BUS - Random Thoughts Thread

[Future ENY OP]

25 minutes ago, Cait Sith said:

Well, 1307 is OOS.

For those that know the area by Linden Place and the Whitestone Expressway, the op tried to fit the bus on that u-turn lane underneath the expressway(which is incredibly narrow for buses to begin with) and well....let's just say that didn't end well.

What a good way to end the year a few days off the street for that damage. SMH. 

[NBTA]

So two entire limited lines are suspended right now due to shortages (Q25/65).

[BM5 via Woodhaven]

42 minutes ago, NBTA said:

So two entire limited lines are suspended right now due to shortages (Q25/65).

When the Q25 & Q65 LIMITED are not running at all this week, it's because of the holiday schedule, not due to shortages. There's a bunch of other routes which are running local service only this week too. This has been the case pre-covid as well. 

In any case, there's Q25 and Q65 LIMITED buses in service right now. 

Edited December 28, 2021 by BM5 via Woodhaven

[lornaevo]

22 minutes ago, BM5 via Woodhaven said:

The Q25 & Q65 LIMITED are not running at all because of the holiday schedule, not due to shortages. There's a bunch of other routes which are running local service only this week too. This has been the case pre-covid as well. 

In any case, there's Q25 and Q65 LIMITED buses in service now. 

Honestly. Nothing was posted at the depot about lack of Limited service. So operators are following their runs. 

[Lex]

4 hours ago, Cait Sith said:

Well, 1307 is OOS.

For those that know the area by Linden Place and the Whitestone Expressway, the op tried to fit the bus on that u-turn lane underneath the expressway(which is incredibly narrow for buses to begin with) and well....let's just say that didn't end well.

You'll have to excuse me for this...

Edited December 28, 2021 by Lex

[biGC323232]

4 hours ago, Cait Sith said:

There's damage.

That's all you need to know.

Is the Driver ok...

[JAzumah]

4 hours ago, lornaevo said:

And there’s a sign posted not to go there. 

And has been there since the Queens Surface days...

[Lex]

15 minutes ago, JAzumah said:

And has been there since the Queens Surface days...

This really leaves me to wonder what the plan for turning that QT86 was.

[BM5 via Woodhaven]

1 hour ago, Lex said:

You'll have to excuse me for this...

For a second I thought it was gonna be the Price Is Right losing horn, but this fits as well. 

Edited December 29, 2021 by BM5 via Woodhaven

[MHV9218]

8 hours ago, Cait Sith said:

Well, 1307 is OOS.

For those that know the area by Linden Place and the Whitestone Expressway, the op tried to fit the bus on that u-turn lane underneath the expressway(which is incredibly narrow for buses to begin with) and well....let's just say that didn't end well.

Somewhere somebody at 2 Broadway is yelling "preventable!" Damn though. Reminds me of the risk the TA runs these days with the hybrids through the Transverse. Yeah, you can clear 11' or so by sticking to the yellow lines, but still wonder, if a bus ever had to swerve to the edge and nicked into the tighter clearance? Risky business. That ship has sailed obviously but I never quite got why they decided to throw caution to the window once the RTSes were out.

[checkmatechamp13]

7 hours ago, BM5 via Woodhaven said:

When the Q25 & Q65 LIMITED are not running at all this week, it's because of the holiday schedule, not due to shortages. There's a bunch of other routes which are running local service only this week too. This has been the case pre-covid as well. 

In any case, there's Q25 and Q65 LIMITED buses in service right now. 

On a side note, that would be one of the perks of the Queens redesign: A lot of routes would become limited-stop by default, so on reduced weekday service days, they would just run at a lower frequency, rather than limited-stop service being eliminated entirely (of course whether the proposed frequencies are adequate is a different story)

[R10 2952]

2 hours ago, MHV9218 said:

Somewhere somebody at 2 Broadway is yelling "preventable!" Damn though. Reminds me of the risk the TA runs these days with the hybrids through the Transverse. Yeah, you can clear 11' or so by sticking to the yellow lines, but still wonder, if a bus ever had to swerve to the edge and nicked into the tighter clearance? Risky business. That ship has sailed obviously but I never quite got why they decided to throw caution to the window once the RTSes were out.

Between the clearance issues on the newer buses, and the seating issues on the express buses, somebody at MTA HQ really needs to take a second look at the specs.  Seems like their last few orders have been a tad counterproductive, to say the least.

Next thing they'll be ordering Gilligs.  Or even Blue Birds lmao...

[BM5 via Woodhaven]

I was looking at some old bus maps through the Brooklyn Public Library's Public Transit Map Collection (which BTW, has quite a few gems), and I glanced over at the September 1995 Brooklyn Bus Map. Interesting to seem some old service patterns there (like the B41 to DUMBO), but what caught my eye was actually on the Queens side of things, particularly the Q11 route.

There's the two branches to Old Howard Beach and Hamilton Beach, but it also apparently had two part time branches. One went to 157th Ave/Cross Bay Boulevard in Lindenwood (basically today's Q21), while the other was a northbound only (I'm guessing this may have been an AM rush branch) from 165th Avenue & Cross Bay Boulevard, bypassing most of Lindenwood. Does anyone have any information on when those two branches ran, service levels provided, and when they were discontinued? The wayback machine info doesn't seem to go far enough. 

Edited December 29, 2021 by BM5 via Woodhaven

[Future ENY OP]

8 hours ago, BM5 via Woodhaven said:

I was looking at some old bus maps through the Brooklyn Public Library's Public Transit Map Collection (which BTW, has quite a few gems), and I glanced over at the September 1995 Brooklyn Bus Map. Interesting to seem some old service patterns there (like the B41 to DUMBO), but what caught my eye was actually on the Queens side of things, particularly the Q11 route.

There's the two branches to Old Howard Beach and Hamilton Beach, but it also apparently had two part time branches. One went to 157th Ave/Cross Bay Boulevard in Lindenwood (basically today's Q21), while the other was a northbound only (I'm guessing this may have been an AM rush branch) from 165th Avenue & Cross Bay Boulevard, bypassing most of Lindenwood. Does anyone have any information on when those two branches ran, service levels provided, and when they were discontinued? The wayback machine info doesn't seem to go far enough. 

I’m still wondering why they cut the 41 from Dumbo to Cadman Plaza. Personally, I think present day B41 should end at dumbo-Front Street to provide spacing at Cadman Plaza/Tillary Street. There are just too many lines in the area including the 41 and it’s a connecting point to the ferry to get across the river. 

[NBTA]

8 hours ago, BM5 via Woodhaven said:

I was looking at some old bus maps through the Brooklyn Public Library's Public Transit Map Collection (which BTW, has quite a few gems), and I glanced over at the September 1995 Brooklyn Bus Map. Interesting to seem some old service patterns there (like the B41 to DUMBO), but what caught my eye was actually on the Queens side of things, particularly the Q11 route.

There's the two branches to Old Howard Beach and Hamilton Beach, but it also apparently had two part time branches. One went to 157th Ave/Cross Bay Boulevard in Lindenwood (basically today's Q21), while the other was a northbound only (I'm guessing this may have been an AM rush branch) from 165th Avenue & Cross Bay Boulevard, bypassing most of Lindenwood. Does anyone have any information on when those two branches ran, service levels provided, and when they were discontinued? The wayback machine info doesn't seem to go far enough. 

Honestly don’t know, but I can tell you one thing, that B61 on that map would be extremely useful now.

[SoSpectacular]

1 hour ago, NBTA said:

Honestly don’t know, but I can tell you one thing, that B61 on that map would be extremely useful now.

The only reason the B61 was cut short and split was because of the heavy delays going through Downtown Brooklyn, funny to think that this happened roughly 11 years ago...

[Calvin]

1 hour ago, SoSpectacular said:

The only reason the B61 was cut short and split was because of the heavy delays going through Downtown Brooklyn, funny to think that this happened roughly 11 years ago...

I wonder if that applies to the M5 as well previously to/from South Ferry around Midtown. Or was it b/c of the long distance?

Edited December 29, 2021 by Calvin

[GojiMet86]

11 hours ago, BM5 via Woodhaven said:

I was looking at some old bus maps through the Brooklyn Public Library's Public Transit Map Collection (which BTW, has quite a few gems), and I glanced over at the September 1995 Brooklyn Bus Map. Interesting to seem some old service patterns there (like the B41 to DUMBO), but what caught my eye was actually on the Queens side of things, particularly the Q11 route.

 

Other things to note:

1. The standard Q23 terminal back then was at 71st Avenue and Metropolitan Avenue, with a rush-hour extension to today's terminal at Union Turnpike.

2. The Q67 had a rush hour variation to the Hunters Point Ferry. I bet this is what became that first Q69 shuttle.

3. The 1996 Queens map also looks different from the Brooklyn one. The lines are thinner and each of the private companies is represented by one color each. So all Triboro lines are red, all Green Lines are green, etc. Later maps would be changed to the Brooklyn format, but now each company was represented by a different shape.

[MHV9218]

43 minutes ago, Calvin said:

I wonder if that applies to the M5 as well previously to/from South Ferry around Midtown. Or was it b/c of the long distance?

Don't get me started on that one. Morons at 2 Bway take the perfectly good M1/M6 to SF and M5 to Houston pattern, destroy the M5 by sending it to SF, make the M1 a meaningless dupe of the M3, realize the M5 is way too long, destroy it again by sending it to Midtown (useless), create the M55 to completely duplicate the M6 they got rid of, and extend the M1 again. No part of this makes sense and service is worse in every way than it was pre-2010.

[jaf0519]

17 hours ago, Lex said:

This really leaves me to wonder what the plan for turning that QT86 was.

Well the last stop on the QT86 was not at Linden and Whitestone but Linden and 28th, so maybe it would loop around via Whitestone, Ulmer and 28th, or maybe 28th, Ulmer, 23rd, and then back down Linden. But I wonder what the new plan will have in store now

[BM5 via Woodhaven]

5 hours ago, Future ENY OP said:

I’m still wondering why they cut the 41 from Dumbo to Cadman Plaza. Personally, I think present day B41 should end at dumbo-Front Street to provide spacing at Cadman Plaza/Tillary Street. There are just too many lines in the area including the 41 and it’s a connecting point to the ferry to get across the river. 

It was due to low ridership. The B25 is more than enough in that area nowadays tbh, buses north of Jay Street don't carry like that to begin with. 

Personally, if I were to send any one bus route to DUMBO, it would have been the B67, given that I could potentially see more people from Park Slope and Prospect Heights going to DUMBO, than from areas along Fulton Street. It may not be by much admittedly, but it would be more efficient in terms of service levels and cost. Fulton Street already has the and , which stop at High Street. There's no direct (or close to direct) option from most areas along the B67 route. 

[Cait Sith]

11 hours ago, MHV9218 said:

Don't get me started on that one. Morons at 2 Bway take the perfectly good M1/M6 to SF and M5 to Houston pattern, destroy the M5 by sending it to SF, make the M1 a meaningless dupe of the M3, realize the M5 is way too long, destroy it again by sending it to Midtown (useless), create the M55 to completely duplicate the M6 they got rid of, and extend the M1 again. No part of this makes sense and service is worse in every way than it was pre-2010.

The only good thing(and I use that term loosely) was those random runs Quill had between South Ferry and whatever point they chose to start/terminate. The farthest I saw those trips go were to 42nd. I think that was for some sort of service supplement for the line last I remember.

[Around the Horn]

On 12/29/2021 at 12:42 AM, BM5 via Woodhaven said:

I was looking at some old bus maps through the Brooklyn Public Library's Public Transit Map Collection (which BTW, has quite a few gems), and I glanced over at the September 1995 Brooklyn Bus Map. Interesting to seem some old service patterns there (like the B41 to DUMBO), but what caught my eye was actually on the Queens side of things, particularly the Q11 route.

Boy, I really miss the old maps when it didn't seem like half the map was covered in red and blue

[Mtatransit]

4 hours ago, Around the Horn said:

Boy, I really miss the old maps when it didn't seem like half the map was covered in red and blue

Or when the term SBS and its markings actually had significance.

Now look at Manhattan's Bus Map... today

[MHV9218]

9 hours ago, Cait Sith said:

The only good thing(and I use that term loosely) was those random runs Quill had between South Ferry and whatever point they chose to start/terminate. The farthest I saw those trips go were to 42nd. I think that was for some sort of service supplement for the line last I remember.

Those were hella fun. RTSes, D60s, LFSAs, literally whatever Quill felt like sending out. I used to sit at this place on 6th near Bleecker getting some food watching those roll by. I'm kinda tight I usually got photos with the 'SUBWAY SHUTTLE' reading instead of the really cool stuff. I got a couple M5 RTS shots, LFSA M20, but never got the D60HF M5 photo. I feel like you got a video of that if I'm remembering?