BUS - Random Thoughts Thread

[lornaevo]

Yeah that unacceptable man. As a BO out of CP this makes me angry. I try to never leave people behind. Even if the bus is crowded I service the stop and let the passengers choose to get on or wait. 

[Via Garibaldi 8]

3 hours ago, lornaevo said:

Yeah that unacceptable man. As a BO out of CP this makes me angry. I try to never leave people behind. Even if the bus is crowded I service the stop and let the passengers choose to get on or wait. 

Unfortunately, out of all of the depots, commuters have reported these things happening the most on CP express lines. Drivers putting up NOT IN SERVICE signs while in service and driving by or blocking off several rows of seats. I've had it happen to me pre-COVID on the QM6.

[jaf0519]

2 minutes ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

Unfortunately, out of all of the depots, commuters have reported these things happening the most on CP express lines. Drivers putting up NOT IN SERVICE signs while in service and driving by or blocking off several rows of seats. I've had it happen to me pre-COVID on the QM6.

They are definitely still blocking off seats. Last Wednesday the 12:00 PM QM4 to Manhattan had three rows blocked off. Looked like they had tied a long roll of toilet paper around the armrests to prevent people from sitting.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

40 minutes ago, jaf0519 said:

They are definitely still blocking off seats. Last Wednesday the 12:00 PM QM4 to Manhattan had three rows blocked off. Looked like they had tied a long roll of toilet paper around the armrests to prevent people from sitting.

The only express buses that should have rows blocked off are the new express buses (the newest Prevosts), and those are being sent out with the chains on.  Unclear as to why they have the chains on, but all other express buses had the chains removed months ago in anticipation of offices reopening and higher ridership, and the unions agreed to it too. I am still primarily working from home, but the majority of the express buses I have taken have the rows open, and that is not a coincidence either, as some of the union heads know who I am.

Any sort of instances of "passenger counts" where drivers are denying passengers service when there are still seats available is definitely a form of discrimination and is not looked upon favorably. The only lines I've heard this happening on were College Point lines and lines on Staten Island. Staten Island stopped doing that a while ago (it was happening during the pandemic - won't go into the details here). On occasion, some drivers are putting up NOT IN SERVICE signs and then driving down the whole route not picking up anyone. Someone DMed me recently about this on the SIM10.

Edited May 19, 2022 by Via Garibaldi 8

[QM1to6Ave]

8 hours ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

Crazy... Get bus# next time. Still incidents of nonsense like this going on.

Yup, he blew by so fast i couldn't get the number, and of course he fell off the tracker once he switched the sign so i couldn't use that either

[QM1to6Ave]

6 hours ago, lornaevo said:

Yeah that unacceptable man. As a BO out of CP this makes me angry. I try to never leave people behind. Even if the bus is crowded I service the stop and let the passengers choose to get on or wait. 

Thank you! As a passenger,i appreciate that! Do you normally run locals or express?

[Via Garibaldi 8]

13 minutes ago, QM1to6Ave said:

Yup, he blew by so fast i couldn't get the number, and of course he fell off the tracker once he switched the sign so i couldn't use that either

Ridiculous... If you could get me the approximate time, route and location, they can check via BusTrek. We can't see the bus on BusTime when they put up the "Not In Service" sign, but they can see them on BusTrek. You can DM me.

[lornaevo]

9 hours ago, QM1to6Ave said:

Thank you! As a passenger,i appreciate that! Do you normally run locals or express?

I am usually on locals, but do express on my RDO's. I was on the QM5 today. My bus was packed, I was running late, a customer asked if she could sit in the first seat and of course I told her it's fine. 

[QM1to6Ave]

23 minutes ago, lornaevo said:

I am usually on locals, but do express on my RDO's. I was on the QM5 today. My bus was packed, I was running late, a customer asked if she could sit in the first seat and of course I told her it's fine. 

There were so many missing runs today, I'm not at all surprised that happened! Thanks you for doing the overtime to cover the express runs, it's desperately needed, as you experienced today!

[RSMG106]

On 5/17/2022 at 10:56 PM, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

Quill is pretty decent, though I have not taken a crosstown bus in some months. I was on a M101 bus on Sunday that had sticky floors. That depot is one of the worst. Buses sound terrible and they are filthy. Don't take the local buses often, but when I do, it has been the M101, M102 or M103 lines.

When it comes to OH, that depot needs some serious cleaning on the interiors of the bus. Also maintenance needs to be better. There are two things that I noticed about my trip back home. For one, 6051 no longer has the loud chime when pulling the cord. Someone must've vandalized. And two, the buses interior sides where I sat with the chime, is dirty.

[Calvin]

We're getting close to where Quill has MHV's Novas and MHV with Quill's XDE-40s. However, MHV still has their Nova share but on the count of 64. Quill still has Xcelsiors on range of 43, 7572-7614. 

Edited May 21, 2022 by Calvin

[Via Garibaldi 8]

2 hours ago, RSMG106 said:

When it comes to OH, that depot needs some serious cleaning on the interiors of the bus. Also maintenance needs to be better. There are two things that I noticed about my trip back home. For one, 6051 no longer has the loud chime when pulling the cord. Someone must've vandalized. And two, the buses interior sides where I sat with the chime, is dirty.

Their buses have always been filthy. No cleaning whatsoever. Years ago my uncle worked at the 100th St Depot. Retired a few years ago. He told me the insides of those buses were never cleaned, and thinking about my experiences, I would have to agree. Very little is maintained.

[4 via Mosholu]

On 5/19/2022 at 10:03 AM, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

On occasion, some drivers are putting up NOT IN SERVICE signs and then driving down the whole route not picking up anyone. Someone DMed me recently about this on the SIM10.

That bus driver on the SIM10 cannot be serious. It makes me glad that the dude on the route told you personally.

[Future ENY OP]

NOVA-HEV delays until December 2022 per document : https://new.mta.info/document/87691

[Kingsbridgeviewer382]

1 hour ago, Future ENY OP said:

NOVA-HEV delays until December 2022 per document : https://new.mta.info/document/87691

The buses are still being delivered but the order was originally expected to be completed way before December. The document states that the order deliveries may be completed by then. At least the Nova problems aren't door related this time.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

11 hours ago, 4 via Mosholu said:

That bus driver on the SIM10 cannot be serious. It makes me glad that the dude on the route told you personally.

What actually happened was that a driver noticed what he was doing and said to a passenger "Look at this guy"... Some drivers can figure out what's going on when their bus is suddenly slammed and then a bus pulls up empty. There are a lot of people complaining about long waits and crowded buses on that line morning and night and I have been saying that they need to start some trips further down the line at night to avoid the overcrowding, but when you have stuff like that going on, it doesn't help matters much. I believe he picked up no one and only turned his NOT IN SERVICE sign off as he was about to get on the FDR Drive. There are some other crazy stories that I have encountered or heard that would leave you shaking your head. I just promise not to share certain things.

It's a line that really cannot have too many missing buses and so any delay can cause huge crowds and standing only buses. I would say that very few drivers on Staten Island are doing this, but it is a problem and there are issues with stops being skipped and drivers starting at random points along the line. By the way, this is not new either. It was going on when I lived on the island too. In some cases, yes it could be dispatch, but some of it is drivers doing it. There is just not enough personnel available to keep an eye out on what is going on either, so it's tough.

The other ongoing issue is with the amount of express bus lines on the island, drivers will never know the routes for all of them, so you will have people being bypassed just because of that, but the example above was deliberate so as not to have to pick-up anybody. I can say as a former Staten Islander, I was probably bypassed more with Staten Island express buses than any other express bus line, and that's between being bypassed at a stop and then having drivers skip parts of the route and start further up. 

One of the ones that I still remember was an X12 driver who skipped all of the stops south of 23rd St, took 23rd across to the FDR and then jumped on the FDR. I couldn't believe it. I said this guy is skipping all of the Downtown stops. I actually may have been the last one to get on in Midtown and was the first one off. We get to Slosson and Victory and I say to him you know you skipped all of Downtown? He just looked at me with a blink face. lol

Edited May 21, 2022 by Via Garibaldi 8

[Lil 57]

Just wondering why does the  still use rollsigns to display the run numbers instead of digital displays? Most transit agencies use digital signs to display run numbers however the  only uses those on the newer provost models.

[4 via Mosholu]

18 minutes ago, Lil 57 said:

Just wondering why does the  still use rollsigns to display the run numbers instead of digital displays?

That is the same thing I have always wondered myself; they often go broken on the Nova and New Flyers. In the New Flyer's case also, they replace them with the bigger Helvetica numbers that were supposed to be meant for the manual Helvetica condensed displays. These are mainly used for the Local and Limited bus orders, but I do not know myself why they haven't gone with digital interval number boards for those aforementioned orders.

[paulrivera]

Half the time they'll fill one of the runs, but having a 3 hour gap between buses is completely unacceptable

[Via Garibaldi 8]

16 hours ago, paulrivera said:

Half the time they'll fill one of the runs, but having a 3 hour gap between buses is completely unacceptable

Some of these trips are one trip Southbound, another trip Northbound, even if the cancellations are spread out, so if a driver has a BxM3 piece, then is switched over to the BxM4 to do one trip up and one down, then if there is no driver, then they may not be able to cover any of the trips. Agree that it's unacceptable, but the  isn't even close to closing to meeting the amount of drivers needed.  Many drivers retired, some are out with COVID or other ailments or are required to be out out of precaution, etc., and so it's a constant back and forth right now.  

That said, they are supposedly trying some new communication setup, so sometimes the cancelled trips aren't always accurate. Bunch of people complained the other day that all of these trips were open. Drivers were saying that all of the trips posted were covered because they were the ones doing them, so then I reached out and it was just an error.

I've been complaining about the whole cancellation process. It's a mess and I was told that they were working on a way to improve it going forward. 

Edited May 22, 2022 by Via Garibaldi 8

[NewFlyer 230]

I am a bit curious, are mask still required on MTA buses because I noticed today on my way to work that all the buses that I passed in Jamaica and along Merrick Blvd did not have the “Mask Required” sign flashing. 
I suppose at this point everyone is over the mask wearing thing which I don’t blame them. At work last week we were told we needed to wear mask again and come this week they don’t care anymore. 
A lot of bus operators don’t seem to care anymore either because I catch a lot of them not wearing mask and or partially wearing the mask and most don’t seem to bother telling people to wear a mask anymore. 

[Via Garibaldi 8]

3 hours ago, NewFlyer 230 said:

I am a bit curious, are mask still required on MTA buses because I noticed today on my way to work that all the buses that I passed in Jamaica and along Merrick Blvd did not have the “Mask Required” sign flashing. 
I suppose at this point everyone is over the mask wearing thing which I don’t blame them. At work last week we were told we needed to wear mask again and come this week they don’t care anymore. 
A lot of bus operators don’t seem to care anymore either because I catch a lot of them not wearing mask and or partially wearing the mask and most don’t seem to bother telling people to wear a mask anymore. 

Masks are still required on public transit and the signage is still on every bus I've been on or have seen. Majority of the young people in particular are not wearing them though.

[Kingsbridgeviewer382]

26 minutes ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

Masks are still required on public transit and the signage is still on every bus I've been on or have seen. Majority of the young people in particular are not wearing them though.

Even some of the older people are not wearing them on buses from what I’ve seen when taking the Bx7 or Bx10 as of late. Its pretty much the same all across the board on local buses.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

54 minutes ago, Kingsbridgeviewer382 said:

Even some of the older people are not wearing them on buses from what I’ve seen when taking the Bx7 or Bx10 as of late. Its pretty much the same all across the board on local buses.

I cannot speak about passengers on the Bx7 & Bx10 because I don't use them often, even though they obviously run in my neighborhood.  What I have observed while waiting at the bus stop for my bus is a Bx7 or Bx10 will pull up with the driver maskless and in some cases, all of the passengers are masked.  In fact most of the drivers on those lines don't wear masks, so I guess the riders figure, if the driver is maskless, why should I wear a mask?  

Some lady was complaining about long waits recently on the Bx7.  Likely due to driver shortage, as COVID cases spike.  

[NewFlyer 230]

2 hours ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

Masks are still required on public transit and the signage is still on every bus I've been on or have seen. Majority of the young people in particular are not wearing them though.

I figured they were still required, it was odd passing through Jamaica and virtually every bus I saw besides two NICE buses didn’t have the sign so I thought perhaps I missed something. 
I do tend to see more young people not having mask or wearing them incorrectly but I’ve seen lots of middle aged and elderly without them too. 
At this point they might as well get rid of them on public transportation because if I don’t have to wear them in stores and etc why must I still wear on the bus/train. Almost seems counterintuitive to need them in one public setting but not most others anymore. Now if one wants to continue to wear one that’s fine but for those who don’t at this point I wouldn’t make a fuss about it anymore.