Long Island Bus cut from MTA Budget, future looks very grim

[Joel Up Front]

I'm surprised there's still a Long Island section on the MTA schedules.... there's an accident involving a bus and a FedEx truck on the corner of Fulton Avenue and Franklin Street (on the westbound side), where the N6/15/31/32 all turn, as the terminal is only a block away. The FedEx truck hit the back of the Orion V (bus #165x, I think 1650 or 1656), causing fluids to leak out all over the street right by the 15/32 stop. It shut all of one of the two lanes down and traffic coming from Fulton on the other side had to wait and merge into the other lane IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ****ING INTERSECTION. This caused backups all along the route - all these late N6s kept pouring in and taking on only 9-13 people at a time.

 

When I got off the N15 from Roosevelt Field Mall, I had to wait 20 minutes for an N32. This one Asian operator (a rarity) on the N31 came by and took on everyone that was waiting, but the operator of the Orion VII already parked in the bay for the N32 was having a smoke while on layover... when he came out 80% finished with his cancer stick, he said there was yet ANOTHER N32 inbound, an old cummins Orion V. I got on that one (who claimed he had no idea why he was on an N32 run) and was held up three times - once for that accident, another for an Atlantic Terminal-bound LIRR train by Malverne station, and a third because a dumptruck with some 20' long trailer in tow was somehow parked so that it was half on the sidewalk, and half blocking the lane on Hempstead Avenue by the Franklin Avenue intersection. I was standing and was caught off guard, so my knee ended up bending and taking the brute force of the bus making that sudden stop.

 

Now I'm looking at the LIRR section of the status table and every branch has delays because a rail is busted in the East River Tunnels, causing every other branch to FUBAR in terms of train volume....

[East New York]

I'm surprised there's still a Long Island section on the MTA schedules....

 

Why wouldn't it be?

[Hound]

I highly doubt beach goers would want to take 2 LIB's to get to JB... pax coming from NYC definitely aint doin that... lol...

If you want my opinion... those people you speak of, are either catching a ride out to JB, or abandoning going there altogether.... Overall, ridership to JB is gonna take a hit anyway - we'll see this unfold, come summer 2011.... I'm not saying it won't see crowds, I'm saying they won't be as fierce/(as) abundant....

 

The transfer situation, the freeport-JB route is no different than any other LIB... you don't get the xfer...

 

 

As for your second concern.... lol... with those stats, you just showed how the MTA contradicts itself... My personal feeling is, they really wanted to get rid of both routes... when enough opposition came about, they spared the freeport route, but cut service to the theater & w/e service there was after 8pm (how often it ran after 8pm, I don't remember)....

 

Why they cut the most cost-efficient portion... the way I see it, they're setting up to get rid of the route altogether... they're gonna say that ridership is drastically declining, which'll give them enough justification to get rid of it... which is what they're doing w/ a couple other routes (like the B64)....

 

 

here's something else.... looking at the timetable itself on the freeport route:

 

You aint gonna see much people on those last 3 runs to JB... (the 7:35 makes no sense at all, seeming how it's a 10-15 min ride to JB)... and I really don't think people are gonna be on those last 2 runs out of JB like that either.... full knowing the bus no longer run as late as it used to, beach goers taking the bus are gonna get antsy... meaning, they're gonna make sure & certain they take earlier buses so they aint stuck out there....

 

What made you think you dont get a transfer to & from the N88? Youre right about being no different from other routes. You DO get a transfer, just like any other LIB route.

[Joel Up Front]

I think that two hour rule still applies.