BUS - Random Thoughts Thread

[trainfan22]

The prevost demo bus is on the BXM2, Its is or was on layover right in the open near 34th Street

[B35 via Church]

5 minutes ago, MHV9218 said:

They been doing that for a while, got worse when they switched to SBS. It's because 1) Quill likes to have drivers layover/leave a dispatcher there and 2) nobody's even sure if the Hudson stops are in still operation since the SBS conversion. In theory the last stop is Abingdon, but you never actually get to ride there. The pickups are still normal from the other side of that loop, but not the departure.

So the last dropoff is at 14th/Hudson, but the first pickup is at Abingdon Sq.? That makes no sense..... That difference in distance is quite significant....

[Via Garibaldi 8]

15 hours ago, Deucey said:

There was one day - July 24 I think - where BusTime in the app, site and SMS said s52/42 were ~3 minutes away, but none showed up for an hour. Thought it was a glitch since it was 1pm and I've never seen a ferry-bound S42 before 3pm, but turns out drivers were driving down Westervelt to Richmond Terrace and bypassing Hamilton Av.

No alerts on Twitter of a reroute, nor on any  mobile platform. Whatever it was I had to do I just rescheduled or did it later instead of complaining - ever since @SevenEleven stopped driving by my crib, all the North Shore buses in my hood have been extremely unreliable.

Yeah, there are basically two ways that buses disappear from BusTime in most cases... Driver changes sign to NOT IN SERVICE, or goes off route, which happens more times than you would like to know on Staten Island. The old X16 was notorious for this. One afternoon, several of us waited at the first stop Downtown for over an hour. When a third bus was due, dispatcher came down to us and had us walk over to another stop, and we didn’t pay. A big problem (supposedly) is that the drivers on the island have so many routes to remember, and some of them forget the stops. All I know is I’ve been on several buses where the driver skipped entire segments of the route, either because they didn’t know the stops, or the purposely skipped them. Felt horrible for the people that had to wait having it happen to me so often.

The other chronic problem was buses would show up whenever. I’m the type that gets to the stop early (usually 5-10 minutes), and even with that, I would find myself having to run to the bus. Poor dispatching IMO. They can see all of the buses in real time with BusTrek, even when they go off-route, so you have to wonder what goes on behind the scenes. I have waited at some stops out of curiosity just to see for myself because customers complain about some lines so much. Well one afternoon by 57th and Lex, I waited and chatted with customers. Several irate passengers saying how the same buses were MIA every day. Meanwhile there were at least two or three dispatchers right there looking who claimed they couldn’t do anything. Said Command Center called the shots. That then had me wonder what they were there for if they couldn’t address the problem on the ground. 

Between all of this and the constant driver shortages which have become chronic over the last several years, I don’t know what the future holds for bus riders. I’ve been successful in getting some lines fixed via a ton of advocacy and pressure from elected officials, but some lines are still a big problem. On Staten Island, I work with another advocate who has a dedicated team of dispatchers, and even with that there are still a lot of problems. If she didn’t start that group for SI express buses, there is no question that service on the island would be much worse. On occasion, she gets involved with local buses out there.  It allows me to focus on Brooklyn, Queens and the Bronx more and lend support to Staten Island where needed.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

5 hours ago, NewFlyer 230 said:

The Q64 and QM4/44 all have the same destination “Electchester 164th St” even though the Q64 ends at 71st Ave and 164th street and the QM4/QM44 ends at 164th street and Horace Harding Expressway.

Does the M14A count because now it says “Westside” instead of “West Village Abingdon Square”. However the M14A does not even go to Abingdon Square like it’s suppose to. Drivers tell people to get off as soon as the bus turns off 14th street onto Hudson Street. The last stop is technically W12 street but I am never able to ride the M14A there. However as far as picking up and heading to LES, W12 is the first stop. 

I never had a College Point operators do that to me before, so to see the bus on bus time but “not of service” was surprising to me. If it was day time like 2 in the afternoon fine, most people won’t even know the difference since routes like the Q25 are more frequent (the Q25 gets help from the Q34), but 11:30 at night when buses run every 20 minutes I have a problem. 
 

If this is about them not wanting to get “infected” as B35 suggested then they shouldn’t be working. If they can’t do their job correctly then they need to stay home.  
The MTA is working to make sure their drivers are safe. They have the bus partitions, and the shower curtains, plus they are required to wear a mask even though half of them don’t. I’m sure drivers are allowed to have sanitizer and wipes so how much more do you need to stay safe? 

Yeah well, I can tell you that pre-pandemic, I have had drivers skip parts of the route, some on purpose to avoid picking up people. I have had long discussions with people in the know. Everyone knows the deal about that depot. I’ll leave it at that. @QM1to6Ave was having a bunch of problems being picked up as well until I stepped in and got involved. Drivers were literally changing their sign to NOT IN SERVICE when they saw him, and then drove by the stop. Unreal. You are right though, on the local side, it can be harder to realize since buses are more frequent. It’s very noticeable on the express side though when you have an hour gap between buses or a bus every thirty minutes. When I first started the advocacy group, I wrote up an entire list of issues that I either heard of or experienced as a passenger on an array of express bus lines and sent them to a contact of mine for their review. A lot of the issues have since been addressed, but there are always new ones that pop up.

Edited August 20, 2020 by Via Garibaldi 8

[Via Garibaldi 8]

8 hours ago, checkmatechamp13 said:

It was the 5:39am out of Victory & Jewett which is the 5:20am SIM3 out of Port Richmond (the second bus of the morning)

I said several. I just know that the time of one of them was around 5:30am. In the overall scheme of things, it’s irrelevant for this point. The main point, and the big picture here is passengers being bypassed, morning AND evening by drivers. Inexcusable, when it is clear that there are seats available and the driver is either driving by with a NOT IN SERVICE sign up, or taking another route and bypassing portions of the route. What you don’t know is sometimes people message me in private about issues. If it was for the purpose of notifying someone, I would just go back to the post or the DM. I didn’t handle that one - I let Filippa handle that. 

Edited August 20, 2020 by Via Garibaldi 8

[Q43LTD]

4 hours ago, B35 via Church said:

Start it up... I definitely have a few that I think should be changed....

All right. I will

[NBTA]

On 8/19/2020 at 4:30 PM, BM5 via Woodhaven said:

My favorite "This is Metropolitan Avenue and Toys R-U-S"

Some of the voices at the stops are terrible

 

In Norwood, any Bx28 Bus stop says this:

"The next Bx28 bus to Coop City Air-Heart Louisiana"

Sometimes, I don't get it with these folks.

[Bay Ridge Express]

22 hours ago, QM1to6Ave said:

You should send in a complaint. If it was legit (directed by an SLD or whatever), there will be a record and no one gets in trouble. But sadly I've seen too many BOs playing games in this pandemic

These b/os have been playing lots of "games" before the pandemic even started... I can't tell you how many times I had to wait 20+ min for the B8 to get started at 95/4 only for it to not pick up passengers and then see it on BT 'in service' at 92/Ft Hamilton...

[QM1to6Ave]

39 minutes ago, NBTA said:

In Norwood, any Bx28 Bus stop says this:

"The next Bx28 bus to Coop City Air-Heart Louisiana"

Sometimes, I don't get it with these folks.

I remember when the automated announcements first came to QV buses, I saw B/O's jotting down notes in notebooks regarding issues with the annoucements, presmably because supervisors asked them to. Doesn't seem like those notes were ever used to fix things. It's frankly embarrassing if a tourist or out-of-town visitor gets on the buses and hears such stupid, careless mistakes. 

[B61In2002]

How much of a hassle would it be to get a SB buslane on Rockaway Parkway between Glenwood and Flatlands?

[Future ENY OP]

2 minutes ago, B61In2002 said:

How much of a hassle would it be to get a SB buslane on Rockaway Parkway between Glenwood and Flatlands?

That would mean giving it the 14th street treatment.. Buses, trucks, deliveries only. 6AM to 7PM (if that's even possible).

[NewFlyer 230]

8 hours ago, B35 via Church said:

So the last dropoff is at 14th/Hudson, but the first pickup is at Abingdon Sq.? That makes no sense..... That difference in distance is quite significant....

Yup that’s what they have been doing especially since the route became a select route. 

The M14D is suppose to go up 11th Ave to 18th street but, I see buses go up 10th Ave skipping the two stops on 11th Ave. They are doing lots of construction over there so I think that’s why it doesn’t run over there. The last/first stop on West 18th and 10th Ave has the temporary bus stop construction sign.

[paulrivera]

On 8/20/2020 at 12:10 AM, NewFlyer 230 said:

I don’t know exactly what happened to the Q25 tonight but I was waiting at Kissena Blvd & Main Street in front of the library for almost 20 minutes. On bus time it showed a Q25 was coming as scheduled. However the thing is that when the bus actually showed up it had no Q25 display showing at all and the bus just flashed “Mask Required” and then the sign would go blank. The bus ends up skipping our stop (nobody was on the bus) and the timer on bus time restarted to 21 minutes till the next bus. However on bus time it showed that the bus was in service and it just left us all infuriated because 20 minutes is a long time to wait for another bus. I know sometimes operators are told to skip ahead on a route if running super late but come on its night time and buses don’t run that frequently as it is. Plus the Q25 bus before that passed on time so I don’t know why that bus would skip us like that while still appearing to be in service. 

The B/O's from College Point appear to have a common theme of running their buses and not picking anybody up.

College Point Depot operations need to be investigated asap. It seems like most of the problems people are having with buses bypassing them are concentrated really heavily on this one depot.

[WorkerX]

On 8/19/2020 at 6:38 PM, Melbx15 said:

LMFAOO it’s the “can I get a ride ” for me because this is definitely the truth. 

There will be no change for a sizeable percentage of riders in my area. 

[Calvin]

Interesting to see that on the Bx12 to Inwood-207 St and Sedgwick Av: there was a Nova LFSA 1228 with LFS 8677 and a LFSA Smartbus 5554 all at the same time arriving at Pelham Pkwy/White Plains Rd. 8388 was on the opposite direction to Orchard Beach. 

[Iron Valiant]

18 minutes ago, Calvin said:

Interesting to see that on the Bx12 to Inwood-207 St and Sedgwick Av: there was a Nova LFSA 1228 with LFS 8677 and a LFSA Smartbus 5554 all at the same time arriving at Pelham Pkwy/White Plains Rd. 8388 was on the opposite direction to Orchard Beach. 

All on the local?

[Calvin]

4 minutes ago, Snorunts said:

All on the local?

1228 and 8677 were. 5554 was the SBS. 

Edited August 23, 2020 by Calvin

[paulrivera]

3 minutes ago, Snorunts said:

All on the local?

Weekend local service gets seriously beefed up in the summer for the beach folks. Even Kingsbridge helps out on a couple of runs.

[Lawrence St]

Does anyone recall when was the last time the Bx5 ran to Orchard Beach?

[NewFlyer 230]

4 hours ago, Lawrence St said:

Does anyone recall when was the last time the Bx5 ran to Orchard Beach?

2015

[Jdog14]

So this question popped up out of the blue in my head, but what is the reasoning behind MTA ordering CNGs with the ZF transmission? Are the fuel prices for CNG more expensive nowawadays or what ? (considering every diesel has been Allison since 2017)

[Lex]

1 hour ago, Jdog14 said:

So this question popped up out of the blue in my head, but what is the reasoning behind MTA ordering CNGs with the ZF transmission? Are the fuel prices for CNG more expensive nowawadays or what ? (considering every diesel has been Allison since 2017)

Huh? If you're talking about just the New Flyer buses, maybe, but that definitely doesn't apply to the Novas (all but 8000-8014 have ZF transmissions).

[SoSpectacular]

4 hours ago, Jdog14 said:

So this question popped up out of the blue in my head, but what is the reasoning behind MTA ordering CNGs with the ZF transmission? Are the fuel prices for CNG more expensive nowawadays or what ? (considering every diesel has been Allison since 2017)

I've no idea what their reasoning is behind that idea, but I'm not a fan of the newer ZFs our XNs have. On the artics, they're marginally better though.

[trainfan22]

Why do some B/O's have all the windows open on their bus on hot and humid days when the A/C works perfectly fine????

 

 

I don't mind this during the spring and fall but all the windows open on a hot summer day? Come on man.

 

To think there's buffs out there that think that every trip you make should be via public transportation riding transit can often be a miserable experience, especially the bus. I wish that I had a car so I could drive to an destination with the A/C blasting but here I am on a stupid ass bus where the A/C is not allowed to work properly.

 

 

A little frustrated and had to vent.

Edited August 24, 2020 by trainfan22

[Lawrence St]

3 minutes ago, trainfan22 said:

Why do some B/O's have all the windows open on their bus on hot and humid days when the A/C works perfectly fine????

 

 

I don't mind this during the spring and fall but all the windows open on a hot summer day? Come on man.

 

To think there's buffs out there that think that every trip you make should be via public transportation riding transit can often be a miserable experience, especially the bus. I wish that I had a car so I could drive to an destination with the A/C blasting but here I am on a stupid ass bus where the A/C is not allowed to work properly.

 

 

A little frustrated and had to vent.

Sometimes its done to vent out the bus.