BUS - Random Thoughts Thread

[Lawrence St]

11 minutes ago, Kingsbridgeviewer382 said:

Mostly local units from random depots (mostly from Hale and Tuskegee).

So...basically an M35?

[Calvin]

Current Select Bus Service has wifi and usb ports installed on each of their units. 

- Automated Bus Lane Enforcement on the M15+

Soon, stops will be having a platform to board on/off the bus at each stop 

https://www.facebook.com/NYCDOT/photos/a.397191602886/10156952360357887/?type=3&theater

Edited November 7, 2019 by Calvin

[Future ENY OP]

44 minutes ago, Calvin said:

Current Select Bus Service has wifi and usb ports installed on each of their units. 

- Automated Bus Lane Enforcement on the M15+

Soon, stops will be having a platform to board on/off the bus at each stop 

https://www.facebook.com/NYCDOT/photos/a.397191602886/10156952360357887/?type=3&theater

I believe the bus lane enforcement expands to Brooklyn- B44+ later this month. Trying to look for press release with regards to this. 

[Orion6025]

Does the mta not run artics at night anymore? I’ve been tracking a bunch of routes for the hell of it and I couldn’t help but notice how every artic route i tracked was 100% 40 footers, even the sbs routes

[S78 via Hylan]

27 minutes ago, Orion6025 said:

Does the mta not run artics at night anymore? I’ve been tracking a bunch of routes for the hell of it and I couldn’t help but notice how every artic route i tracked was 100% 40 footers, even the sbs routes

It’s probably due to a cold weather plan. However, there is one artic on the Q44+.

[Brillant93]

3 hours ago, Orion6025 said:

Does the mta not run artics at night anymore? I’ve been tracking a bunch of routes for the hell of it and I couldn’t help but notice how every artic route i tracked was 100% 40 footers, even the sbs routes

Is it late at night? I’ve noticed some routes do run 40 footers when ridership starts night is very low. 

[NBTA]

1 hour ago, Brillant93 said:

Is it late at night? I’ve noticed some routes do run 40 footers when ridership starts night is very low. 

I'm not going to assume, but as of around.....

July, I've seen lines have 40 Footers when ridership dips at night, in my eyes, it makes sense.

[Around the Horn]

There's a new driver's side wrap for MoMA. Saw it on an Ulmer Park Prevost.

[Future ENY OP]

35 minutes ago, Around the Horn said:

There's a new driver's side wrap for MoMA. Saw it on an Ulmer Park Prevost.

Brooklyn Division has it. FB-FP-JG only. No GA and East New York. 

[Iron Valiant]

6 minutes ago, Future ENY OP said:

Brooklyn Division has it. FB-FP-JG only. No GA and East New York. 

Ulmer Park too?

[Future ENY OP]

4 hours ago, Snorunts said:

Ulmer Park too?

Prevosts only with the wrap. No XD40’s just yet. 

[S78 via Hylan]

5 minutes ago, SevenEleven said:

Extra service was added to the S40 last week; will be expanded next week. Bike racks were added to 5 locals (2 previous buses, 3 new), so those buses are supposed to be for the 53/93. (But we already know, how that's gonna go)

And mileage is up there for the older 8s. Highest I've seen was 165K. If that keeps up, these buses will have way more miles in another 4 years, than the 7000s have right now.

Did they release a schedule to reflect the additional service?

 

On another note, it’s concerning that the 8000s are only a few years old and are already racking up so many miles. I wonder if maintenance on the island has improved.

Edited November 9, 2019 by S78 via Hylan

[XcelsiorBoii4888]

13 hours ago, S78 via Hylan said:

Did they release a schedule to reflect the additional service?

 

On another note, it’s concerning that the 8000s are only a few years old and are already racking up so many miles. I wonder if maintenance on the island has improved.

I'm honestly not surprised by the mileage thing with them 8000s. They literally run all day. 165k / 4yrs = 41250yr / 12mo = 3437 per mo. 3437 per month / 30 days = 114 per day / 24hrs = 4.77 an hour. Let's say a bus is out 16 hours a day...that's about 7 each hour. 

Now...a lot of these miles are deadhead miles. 

Most buses deadhead to the ferry so that's about 4 miles in 15 mins. Keep doing that and you'll get 16 miles in an hour of time total. 

Let's see other ferry routes from their other end terminals. 

The S46 deadhead to the depot is 6 miles in 20 mins. Keep doing that and that's 18 miles in an hours time. 

The S54 is 8 miles in 30 mins. 16 in an hours time. 

Believe it or not but the S53/93 actually have deadheads from Brooklyn. So that's about 7.5 in 25mins which puts about 15 miles in an hours time. 

The S76 is another. 7 miles in 30 mins. 14 in an hours time. 

So when you factor these miles with the average miles for a bus that's out about 16 hrs a day...that's way over 7 miles each hour. 

Also, for some reason Castleton prioritized running only 8000s on the weekends when the 8000s first came out, so the 7000s been catching a break for the most part on weekends. Now it's more common. 

Maintenance has also been doing pretty well too imo. Buses only in the shop for routine maintenance for the most part which is about a day. 

Edit: lets also not forget depots help all routes around the island. There has been times Castleton buses had to deadhead from Bricktown Mall. That's 11 miles in 30mins. About 22 miles in an hours time. 

Charleston is a depot who's mileage I really question...then again that probably explains why they have so many buses not every bus needs to be used at every moment of the day. Weekends, 70% of the fleet is resting, Charleston is only at capacity during school rush hour. 

Edited November 9, 2019 by XcelsiorBoii4888

[Future ENY OP]

7 minutes ago, XcelsiorBoii4888 said:

I'm honestly not surprised by the mileage thing with them 8000s. They literally run all day. 165k / 4yrs = 41250yr / 12mo = 3437 per mo. 3437 per month / 30 days = 114 per day / 24hrs = 4.77 an hour. Let's say a bus is out 16 hours a day...that's about 7 each hour. 

Now...a lot of these miles are deadhead miles. 

Most buses deadhead to the ferry so that's about 4 miles in 15 mins. Keep doing that and you'll get 16 miles in an hour of time total. 

Let's see other ferry routes from their other end terminals. 

The S46 deadhead to the depot is 6 miles in 20 mins. Keep doing that and that's 18 miles in an hours time. 

The S54 is 8 miles in 30 mins. 16 in an hours time. 

Believe it or not but the S53/93 actually have deadheads from Brooklyn. So that's about 7.5 in 25mins which puts about 15 miles in an hours time. 

The S76 is another. 7 miles in 30 mins. 14 in an hours time. 

So when you factor these miles with the average miles for a bus that's out about 16 hrs a day...that's way over 7 miles each hour. 

Also, for some reason Castleton prioritized running only 8000s on the weekends when the 8000s first came out, so the 7000s been catching a break for the most part on weekends. Now it's more common. 

Maintenance has also been doing pretty well too imo. Buses only in the shop for routine maintenance for the most part which is about a day. 

 

Charleston is a depot who's mileage I really question...then again that probably explains why they have so many buses not every bus needs to be used at every moment of the day. Weekends, 70% of the fleet is resting, Charleston is only at capacity during school rush hour. 

I’m a bit surprised that Castleton isn’t getting buses from Charleston. However, you gotta look at The Bronx and Queens. Some of their routes don’t carry heavy mileage so if swaps were to occur let it be from there versus Charleston.  

Again, I could be wrong but expect more moves from Gun Hill and Jamaica to Staten Island. 

[Cait Sith]

5 hours ago, XcelsiorBoii4888 said:

Charleston is a depot who's mileage I really question...then again that probably explains why they have so many buses not every bus needs to be used at every moment of the day. Weekends, 70% of the fleet is resting, Charleston is only at capacity during school rush hour. 

When the majority of their local buses are on the S74/S78, you can safely assume that their buses are up there in mileage as well.

[Iron Valiant]

Forgive me if I sound stupid, but what is “mileage purposes?”

[BM5 via Woodhaven]

12 minutes ago, Snorunts said:

Forgive me if I sound stupid, but what is “mileage purposes?”

Most of the time, it has to do with balancing out the mileage of fleets. Certain areas are more demanding than others, which decreases the lifetime of a bus. Buses are switched around in order to prevent having retire them earlier. This in turn, allows for larger bus order to be done at the same time, instead of having many small orders and doing the necessary training and evaluations piece by piece.

[XcelsiorBoii4888]

3 hours ago, Cait Sith said:

When the majority of their local buses are on the S74/S78, you can safely assume that their buses are up there in mileage as well.

Exactly those buses travel across the borough on a regular. So if Castletons buses are hitting 165k I wouldn't be surprised if Charleston is higher. But since weekends most of the fleet is resting, I feel that it kinda balances out especially since they have a lot of extra buses that don't need to be used outside of weekday rush hours. 

[Calvin]

On some routes like the B15 and Q35, were the overnight headways an hour? or that it changed b/c of improved ridership

Edited November 10, 2019 by Calvin

[SevenEleven]

On 11/8/2019 at 8:27 PM, S78 via Hylan said:

Did they release a schedule to reflect the additional service?

 

On another note, it’s concerning that the 8000s are only a few years old and are already racking up so many miles. I wonder if maintenance on the island has improved.

No, it's all extra service. It won't be published. 

12 hours ago, XcelsiorBoii4888 said:

I'm honestly not surprised by the mileage thing with them 8000s. They literally run all day. 165k / 4yrs = 41250yr / 12mo = 3437 per mo. 3437 per month / 30 days = 114 per day / 24hrs = 4.77 an hour. Let's say a bus is out 16 hours a day...that's about 7 each hour. 

Good maths. The new Novas are between 11-15K for 4 months of service. 

[NewFlyer 230]

23 hours ago, SevenEleven said:

No, it's all extra service. It won't be published. 

Good maths. The new Novas are between 11-15K for 4 months of service. 

So would that mean that at some point in time the LFS’s in SI will be swapped out for LFS’s from other boroughs?

[Lil 57]

2532, a prevost, is doing a run on the S59.

[Future ENY OP]

45 minutes ago, Lil 57 said:

2532, a prevost, is doing a run on the S59.

You might see a few of those running on the local routes until later this afternoon. 5th Avenue is closed due to the parade and plus I believe today is a regular weekday schedule. 

[NBTA]

6243 is on the Q10 currently, gonna get a few pics and a video.

[DetSMART45]

With all of the tales that some of you could tell about your buses (roach infestations, customer destruction, busted seats), here's one to think about:

Friday night about 1:15 am, brand new bus picks me up 1 mile from south route terminal, on the 13-mile route journey. About 2 miles further, smell of diesel becomes stronger inside the bus. Only one other customer aboard, he gets off at mile 5. Operator shuts off the HVAC (Gillig sealed-windows "BRT" bus), so no air/heat circulation -- smell gets stronger. Bus operator stops at a light at midpoint of route and walks bus to check, says it's "hot diesel fumes", then said she noticed it starting about 1 hour before while halfway through her last run. Calls dispatch and tells them, I stood up by front door, and we got some sort of "fresh air" from her side window open as well as the nice breeze coming from under/sides of the front door. We get to the north terminal where I get off, tell her that they'll probably just tell her to do her last run and come back to the depot (since it's now 1:45, and she'd be back at the depot by 3:00) -- because it's that late.

Caught her doing her Saturday runs on another route, she said they actually brought out another bus and mechanic was sorta surprised until he walked to the back of the bus (really strong fumes there). Mechanic actually told her she should call off Saturday just because of the possibility of some sort of carbon monoxide poisoning.

Bus was under 2 weeks in service, and had relatively few revenue miles -- the majority of the vehicle's miles came from the cross-country trek from San Francisco to Detroit.