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9 hours ago, Train92 said:

1)  RTS's still run on the M66/72,  and also the M12, 20, 21, 42, 50, 55 & 57

2)  D60s/LFSA run on the 101/102/103 and also on the M14. 

3)  The R32s also run on the (A)

4)  The best place to bus/railfan would be Midtown ( between 72nd to 14th). Best place to trainfan would be Fulton St for the R32 (A)(C)(J)

Hope this helps. 

 

6 hours ago, trainfan22 said:

Good routes to ride RTS: B6, B41, B44 local, B46 local, you won't have to wait long for one to show up, the B82 is another one but you might be waiting a while for one to show up, as ENY has far more Orions and New Flyers than RTS.

 

D60HF, since you're a tourist I'd say the 100th street routes (M101/102/103) or the M14, however IDK if the M14 will still have D60s in April, as the depot it's operating out of is currently getting new Attic buses to replace them. If it's hard to find one in Manhattan, then the BX1/2, BX9 or the BX12 local, all those routes terminals are in safe areas.

 

 

Thanks

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I see that transit has tinkered with the Q21/41 destination signage on the northbound buses. Saw the Q21 sign last night in Lindenwood, and Q41 today (bus #3657) crossing 101 Avenue. Q41 displays:

Q41 Jamaica ÷ 165 St Term

via Cross Bay Bl ÷ via 109 Av

via LINDENWOOD

1) it's not in the correct order 2) the northbound buses make no stops on Cross Bay, so why highlight it as a via street? Seems like a waste, personally

 

Q21 displays: Q21 Elmhurst ÷ Woodhaven Bl Sta

Via Woodhaven Bl

Via LINDENWOOD

Edited by EastFlatbushLarry
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On 3/18/2018 at 12:28 PM, EastFlatbushLarry said:

I made the move when I got married, moved back to the city during and after my divorce process and moved back to PA as soon as i could. Commute can be rather easy (I'm 2 hours away from Manhattan) depending on what run you pick and your report time. That's why i prefer to work late. When I'm traveling down i-80 to work, all traffic is heading in the opposite direction, away from the city. What you must account for is wear & tear on your vehicle, the winter months and gas prices. I buy gas in lodi (exit 63) that's arguably the cheapest gas between the Poconos & the city. And what vg8 is stating regarding rent as a single individual: i worked as a security guard, and for a few school bus & access a ride companies before lining up with transit. I basically lived at home with my mother until i passed probation because of the reasons stated. $1500 or more to rent a room... Shared living, in someone's home. (even with a gov't subsidy like LINC, you are still responsible for approx. 2/3 rent)  When i could easily rent an entire home in South Jersey, NEPA (the Poconos), the valley (Allentown) or Germantown (just outside Philly) for approximately that amount.

 

I explained previously that i have picked the 15. definitely one of the lines i enjoy at ENY. I have respect for the goal & purpose of the 15. How well you manage your run determines whether or not hard working individuals get to work safely and on time. Never did the 84. I hd no desire to pick it, even if I could've. 

 

The term leader means the run directly ahead of you, based on the line's headways. For example, the B82's headway (time gap between buses) is let's say 7 minutes. If a SLD tells me i have no leader, the SLD basically told me i have a potential double headway, meaning that customers haven't seen a bus for upwards of 13-15 minutes and guess what buddy? You are now responsible for picking them up. Another reason why one may not have a leader is based on a change in headway at certain times of the day. Within the hours leading up to the pm rush, you better pay attention to not only your run, but others around you. Some runs clear and report during that crucial time, which affects your headway. Years ago, i worked the limited B46. During rush hours going north to the bridge, headway was 2 minutes between my run (Dekalb limited) and my leaders run (willy-b limited) about 2 hours later, I'd be a willy-b limited with no limited leader due to runs pulling in, getting relieved, etc. My headway was now 12 minutes. After me, my followers were on 7 minute headways. All lines experience this fluctuation, especially at night, where headway are steadily increased.

 

The 82 and 42 perform relief interlines at rock station. The 42 also has straight runs, just like the 82. I'd say it's about even as far as how many runs from each line flip over to the other line. I don't remember how many runs are exactly on the 42, IINM it's definitely less than 20. Of those say 20, at least 10 appear on the 82 throughout the day. I could be mistaken.

 

Senior operators vary. They're all individuals. Everyone picks RDO's that suit their purpose. Just because someone has 20 years of experience, doesn't mean they want or need Saturday/Sunday off

 

Not necessarily. I answered this as detailed as possible. Operators pick runs for various reasons. It's not written in stone that senior operators always pick big money runs. My uncle has 13 years and he hates 12 hour runs. I personally did 12 hour runs on the extra list while on probation. I didn't exactly enjoy them. The money you make on a run depends on your rate of pay, meaning that some operators (myself included) made top pay in 3 years (tier 4, 25/55 pension) the new guys will hit top pay in 5 (62/30 tier 6) until you make top pay, you receive increases. So myself and another operator could pick the same run one pick apart and earn a different wage, based on the other operator not earning top pay as yet. 

Wow commute must be a pain on u physically u ever consider moving to north jersey approximately around my old neighborhood of union township? And what is LINC?

The no leader situation ever happen where there was a meltdown on the line and you were severely late?

On the 82 how many of your runs short turn at ulmer park?

 

Interesting, i wonder what those drivers with families pick

 

On the topic penisons does anyone work past the 25/55 or further?

 

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1 hour ago, EastFlatbushLarry said:

I see that transit has tinkered with the Q21/41 destination signage on the northbound buses. Saw the Q21 sign last night in Lindenwood, and Q41 today (bus #3657) crossing 101 Avenue. Q41 displays:

Q41 Jamaica ÷ 165 St Term

via Cross Bay Bl ÷ via 109 Av

via LINDENWOOD

1) it's not in the correct order 2) the northbound buses make no stops on Cross Bay, so why highlight it as a via street? Seems like a waste, personally

 

Q21 displays: Q21 Elmhurst ÷ Woodhaven Bl Sta

Via Woodhaven Bl

Via LINDENWOOD

Cross Bay has four northbound Q41 stops, Sutter & Pitkin sees usage.

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15 minutes ago, Cait Sith said:

Cross Bay has four northbound Q41 stops, Sutter & Pitkin sees usage.

Apologies, you're absolutely correct. I always forget that north of Lindenwood - Eastwood Apartments is Cross Bay Blvd. I used to live out there. 

Edited by EastFlatbushLarry
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37 minutes ago, BreeddekalbL said:

Wow commute must be a pain on u physically u ever consider moving to north jersey approximately around my old neighborhood of union township? And what is LINC?

The no leader situation ever happen where there was a meltdown on the line and you were severely late?

On the 82 how many of your runs short turn at ulmer park?

 

Interesting, i wonder what those drivers with families pick

 

On the topic penisons does anyone work past the 25/55 or further?

 

Commute doesn't affect me at all actually. No, i have no desire to live in jersey, that's why I chose Pennsylvania. LINC is a voucher given to homeless individuals toward rent payments for a room or apartment. Meltdown? What is your definition of meltdown? There's no physical way to count how many runs short turn at UP on the 82. On weekdays & Saturdays, damn near every run has short trips built into the run paddle. And, seeing as I'm not working out of ENY presently, there's truly no way for me to know. Operators with families, kids, wives, husbands, etc pick just like everyone else: wherever their seniority dictates. I know operators who have had it rough the first few years on the job, family wise. Not being off weekends, holidays, etc. But, as with anything else in life, things get better. One can't know the joy of light without the fear of darkness. Everyone works past 25/55. Because in order to obtain full pension, you must have time served & age. My ex-wife & uncle both started in their late 30's. So 25/55 will put them both at a retirement age at least into their mid 60's. As for myself, i started at age 22. When it's all said & done (if i stay with MTA) I'm looking at 33 years of service. I don't plan on being a B/O for 33 blasted years, but we'll see how it goes. 

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7 minutes ago, EastFlatbushLarry said:

Commute doesn't affect me at all actually. No, i have no desire to live in jersey, that's why I chose Pennsylvania. LINC is a voucher given to homeless individuals toward rent payments for a room or apartment. Meltdown? What is your definition of meltdown? There's no physical way to count how many runs short turn at UP on the 82. On weekdays & Saturdays, damn near every run has short trips built into the run paddle. And, seeing as I'm not working out of ENY presently, there's truly no way for me to know. Operators with families, kids, wives, husbands, etc pick just like everyone else: wherever their seniority dictates. I know operators who have had it rough the first few years on the job, family wise. Not being off weekends, holidays, etc. But, as with anything else in life, things get better. One can't know the joy of light without the fear of darkness. Everyone works past 25/55. Because in order to obtain full pension, you must have time served & age. My ex-wife & uncle both started in their late 30's. So 25/55 will put them both at a retirement age at least into their mid 60's. As for myself, i started at age 22. When it's all said & done (if i stay with MTA) I'm looking at 33 years of service. I don't plan on being a B/O for 33 blasted years, but we'll see how it goes. 

Meltdown as in example you are stuck behind an fdny incident and you cant detour

So seniority is king

And interesting on pensions does anyone work later than 60s? 

Edited by BreeddekalbL
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13 minutes ago, BreeddekalbL said:

Meltdown as in example you are stuck behind an fdny incident and you cant detour

So seniority is king

And interesting on pensions does anyone work later than 60s? 

Brooklyn is pretty good at communicating trouble spots on a line. That may have happened to me as a rookie, but no, definitely not recently. Seniority is king on almost all city and state jobs, although DSNY is first come first serve from what I'm told. As i previously stated, operators start this job at different ages, so it is definitely a possibility. As long as you pass your 19-A and your annual physical (hearing, vision, etc) it's definitely not unheard of a B/O being over 65, still pushing a bus down the road. 

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1 hour ago, EastFlatbushLarry said:

Brooklyn is pretty good at communicating trouble spots on a line. That may have happened to me as a rookie, but no, definitely not recently. Seniority is king on almost all city and state jobs, although DSNY is first come first serve from what I'm told. As i previously stated, operators start this job at different ages, so it is definitely a possibility. As long as you pass your 19-A and your annual physical (hearing, vision, etc) it's definitely not unheard of a B/O being over 65, still pushing a bus down the road. 

Interesting

Fo some reason i thought they had a mandatory age retirement

And you ever consider going to quill?

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On 3/18/2018 at 5:17 PM, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

I don't know how I got quoted for all of the other stuff, but yeah. My uncle was a B/O out of Manhattan and recently retired and left NYC. He couldn't believe what I pay in rent. What I pay now was his old mortgage for his house. He's been on me about purchasing because for a little more I can just own something. When this lease is up, I am definitely going to see look into something because before I know it, I'll be paying over $2000 a month. I'm basically paying almost that now when I look at how much I spend in rent and transportation. I'm not even including other expenses like food, student loans and so on.

I went to visit my mom in Florida during Xmas and she laughed at me when I said my rent was $1100. That's her rent for a whole house down there. Everyone is telling me to buy something too for the same reasons but I'm not at that bridge yet.

3 hours ago, BreeddekalbL said:

On the topic penisons does anyone work past the 25/55 or further?

2 hours ago, BreeddekalbL said:

So seniority is king

Definitely. I've talked with a lot of senior operators who have told me that they're still working to put their children through school or max out their pensions while they still have the physical ability to do so. I believe after you reach 25/55, its an extra 2% for every year that you work? @EastFlatbushLarry can confirm that. Like him, I have 30-31 years left. If the state has their way again, they will make the next pension tier 30/62.

While seniority is king, being educated and in the know about the job is as well. There are a lot of operators who start out and don't know how to pick, do all the research behind the runs, look at paddles, etc. They pick without gathering all of the information to make a proper decision. I've had classmates come up to me and be like "How come I didn't see that?" or "Yeah,, I saw that but I didn't want to do 'x' line." While its okay to have your reservations about a line but if it's "I don't like the people" etc., a lot of gems get passed up. Again, everyone looks for something different when they pick but part of the goal is to get the best of what's left. Last pick I had a MISC run:

WKD: 1.5 (3 trips) on the S57, 1 hr swing, 1.5 on the 44
SAT: 1 on the 44, 3 hr swing, 2.5 on the 57
SUN: 2 on the 59, 2 on the 62, 2 hr swing

It wasn't the highest paying run, it had Mon-Tue off, and a lot of people ahead of me didn't pick it because of the 44 trips. I had one boat trip during the week, none on Saturdays, obv. no weekend express, and I could sit to have any weekend day off. Didn't have to work Labor Day, Xmas, New Years or MLK Day. (SI's fall pick was extended) If I wanted to work extra, all I had to do was call up and ask. Extra service on Sunday was a guarantee. I finished in Travis and they either sent me to DMV to do the 46 (5 min DHD) or to Bricktown Mall for the 78 (25ish min DHD). I only had a year on at that point but I made the most out of it.

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23 minutes ago, R188 7857 said:

Are they working on new sign programs? I've noticed on the Xcelsiors at CS that multiple buses have signs with different looking fonts and colors on them (Spectrum buses). 

I’ve noticed this too. 7387, 7410 and 7411 have a bold yellow font. While talking to @Around the Horn he noticed that it’s similar to the font on the Proterras, so it might be the same sign as them or it could just be a new program

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4 hours ago, SevenEleven said:

I went to visit my mom in Florida during Xmas and she laughed at me when I said my rent was $1100. That's her rent for a whole house down there. Everyone is telling me to buy something too for the same reasons but I'm not at that bridge yet.

Definitely. I've talked with a lot of senior operators who have told me that they're still working to put their children through school or max out their pensions while they still have the physical ability to do so. I believe after you reach 25/55, its an extra 2% for every year that you work? @EastFlatbushLarry can confirm that. Like him, I have 30-31 years left. If the state has their way again, they will make the next pension tier 30/62.

While seniority is king, being educated and in the know about the job is as well. There are a lot of operators who start out and don't know how to pick, do all the research behind the runs, look at paddles, etc. They pick without gathering all of the information to make a proper decision. I've had classmates come up to me and be like "How come I didn't see that?" or "Yeah,, I saw that but I didn't want to do 'x' line." While its okay to have your reservations about a line but if it's "I don't like the people" etc., a lot of gems get passed up. Again, everyone looks for something different when they pick but part of the goal is to get the best of what's left. Last pick I had a MISC run:

WKD: 1.5 (3 trips) on the S57, 1 hr swing, 1.5 on the 44
SAT: 1 on the 44, 3 hr swing, 2.5 on the 57
SUN: 2 on the 59, 2 on the 62, 2 hr swing

It wasn't the highest paying run, it had Mon-Tue off, and a lot of people ahead of me didn't pick it because of the 44 trips. I had one boat trip during the week, none on Saturdays, obv. no weekend express, and I could sit to have any weekend day off. Didn't have to work Labor Day, Xmas, New Years or MLK Day. (SI's fall pick was extended) If I wanted to work extra, all I had to do was call up and ask. Extra service on Sunday was a guarantee. I finished in Travis and they either sent me to DMV to do the 46 (5 min DHD) or to Bricktown Mall for the 78 (25ish min DHD). I only had a year on at that point but I made the most out of it.

IINM, the state got their way, and tier 6 (62/30) is in full effect. Tier 4 has been around forever. It's honestly mind-boggling. Just to give you an idea, one of my uncles started as a station cleaner in 1978-79 and he's currently a tier 4 retiree as of 2017... And he worked beyond 25/55 because he was physically able to and to put up paper towards college for his son (my cousin). And to my understanding, it's 2% per year. When i came to this job, i already knew how to pick because of my 2 aunts & 3 uncles who were/are B/O's. I showed most of my classmates how to read the pick board before the union did. I had to help my ex-wife pick correctly the first 4 years we were on the job because she was lazy minded and didn't grasp the importance of correctly reading the board. It literally spells out the itinerary of the run. My ex butchered pick after pick and would bitch & moan about runs she picked on the M101, doing reliefs on 3rd Avenue, heading uptown on the M101 when school let out, etc. There are absolutely certain pieces of info you can ignore or not give that much attention to, but your run in regards to paddles and picking what suits your life, you better pay close attention to detail. 

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11 hours ago, LGA Link N train said:

There was this one bus model I saw on the Q88 yesterday. I seen it multiple times but recently I've been wondering what model it is. It was mostly new tech and had that RTS style look. Anyone knows what it is?

Probably a 2011 or 2015 Nova LFS. Has the same bubbly windshield but with a  LF design + other modern improvements...

Edited by Orion6025
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15 hours ago, SevenEleven said:

I went to visit my mom in Florida during Xmas and she laughed at me when I said my rent was $1100. That's her rent for a whole house down there. Everyone is telling me to buy something too for the same reasons but I'm not at that bridge yet.

$1100??? I would consider that really cheap based on what I've been seeing.  It's pretty damn hard to find something at that price save a few places.  I now see even rooms costing around $1100 for shares.  Just crazy.  

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On 3/19/2018 at 3:18 PM, MHV184 said:

So according to the MTA board meeting they have plans to cut service on the M104 and increase service on the M10 when construction starts on the B and C lines.

I believe the cut for the M104 is finalized for April. Not sure about the M10.

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6 hours ago, paulrivera said:

The (MTA) is still trying to get rid of the M104? Sheesh, first they cut the 42nd Street end of the route then they keep trimming and trimming the headways.

What are the headways going to be this time?

I've been at board meetings where a lot of people spoke at previous M104 cuts. I agree. They have continued to target the M104.

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On 3/19/2018 at 11:53 PM, EastFlatbushLarry said:

IINM, the state got their way, and tier 6 (62/30) is in full effect. Tier 4 has been around forever. It's honestly mind-boggling. Just to give you an idea, one of my uncles started as a station cleaner in 1978-79 and he's currently a tier 4 retiree as of 2017... And he worked beyond 25/55 because he was physically able to and to put up paper towards college for his son (my cousin). And to my understanding, it's 2% per year. When i came to this job, i already knew how to pick because of my 2 aunts & 3 uncles who were/are B/O's. I showed most of my classmates how to read the pick board before the union did. I had to help my ex-wife pick correctly the first 4 years we were on the job because she was lazy minded and didn't grasp the importance of correctly reading the board. It literally spells out the itinerary of the run. My ex butchered pick after pick and would bitch & moan about runs she picked on the M101, doing reliefs on 3rd Avenue, heading uptown on the M101 when school let out, etc. There are absolutely certain pieces of info you can ignore or not give that much attention to, but your run in regards to paddles and picking what suits your life, you better pay close attention to detail. 

Didn't tier 6 come about cause of patterson and the cops were mad about it

Lmao she suffered on 3rd ave 😂 oh well

I forgot to ask u u ever consider going to work at quill 

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1 minute ago, TrainFanInfinity said:

So there happens to be artics running on the M42 during the snow storm... the crosstown routes always seem to retain them during snow storms, but putting them on routes that normally don't have them? That's new to me.

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LhzZb1I.png

I think it has something to do with the fact that some of their artic routes are using standard buses today and so since the M42 is a crosstown route with no steep hills, it's somewhat fine if they put artics on the route.

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I was eavesdropping on a convo between two C/P operators and one of them said they had to refuel their buses at WF because the CNG pumps at CP were frozen. Apparently, it’s a somewhat commin practice for them. Poor guy, his shift just ended too and he was 2 blocks away from the depot. Doesn’t this add way more mileage to the bus? Turns out om his way back, they got the pumps working again. Oh! The irony

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