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And the Trekkie Award goes to ... Manhattan's M4 bus for logging the longest time to


Harry

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And the loser is ... the M4 bus.

 

The midtown-to-upper Manhattan route was dishonored Thursday with the "Trekkie Award," presented to the city bus route with the longest running time.

 

The watchdog NYPIRG Straphangers Campaign, which annually lampoons the worst city bus routes, noted the M4 takes 1 hour and 50 minutes to travel from Penn Station to Fort Tryon Park.

 

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2009/11/05/2009-11-05_and_the_trekkie_award_goes_to__.html#ixzz0W2VRPdKS

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Most of the "express" buses do no better either. The QM16/17 is usually 10-15 minutes behind schedule by its last stop in Manhattan, then it takes forever on the Queens Midtown Expressway, and usually gets to Beach 79th St (for the QM17) in the Rockaways in about 1 hour and 15-20 minutes.

 

Staten Island's express buses also take up to 2 hours to get from Midtown Manhattan to Eltingville, so I am told.

 

The crosstown buses are an absolute joke and is only taken by elderly, retired persons with nothing better to do all day. If you are trying to get somewhere across town, just get in the subway and use the (7), (L) or 42nd St shuttle to get from one side of Manhattan to another.

 

I believe the M23 was the winner last year, and it is still one of the slowest buses around. The fact that the M42 managed to beat out such "competition" suggest there must be something very bad about it.

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Most of the "express" buses do no better either. The QM16/17 is usually 10-15 minutes behind schedule by its last stop in Manhattan, then it takes forever on the Queens Midtown Expressway, and usually gets to Beach 79th St (for the QM17) in the Rockaways in about 1 hour and 15-20 minutes.

 

Staten Island's express buses also take up to 2 hours to get from Midtown Manhattan to Eltingville, so I am told.

 

The crosstown buses are an absolute joke and is only taken by elderly, retired persons with nothing better to do all day. If you are trying to get somewhere across town, just get in the subway and use the (7), (L) or 42nd St shuttle to get from one side of Manhattan to another.

 

I believe the M23 was the winner last year, and it is still one of the slowest buses around. The fact that the M42 managed to beat out such "competition" suggest there must be something very bad about it.

LMAO that is sooo true.All you see on the crosstowns is elderly,which ironically they move as slow as the buses,so they are better off walking and save them some recession money.
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Staten Island's express buses also take up to 2 hours to get from Midtown Manhattan to Eltingville, so I am told.

 

I took the X1 end-to-end from Midtown to Eltingville and we were ahead by about five minutes. Of course though, it was 7:00 in the morning on a Saturday.

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I agree w/ the notion that the M4 has the longest runtime out of all the local routes.... just for it to travel across 110th st (central park north) can take 15 minutes alone... broadway, north of 110th, forget about it... that's another 40 mins. right there (although I've been on an M4 that took an hour to get from 110th/5th to Ft. Tryon park... which is about what, 4 miles....

*smdh*

 

 

 

Most of the "express" buses do no better either. The QM16/17 is usually 10-15 minutes behind schedule by its last stop in Manhattan, then it takes forever on the Queens Midtown Expressway, and usually gets to Beach 79th St (for the QM17) in the Rockaways in about 1 hour and 15-20 minutes.

 

Staten Island's express buses also take up to 2 hours to get from Midtown Manhattan to Eltingville, so I am told.

 

The crosstown buses are an absolute joke and is only taken by elderly, retired persons with nothing better to do all day. If you are trying to get somewhere across town, just get in the subway and use the (7), (L) or 42nd St shuttle to get from one side of Manhattan to another.

 

I believe the M23 was the winner last year, and it is still one of the slowest buses around. The fact that the M42 managed to beat out such "competition" suggest there must be something very bad about it.

 

I take the QM16 about once a week... the run I take is never that late (~15 mins)... b/c if I catch the 16 @ 6:45pm over at 38th st (which is the last qm16 run of the day), I get to B. 147th just short of 8pm... sometimes that bus comes around 6:40... If it's 6:55, I know that bus isn't gonna show... so I proceed to take the qm15, which runs a little later...

 

SI's expresses... if you ride the x1 & the x17c to/from it's respective terminals (i.e.: "end-to-end"), I can see where it can be almost 2 hrs.... but I'd say most other SI express runs take about an hour & a half.... which is nothin to rave about, but.....

 

I don't think there's nothing that can be done to enhance the runtimes of manhattan's crosstown buses.... not even "SBS".... for the people that take them on a daily basis, more power to them.....

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Most of the "express" buses do no better either. The QM16/17 is usually 10-15 minutes behind schedule by its last stop in Manhattan, then it takes forever on the Queens Midtown Expressway, and usually gets to Beach 79th St (for the QM17) in the Rockaways in about 1 hour and 15-20 minutes.

 

Staten Island's express buses also take up to 2 hours to get from Midtown Manhattan to Eltingville, so I am told.

 

The crosstown buses are an absolute joke and is only taken by elderly, retired persons with nothing better to do all day. If you are trying to get somewhere across town, just get in the subway and use the (7), (L) or 42nd St shuttle to get from one side of Manhattan to another.

 

I believe the M23 was the winner last year, and it is still one of the slowest buses around. The fact that the M42 managed to beat out such "competition" suggest there must be something very bad about it.

 

Before Bloomberg's Broadway closure plan went into place, the M42 was a great ride with less traffic Between Grand Central & Times Square. Now its a nightmare for anyone and everyone who needs to use 42nd Street.

 

The best Crosstown Route in my opinion would have to be the M14A/D lines. The M14A runs pretty smooth and close to schedule, especially at night where all the bars & clubs are open. The M14D runs a few minutes faster than the A and times and vice-versa.

 

Though in my opinion, they should stop bashing the Crosstown routes. They always exclude the reasons as to why Crosstown Routes have problems.

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I agree w/ the notion that the M4 has the longest runtime out of all the local routes.... just for it to travel across 110th st (central park north) can take 15 minutes alone... broadway, north of 110th, forget about it... that's another 40 mins. right there (although I've been on an M4 that took an hour to get from 110th/5th to Ft. Tryon park... which is about what, 4 miles....

*smdh*

 

 

 

 

 

I take the QM16 about once a week... the run I take is never that late (~15 mins)... b/c if I catch the 16 @ 6:45pm over at 38th st (which is the last qm16 run of the day), I get to B. 147th just short of 8pm... sometimes that bus comes around 6:40... If it's 6:55, I know that bus isn't gonna show... so I proceed to take the qm15, which runs a little later...

 

SI's expresses... if you ride the x1 & the x17c to/from it's respective terminals (i.e.: "end-to-end"), I can see where it can be almost 2 hrs.... but I'd say most other SI express runs take about an hour & a half.... which is nothin to rave about, but.....

 

I don't think there's nothing that can be done to enhance the runtimes of manhattan's crosstown buses.... not even "SBS".... for the people that take them on a daily basis, more power to them.....

 

 

I've only had two bad experiences on express buses. One was when I took the X29 and it stopped at every light on Coney Island Avenue. Things got so bad that I was going to get off and take the (Q). The other was when the X63 got stuck in the HOV lane for a half hour because there was a stalled bus. 95% of the time the express bus is fast and reliable. The X17 isn't that bad. The traffic on the Gowanus isn't as bad as people think.

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I've only had two bad experiences on express buses. One was when I took the X29 and it stopped at every light on Coney Island Avenue. Things got so bad that I was going to get off and take the (Q). The other was when the X63 got stuck in the HOV lane for a half hour because there was a stalled bus. 95% of the time the express bus is fast and reliable. The X17 isn't that bad. The traffic on the Gowanus isn't as bad as people think.

I can't speak on the x63, as I've only ridden it about a handful of times.....

 

The x29 isn't as horrendous as you continually make it sound.... Although I will agree that it does get caught in traffic lights more often, compared to other express buses throughout the system... but it's not like the bus catches a red at every traffic light, all, or just about all the time... I understand that you had a jacked up experience, but you can't really come to a solidified conclusion off that ONE experience.....

 

Moving on, the 17a nor the 17j is as bad as the 17c... you're grouping them as one route... I am not.

 

Regardless, (IMO anyway), it's not the traffic on the Gowanus that's the problem on the 17c....

Don't you think I would have said the 17a also... matter fact, all the other SI expresses that travel via Brooklyn?

 

What makes the x1 & the x17c slower than most the other SI expresses, on both those routes, it makes just about every stop while in manhattan.... tie in the fact of the traffic along B'way.... heh, god help you if you take either those routes on a saturday evening....

 

does anybody know how long the s74 is? because i thought it was the longest local bus route

 

Un-officially (yes, I have to say that.. as a disclaimer, so to speak)...

 

....by using mapquest, I got the distance of 17.51 miles.... this doesn't include the distance out of the Ferry terminal, and the "loop" in/out of Eltingville transit center...

 

The S78 is longer than the s74, took me an hour to get from St.George to the S89 Stop.

 

granted...

 

...but south & west of eltingville (well, its respective routes west of richmond av), the s74 takes longer than the s78...

 

 

In Brooklyn, it's the B8: 1 hour 38 minutes between Bay Ridge and Brownsville.

 

yeh, sounds about right... b/c it takes me about 1 hour 20 mins. from 95th st/4th to Av D/Brooklyn av...

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I take the QM16 about once a week... the run I take is never that late (~15 mins)... b/c if I catch the 16 @ 6:45pm over at 38th st (which is the last qm16 run of the day), I get to B. 147th just short of 8pm... sometimes that bus comes around 6:40... If it's 6:55, I know that bus isn't gonna show... so I proceed to take the qm15, which runs a little later...

 

If you need to get to Beach 147th St, aren't you better off taking the (5) to Brooklyn College and the Q35 from there?

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If you need to get to Beach 147th St, aren't you better off taking the (5) to Brooklyn College and the Q35 from there?

I work in manhattan & live in brooklyn.

as you know, the QM16 goes no further than B 147th ... that's why I take it there... for the Q35 back to Brooklyn...

 

it's not the most direct commute, but again, I'm in no rush to get home...

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