years old?? Feel like they're just hitting their 1 year mark I haven't been on one in a few years, but after just riding the Q44 right before it was like night and day. I really wish the Xcelsiors were built like that...it's actually insane the difference. Idk if frame has to be built different to support the CNG tank but my goodness. I was really really impressed. I wonder if the JG buses are holding up the same.

Happy to note I got my last ride on 6700 on Nov 29th on the M55. First time riding that type of bus since 2016. Felt very nostalgic. Cloth seats and the TAPE stop request omg I forgot those used to be a thing. Last time I been on a bus with those features were the RTS in 2018.

That's what I've always wanted to ask but always forgot to ask... How do they decide what buses stay at Quill until the PM rush hour? Does it even happen nowadays? I remember that being a thing pre-pandemic, but I haven't followed up post-lockdowns. If it still occurs, is it based on the specific run? It is operator preference to decide to leave the bus there? Do you have to request every morning? How do you get back to the island from the city if you leave the bus at Quill? How do you get into the city to start PM work? Do you need to stay in Manhattan during your swing?

Thanks for confirming. That's exactly why. Are you really comparing governed MTA local to the express buses? Cmon man, explore the outside world. It's not maybe...they are. And on top of that they have their acceleration modified for fuel efficiency. You can easily take an Xcelsior and turn it into a rocket, and they are much lighter than express buses. So speed is definitely not an issue, especially with 2021 technology. Stop looking at the past, the MTA had to use the equipment that they had to provide the service at the time, so just because they used their local buses at the time on the express routes doesn't justify what a local bus can do on an express route today. I never said comfort is not a factor, comfort was one of the main things I was emphasizing. You're not reading what I'm saying you're just skimming over. Marketing is marketing, you don't necessarily need a whole different type of bus to do that. There was talks about having a green express bus scheme. If the express buses used premium local buses then that would've been a way to make it stand out. The MTA in regard to maintenance costs savings is primarily focused on streamlining the fleet with the same model to cut costs. So you best believe if artic buses of the same local bus model were able to be efficiently used on express routes, the MTA would been did the switch over a few years ago.

I completely understand that, granted I bet express service would not be $6.75 had non-coach buses been used, more like $5.75 or $6. But obviously coach buses are staying because of their size (high floor capability allows for more seating throughout a shorter length), and their ability to perform well in the winter months. Just don't act like you NEED a coach bus for "premium service". Any heavy duty transit bus can do the job, and can be built to premium/business/first class specs. If you want the model to look different for emotional reassurance that you're getting your money's worth...then sure go for it, but its about the quality of service, the comfort, and reliability. I'd have no problem waiting for a express bus Nova LFSA SIM1 and seeing the local bus Nova LFS S79 SBS stop right before my bus. I know I'm getting a one seat ride, with a non-stop segment along the route, premium interior amenities, and more civilized riders (although express riders nowadays seem more entitled than ever, with zero respect for others on board). But all of those are what I'm paying for. At the end of the day, I'd rather new over old anything. You said the regular trains in Italy were old and it was because you were paying less...but there's old run down express buses running and we still pay premium, and there's brand new local buses and they pay less. For you...it was just the timing, the premium service was most likely just upgraded before you arrived, and the regular trains haven't been replaced with newer ones yet...but age of the vehicle has nothing to do with level of service. That EuroStar costs is all about how fast the trip is, along with the comfort within the train, That's all, that's it. Marketing is marketing, but budgets and cost constraints are just as essential, and if keeping the same model for cost savings will do, then they will do just that.

How is it the same exact service? The bus has to look different for it to be different service? Local buses do NOT have...big cushioned reclining seats, overhead reading lights, personal air control, tinted windows (its funny...that all express buses have over the local buses...they both have WIFI, charging, and information screens). Express buses have horrible ADA access, so that's not really premium service for ADA users. The whole reason why express service is $6.75 is due to the route structure taking you from an outer borough into the city on a one seat ride. That's really what you're paying for. It has nothing to do with the type of bus. That's why when they use express coach buses on the local routes in Staten Island the cost is $2.75. That's why when BP used that Orion VII OG on the express that day the cost was $6.75. It has nothing to do with the bus. You think people enjoy climbing up those steps and walking down with narrow space to board and exit the bus? Imagine taking the express bus with bags? Cant even use the undercarriage portion. But that's premium service because its a coach bus... Have you seen how some transit agencies spec'd non-coach buses for "premium service"? Just because its not a coach doesn't mean its not premium.