Jump to content

BUS - Random Thoughts Thread


Recommended Posts

They're all kind of equal. Quill used to be on top, but they've been running their LFSAs into the ground.

I understand what you mean literally last week I went downtown and I saw an Rts in which the whole bottom half of the bus was looking like it may come off at some point it was horrible to see it in that condition.

 

Sent from my SM-G925P using Tapatalk

Link to comment
Share on other sites


  • Replies 38.7k
  • Created
  • Last Reply

I understand what you mean literally last week I went downtown and I saw an Rts in which the whole bottom half of the bus was looking like it may come off at some point it was horrible to see it in that condition.

 

Sent from my SM-G925P using Tapatalk

I would have to disagree on that because I've gone to downtown myself and I see MJQ Rts clean and good maintenance and I also see those Orion 7 with that good maintainance also. But yeah sometimes they might be lacking on the maintenance but mainly Quill is a good depot and it's probably better then MHV maintenance.

 

Sent from my SM-G920T1 using Tapatalk

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Should make bus washing at least a once weekly timing and what are it's maintenance intervials

As long as the weather is above freezing, all buses get washed once the buses pull into the depot every day. It gets fueled, farebox emptied out, other fluids checked and topped off, and goes straight to the wash afterwards. The problem with them is that most if not all depots uses recycled water, and they air dry once they get parked.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As long as the weather is above freezing, all buses get washed once the buses pull into the depot every day. It gets fueled, farebox emptied out, other fluids checked and topped off, and goes straight to the wash afterwards. The problem with them is that most if not all depots uses recycled water, and they air dry once they get parked.

I don't buy that. Some of those buses look wayyy too dirty to get washed every day.  The new ones, I'm sure some of them have yet to be washed.  More like once a month or so. lol

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't buy that. Some of those buses look wayyy too dirty to get washed every day.  The new ones, I'm sure some of them have yet to be washed.  More like once a month or so. lol

 

Nah, they get washed often, believe it or not.

 

Also gotta remember, with the older buses, they've been passed around and used a lot. The dirt and grime wont go away that easily after years of use. The 24/7 cycles don't help matters.

Edited by Cait Sith
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Nah, they get washed often, believe it or not.

 

Also gotta remember, with the older buses, they've been passed around and used a lot. The dirt and grime wont go away that easily after years of use. The 24/7 cycles don't help matters.

That and the air drying technique.  I don't think Yonkers does that.  They actually have B/Os that do "bus duty".  I imagine they must hand dry the buses too because they don't have that dry water build up on the windows.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If you're talking about the N/R shuttles, Brooklyn isn't borrowing buses. Staten Island got the work as well, just like how they got the work for the E/F shuttles in Queens.

 

Right. N/R is Brooklyn and Staten Island Divisions. I've seen some Staten Isl Division buses on the E/F shuttles too.

 

More or less talking about the M shuttle to thick Grand Avenue and Fresh Pond borrowing from Yukon to make service.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

That and the air drying technique. I don't think Yonkers does that. They actually have B/Os that do "bus duty". I imagine they must hand dry the buses too because they don't have that dry water build up on the windows.

Yonkers' cleaning practices carries over from their Liberty Lines days, and it really shows when you compare how well most of their buses are taken care of.

 

Elsewhere, the dry water buildup on the windows makes the buses look dirtier than they really are.

 

But how about the interior of these buses? Outside of Yonkers and maybe Quill and a couple others they definitely don't get a mop/broom/vacuum cleaner on in there every day; it's more like once a week if anything.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yonkers' cleaning practices carries over from their Liberty Lines days, and it really shows when you compare how well most of their buses are taken care of.

 

Elsewhere, the dry water buildup on the windows makes the buses look dirtier than they really are.

 

But how about the interior of these buses? Outside of Yonkers and maybe Quill and a couple others they definitely don't get a mop/broom/vacuum cleaner on in there every day; it's more like once a week if anything.

Yes, that's the other thing.  Yonkers Depot cleans the inside of the buses too AND changes the cushioned seats.  I've seen scratchitti in a few cases and instances where the signage was messed up. Those buses are pulled from service and taken care of ASAP.  Granted this is not a large depot, but they don't have that many buses to pull from service, but they seem to manage.  I think other depots could learn a thing or two about maintenance.  I've been on a few express buses where the shocks didn't feel great, but eventually they address those things too. I would put Yonkers at the top at the moment and Eastchester is a close 2nd, although I can only speak for their express buses, as I have never rode on any of their local lines.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yes, that's the other thing.  Yonkers Depot cleans the inside of the buses too AND changes the cushioned seats.  I've seen scratchitti in a few cases and instances where the signage was messed up. Those buses are pulled from service and taken care of ASAP.  Granted this is not a large depot, but they don't have that many buses to pull from service, but they seem to manage.  I think other depots could learn a thing or two about maintenance.  I've been on a few express buses where the shocks didn't feel great, but eventually they address those things too. I would put Yonkers at the top at the moment and Eastchester is a close 2nd, although I can only speak for their express buses, as I have never rode on any of their local lines.

Well Eastchester is known to repaint the buses. They repainted several bee line buses, 6025, and some RTS even recently.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Last week (August 6th), I rode on 3 of the new Xclesiors, two on the M101, and the other on the M102. I also rode another on the M101 on July 29th. I gotta say they're pretty good buses.

 

Interesting note, I got on a northbound M100 bus the Sunday evening of August 6th with family members on the way home after getting off the M102 in Harlem from a nice resturant on the Upper East Side, and the bus got crowded very quickly. It felt like as if it was rush hour. Seems the routes on 125th Street are used a lot.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

IIRC they're looking into the XD60s (for all the non-Central Avenue routes) and XDE60s (W20 and W21 routes) and will most likely order those. However I'm not sure when they're supposed to arrive.

Just driving by......

 

I know you guys are "conditioned" in NYC to think hybrids are something wonderful, but out here where buses actually get above 40 mph and operators can put foot to the floor and accelerate between stops, the hybrids are the absolute most HATED of the fleet.  Even DDOT's 10 Xcelsior hybrids only get sent out if absolutely necessary--and they're only ~3 years old.  Main reason operators don't like them? Absolutely NO pickup compared to a straight diesel.  Plus in the SMART Gilligs you have the "airplane roar" when braking, especially with any oomph on the pedal.

 

But since you guys are used to 25-30 mph tops, you'd never notice it unless you ventured far from the density of NYC.  Which is why if Bee-Line is thinking of XDE60s (*shudder*) for open-road Westchester service, I pity those operators and customers alike.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Had a hilarious ride on the M101 yesterday. Got on at 42nd St midday. Saw from the countdown clocks that the next M101 was 9 mins away. Thanks to a the bus operator swapping out at 100th St, a wheelchair passenger and a passenger with a walker, my bus eventually ends up falling behind schedule. (of course I'm on a D60HF - sometimes I think they're not so bad, then I see a situation like this and remember why I don't like them and can't wait for them to disappear). So by the time we get to 122nd St. the M101 behind us actually passes us, having managed to catch up.

 

Now we turn onto 125th St and the other M101 is right in front of us. My B/O seemed to be one of those who doesn't like to pull up behind another bus at a stop. This happened at a few stops but got pretty bad when we got to Lexington. The M101 in front of us is at the 125th St/Lexington Av bus stop. My bus right across the street waiting at the light. There's a car double-parked in the bus lane so we're in the only other traffic lane, and since the B/O doesn't want to pull into the stop, we just sit at the light for almost 3 light cycles, holding up all westbound traffic waiting for the M101 in the stop to leave. I'm practically convinced now that this route as-is can't be saved and maybe the MTA should just split it at 96th St. 

Edited by Mysterious2train
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Had a hilarious ride on the M101 yesterday. Got on at 42nd St midday. Saw from the countdown clocks that the next M101 was 9 mins away. Thanks to a the bus operator swapping out at 100th St, a wheelchair passenger and a passenger with a walker, my bus eventually ends up falling behind schedule. (of course I'm on a D60HF - sometimes I think they're not so bad, then I see a situation like this and remember why I don't like them and can't wait for them to disappear). So by the time we get to 122nd St. the M101 behind us actually passes us, having managed to catch up.

 

Now we turn onto 125th St and the other M101 is right in front of us. My B/O seemed to be one of those who doesn't like to pull up behind another bus at a stop. This happened at a few stops but got pretty bad when we got to Lexington. The M101 in front of us is at the 125th St/Lexington Av bus stop. My bus right across the street waiting at the light. There's a car double-parked in the bus lane so we're in the only other traffic lane, and since the B/O doesn't want to pull into the stop, we just sit at the light for almost 3 light cycles, holding up all westbound traffic waiting for the M101 in the stop to leave. I'm practically convinced now that this route as-is can't be saved and maybe the MTA should just split it at 96th St.

That happens very often and it's become a problem there are just to many M101s bunching together I would propose fixing that schedule and making M101s run less frequently and instead have the M103 and M102 as well as the M98 increase service to reduce crowding and give some breathers to the M101 passengers.

 

Sent from my SM-G925P using Tapatalk

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Had a hilarious ride on the M101 yesterday. Got on at 42nd St midday. Saw from the countdown clocks that the next M101 was 9 mins away. Thanks to a the bus operator swapping out at 100th St, a wheelchair passenger and a passenger with a walker, my bus eventually ends up falling behind schedule. (of course I'm on a D60HF - sometimes I think they're not so bad, then I see a situation like this and remember why I don't like them and can't wait for them to disappear). So by the time we get to 122nd St. the M101 behind us actually passes us, having managed to catch up.

 

Now we turn onto 125th St and the other M101 is right in front of us. My B/O seemed to be one of those who doesn't like to pull up behind another bus at a stop. This happened at a few stops but got pretty bad when we got to Lexington. The M101 in front of us is at the 125th St/Lexington Av bus stop. My bus right across the street waiting at the light. There's a car double-parked in the bus lane so we're in the only other traffic lane, and since the B/O doesn't want to pull into the stop, we just sit at the light for almost 3 light cycles, holding up all westbound traffic waiting for the M101 in the stop to leave. I'm practically convinced now that this route as-is can't be saved and maybe the MTA should just split it at 96th St. 

They already run enough buses to 96th as it is.  I don't think splitting the route up is the answer.  It's things you described with the driver sitting for three light cycles that need to change.  There's a lot of things that I've observed as a rider on that line that the DOT and (MTA) should be working together to change. For starters, something that I find incredible is the amount of bus bunching and buses held up.

 

I've had numerous instances of getting say the M86SBS and then checking BusTime to see 4 or 5 buses passing by in a span of 5 minutes and then nothing for another 15 minutes.  The M101, M102, and M103 always seem to run in packs and it makes service extremely unreliable.

 

The other thing that should be changed is the bus stop situation.  There should be enough room at each stop for two artics to pull in comfortably.  They have that set up on the M86 and M79 routes likely because they are SBS lines, but not on the M101, M102 and M103 line.  That leads to buses sitting for several minutes before pulling into the stop and it slows down service A LOT.  I also think something needs to be done about driver changes on the line. I rarely file complaints on the local bus lines, but it's something that takes up so much time that it's just ridiculous. Often time sthe driver taking over is LATE by as much as 10 minutes, and even when he or she is there, we'll still sit and sit and sit.  Meanwhile bus after bus after bus passes by and people get fed up and get on the other buses.  It is inexcusable to have such long waits between driver changes. That's something that in 2017 should definitely be better planned, and it's infuriating because the drivers don't give a damn about passengers having to wait that long for change overs. Now I understand that things happen, but this a daily problem and it's something that turns a lot of passengers off from using the line.  Often times I don't feel like taking the subway on the Upper East Side and would rather take the M101, but service is so slow that I'm basically forced to, even if I have bags or Imm tired from a long day in the office.

 

I find the dispatchers completely useless at 42nd and Lex.  They have a bunch of buses running late that they'll then stop at 34th street or 23rd street, so then all of the people heading south of that are now screwed and have to wait 15+ minutes or so for ONE bus to go where they are going.  All of this crap is why the branches are losing ridership.

 

The other thing that slows down services are those old beat up buses. They can't get rid of them fast enough.  The low-floor buses are a must with all of the wheelchairs and disabled people getting on. Often times if I'm going to Whole Foods, I'll just take a cab to get to where I need to go with the bags, because it's less than a 10 minute ride, but it can take upwards of 30 minutes with one of the local buses.

Edited by Via Garibaldi 8
Link to comment
Share on other sites

They already run enough buses to 96th as it is. I don't think splitting the route up is the answer. It's things you described with the driver sitting for three light cycles that need to change. There's a lot of things that I've observed as a rider on that line that the DOT and (MTA) should be working together to change. For starters, something that I find incredible is the amount of bus bunching and buses held up.

 

I've had numerous instances of getting say the M86SBS and then checking BusTime to see 4 or 5 buses passing by in a span of 5 minutes and then nothing for another 15 minutes. The M101, M102, and M103 always seem to run in packs and it makes service extremely unreliable.

 

The other thing that should be changed is the bus stop situation. There should be enough room at each stop for two artics to pull in comfortably. They have that set up on the M86 and M79 routes likely because they are SBS lines, but not on the M101, M102 and M103 line. That leads to buses sitting for several minutes before pulling into the stop and it slows down service A LOT. I also think something needs to be done about driver changes on the line. I rarely file complaints on the local bus lines, but it's something that takes up so much time that it's just ridiculous. Often time sthe driver taking over is LATE by as much as 10 minutes, and even when he or she is there, we'll still sit and sit and sit. Meanwhile bus after bus after bus passes by and people get fed up and get on the other buses. It is inexcusable to have such long waits between driver changes. That's something that in 2017 should definitely be better planned, and it's infuriating because the drivers don't give a damn about passengers having to wait that long for change overs. Now I understand that things happen, but this a daily problem and it's something that turns a lot of passengers off from using the line. Often times I don't feel like taking the subway on the Upper East Side and would rather take the M101, but service is so slow that I'm basically forced to, even if I have bags or Imm tired from a long day in the office.

 

I find the dispatchers completely useless at 42nd and Lex. They have a bunch of buses running late that they'll then stop at 34th street or 23rd street, so then all of the people heading south of that are now screwed and have to wait 15+ minutes or so for ONE bus to go where they are going. All of this crap is why the branches are losing ridership.

 

The other thing that slows down services are those old beat up buses. They can't get rid of them fast enough. The low-floor buses are a must with all of the wheelchairs and disabled people getting on. Often times if I'm going to Whole Foods, I'll just take a cab to get to where I need to go with the bags, because it's less than a 10 minute ride, but it can take upwards of 30 minutes with one of the local buses.

What I think should happen is the M101 have a split route with Manhattanville and provide more low floors and less wait on bus stops as well as reliving wheel chair passengers if they decide to keep running those high floors as they running them now.

 

Sent from my SM-G925P using Tapatalk

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What I think should happen is the M101 have a split route with Manhattanville and provide more low floors and less wait on bus stops as well as reliving wheel chair passengers if they decide to keep running those high floors as they running them now.

 

Sent from my SM-G925P using Tapatalk

The high floor buses just need to go.  I don't care who loves those run down things.  From an operational standpoint, they slow down service considerably.  For example, if you ride the bus from Downtown to Uptown, you can see how many elderly people get on and how long it takes them to do so on the high floor buses, so that's why I'm full support of the new buses coming and replacing all of those high floor buses. Not only that, but the new buses have three doors versus the two door nonsense the old ones have.  The buses are laid out much better with 2017 in mind for how people travel and so on.  For example, some people simply don't like to sit and prefer to stand. The low floor buses are better in that regard.  Those people can stand and be out of the way.  

Edited by Via Garibaldi 8
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The high floor buses just need to go. I don't care who loves those run down things. From an operational standpoint, they slow down service considerably. If you ride the bus from Downtown to Uptown, you can see how many elderly people get on and how long it takes them to do so on the high floor buses. It's something else that slows down service, so that's why I'm full support of the new buses coming and replacing all of those high floor buses. Not only that but the new buses have three doors versus the two door nonsense the old ones have. The buses are laid out much better with 2017 in mind for how people travel and so on. For example, some people simply don't like to sit and prefer to stand. The low floor buses are better in that regard. Those people can stand and be out of the way.

I understand what you are saying but just the service of the M101 in general is horrible because i've seen like 5 M101s at the same time coming into a bus stop and its just so crazy once it gets uptown as the M101 likes to pull the" Last Stop 161 and have to wait for a bus that's literally at 125.

 

Sent from my SM-G925P using Tapatalk

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just driving by......

 

I know you guys are "conditioned" in NYC to think hybrids are something wonderful, but out here where buses actually get above 40 mph and operators can put foot to the floor and accelerate between stops, the hybrids are the absolute most HATED of the fleet. Even DDOT's 10 Xcelsior hybrids only get sent out if absolutely necessary--and they're only ~3 years old. Main reason operators don't like them? Absolutely NO pickup compared to a straight diesel. Plus in the SMART Gilligs you have the "airplane roar" when braking, especially with any oomph on the pedal.

 

But since you guys are used to 25-30 mph tops, you'd never notice it unless you ventured far from the density of NYC. Which is why if Bee-Line is thinking of XDE60s (*shudder*) for open-road Westchester service, I pity those operators and customers alike.

Except bee-line already has hybrids (NABI 40LFW and those oddball 4 Orion VIIs), and they're MILES better than the best straight diesel buses in the MTA. They run on the highway on the regular in service and can get up to their governed speed (55-60 mph, even a few that do more than that) relatively quick without even using the engine.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I understand what you are saying but just the service of the M101 in general is horrible because i've seen like 5 M101s at the same time coming into a bus stop and its just so crazy once it gets uptown as the M101 likes to pull the" Last Stop 161 and have to wait for a bus that's literally at 125.

 

Sent from my SM-G925P using Tapatalk

Well yeah a lot of bunching is because of what I described.  Quite frankly there needs to be a managerial overhaul out of Tuskegee. The drivers often times make no effort to show up on time. Destination signs will change WITHOUT any announcement.  I mean it's ridiculous.  Once I was on an M101 that was running local. There was a driver change.  Driver gets on as if everything is normal and makes no announcement and just starts running limited.  A passenger went and inquired because he was furious having missed the stop that he needed.  Those sorts of things should not be happening, and it wasn't a mistake either. The driver just casually continued like it was normal.  If I needed the M101 on a regular basis, I probably would've started a petition for serious overhauls for all three of those lines (M101, M102, an M103).  Service runs so poorly, and a lot of it is because of poor management overall and a lack of caring.  The buses are not cleaned either as they should be, so they're often filthy.  Let's see how long the new buses last before they become the same way.

 

I'm not familiar with all of the districts that those buses run through, but in the past what I've done is contacted several elected officials about certain local bus lines to push for improvements and restorations. I tried that with the M104, and contacted the borough president's office, and was basically told that the (MTA) had made up their mind and nothing could be done to restore the line as it was.  Lame excuse in my opinion, but since I was told that all efforts had been made and exhausted, I dropped it for the time being.

Edited by Via Garibaldi 8
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well yeah a lot of bunching is because of what I described. Quite frankly there needs to be a managerial overhaul out of Tuskegee. The drivers often times make no effort to show up on time. Destination signs will change WITHOUT any announcement. I mean it's ridiculous. Once I was on an M101 that was running local. There was a driver change. Driver gets on as if everything is normal and makes no announcement and just starts running limited. A passenger went and inquired because he was furious having missed the stop that he needed. Those sorts of things should not be happening, and it wasn't a mistake either. The driver just casually continued like it was normal. If I needed the M101 on a regular basis, I would probably would've started a petition for serious overhauls for all three of those lines. Services runs so poorly and a lot of it is because of poor management overall and a lack of caring.

I agree on that they should really do something about that situation because as the 4,5, and 6 are always on delays the passengers rely on the those 3 bus routes to take them where they need to go and if those lines have poor service the people will just get even more enraged. The Mta should just have the M98 run all the time from Washington Heights to 34st instead of just the M98 running on rush hours what the lexington and 3 av lines need is relieves.

 

Sent from my SM-G925P using Tapatalk

Edited by MHV184
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I agree on that they should really do something about that situation because as the 4,5, and 6 are always on delays the passengers rely on the those 3 bus routes to take them where they need to go and if those lines have poor service the people will just get even more enraged. The Mta should just have the M98 run all the time from Washington Heights to 34st instead of just the M98 running on rush hours what the lexington and 3 av lines need is relieves.

 

Sent from my SM-G925P using Tapatalk

The M98 is a pie-in-the-sky dream. I see it in the mornings coming from Washington Heights. It gets good usage. The problem is having it run down to 34th street would take away riders from the M101, and they (the (MTA)) don't want that. However, I think it should be restored, and should be bus only lanes on both Lexington and 3rd Avenue.  I would go further and have some parking rules changed especially on Lexington. The amount of double parking from trucks making deliveries is simply out of control.  The street is too narrow for all of that, and it kills service considerably. There should also be signal priority for buses along 3rd and Lex.  The lights are purposely not synced which means constant stop and go, leading to buses crawling from one light to the next.  This has become considerably worse since de Blasio took over and came up with Vision Zero, so that's why I blame the DOT for some of this mess as well.

Edited by Via Garibaldi 8
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The M98 is a pie the sky dream. I see it in the mornings coming from Washington Heights. It gets good usage. The problem is having it run down to 34th street would take away riders from the M101, and they don't want that. However, I think it should be restored, and should be bus only lanes on both Lexington and 3rd Avenue. I would go further and have some parking rules changed especially on Lexington. The amount of double parking from trucks making deliveries is simply out of control. The street is too narrow for all of that, and it kills service considerably. There should also be signal priority for buses along 3rd and Lex. The lights are purposely not synced which means constant stop and go, leading to buses crawling from one light to the next. This has become considerably worse since de Blasio took over and came up with Vision Zero, so that's why I blame the DOT for some of this mess as well.

I agree but lets just hope the Mta can see what's happening with this and finally fix this problem instead of creating worse ideas. Also the M98 is wonderful problem is it just runs at rush hours which makes me disappointed because that's the only " Express bus service" even though is limited that manages to get people where they need to go quickly.

 

Sent from my SM-G925P using Tapatalk

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.