What are the best MTA Bus route

[A Former New Yorker]

I have been hearing all how the MTA's buses are always the worse in terms of service and reliably. There even a award for worst MTA bus lines but i never heard anything good about them . So I wonder what are the MTA's best bus lines in terms of service,reliably and frequency

[trainfan22]

B6, B46 sbs, B103 (between the Junction and Canarsie only)

[checkmatechamp13]

The S79 is generally quick and frequent. The Bx6 SBS & Bx41 SBS are probably up there too in terms of quality.

[78 via Stew Leonards]

M66, M72, M96

[Via Garibaldi 8]

M79SBS, BxM3, BxM6

[B35 via Church]

Have the MTA tell it, any select bus service route.....

 

 

[bwwnyc123]

I like M15SBS, M60SBS, Q44SBS, B46SBS, B44SBS, BX12SBS, Q52 & Q53SBS, S79SBS, BX15, BX41SBS, Q113 & Q114, Q10, B41, B6, B82, B36, B3, Q5, Q85, Q4, Q3, Q77, B15, B35, B103, BX35, BX36, BX3, S53, B8, B12, B25.

[R68OnBroadway]

I don't have any favorite routes- most of them suck, but the 57th crosstowns are awful. They come infrequently and are slow and bunched.

[Orion6025]

The Q50 was great and was probably my favorite route in the system. That said once most of the RTS moved out, i haven't bothered to try out an NG on it; they may be more accessible but from a fanning perspective they've soiled that route...... Bus model aside though, it's very fast and convenient. The m23 sbs isn't very fast but for what I expect out of a crosstown bus, it's pretty good. The S78 and S79 SBS are 2 great, wide open routes. The B32 is a handy way to get to Williamsburg fairly quickly. The Q104 is a decent route; when it is running reliably and on time, it can be a quick, pleasant ride. The only marks against it that i have is the congestion in the mid 30s to Steinway Street...

I've never really liked any other routes... that said I haven't rode that many so I'm very open to adding a few on here someday (I'm looking at you, Staten Island and Eastern Queens...)

[NewFlyer 230]

The Q35 because you are mainly not stopping from B.116 to Brooklyn. 

The Q64 is a fast and pretty reliable route and I love it when an XD60 randomly shows up on it. 

 

 

[Lil 57]

13 hours ago, Orion6025 said:

The S78 and S79 SBS are 2 great, wide open routes.

The S78 has fallen downhill, they come infrequent and service is every 30 mins south of Richmond Ave on weekends. Multiple timrs, I've witnessed 30-45 min gaps around 4:00 PM on weekdays. Yesterday I had to take a cab home form Tottenville since the S78 didn't show up for over an hour and a half (The headway is 30 mins). The S78 is the longest route in the city, so It's prone to delays.

[S78 via Hylan]

4 hours ago, Lil 57 said:

The S78 has fallen downhill, they come infrequent and service is every 30 mins south of Richmond Ave on weekends. Multiple timrs, I've witnessed 30-45 min gaps around 4:00 PM on weekdays. Yesterday I had to take a cab home form Tottenville since the S78 didn't show up for over an hour and a half (The headway is 30 mins). The S78 is the longest route in the city, so It's prone to delays.

Having lived along this route for many years before moving to Brooklyn, I could say a thing or two:

 South of Richmond Av, ridership is low, hence the 30 minute headway’s on the weekends. You are right about the gaps and bunching, though. 

[B35 via Church]

3 hours ago, Lil 57 said:

The S78 has fallen downhill, they come infrequent and service is every 30 mins south of Richmond Ave on weekends. Multiple timrs, I've witnessed 30-45 min gaps around 4:00 PM on weekdays. Yesterday I had to take a cab home form Tottenville since the S78 didn't show up for over an hour and a half (The headway is 30 mins). The S78 is the longest route in the city, so It's prone to delays.

Agreed w/ the S78, but it isn't by any means, a recent thing..... The S78 started falling downhill when the MTA started dedicating more service to the S79 (sometime in the early 2000's or whenever it occurred).... Seemed like it happened almost overnight; it wasn't a gradual thing at all..... It's quite sad how far that route has fallen; buses for the most part used to arrive at a 1:1 rate w/ the S79.... Now (well, even well before the advent of SBS on the S79), the ratio of S79's to S78's arriving at any given time, became/ended up becoming ridiculous..... Granted, everybody isn't going to Brooklyn, but enough of the masses ended up getting what they wanted & to their credit, they are using the hell out of the S79 - so we can't really complain (from the S79's perspective anyway).....

Hylan Blvd. (at & east of Richmond av anyway) simply needs more "supplemental" service (NOT going to Brooklyn) - the problem is, during the week, they have every trip running to/from Tottenville & if you ask me, that isn't by demand, that is by design.... They are using the light ridership Hylan gets west of Richmond av to justify keeping subpar headways on the S78 east of Richmond av.....

[nuyorican]

Back in the days the Q53 under Triboro coach would run express to Broad Channel and the Rockaways from Queens blvd. Those guys would fly down Woodhaven and Cross Bay Boulevards at like 50mph. Now that was real SBS not this crap they have now. 

Q44sbs at night is fast.

Q35 is pretty good but is slow in the summer they could use antics in the summer.

[Yankees4life]

The B103 and the B6 is still king of the mountain. The B44 SBS is also pretty good at least North of Junction

[B35 via Church]

16 hours ago, Yankees4life said:

The B103 and the B6 is still king of the mountain. The B44 SBS is also pretty good at least North of Junction

Yeah, I'm high on the B103 because I remember how sub-par it used to be & how it's flourished (service-wise & usage-wise) to what it is now....
(although there were definitely some bumps & bruises [so to speak] along the way, like having it take 7th av to 9th st to 5th av within Park slope, en route to Downtown....)

[Future ENY OP]

23 minutes ago, B35 via Church said:

Yeah, I'm high on the B103 because I remember how sub-par it used to be & how it's flourished (service-wise & usage-wise) to what it is now....
(although there were definitely some bumps & bruises [so to speak] along the way, like having it take 7th av to 9th st to 5th av within Park slope, en route to Downtown....)

YES! The B103 is definitely king.. However, to this day I just don't like the way they added the 4th Avenue stops. Under command and pre bus those 4th Avenue stops were a no-no and the 3rd Avenue stops were definitely out of the question. I wonder are those stops even utilized in Gowanus and Park slope.

[B35 via Church]

1 hour ago, Future ENY OP said:

YES! The B103 is definitely king.. However, to this day I just don't like the way they added the 4th Avenue stops. Under command and pre bus those 4th Avenue stops were a no-no and the 3rd Avenue stops were definitely out of the question. I wonder are those stops even utilized in Gowanus and Park slope.

I actually don't mind the stops on 4th av.... I'll go as far as to say, having it connect to the (F)(G) at 4th/9th is a good addition to the route.....

The 4th st stop gets so-so usage (but is slowly increasing, from my experiences).... The Warren stop st is the lowest utilized of all the stops on 4th....

 

[checkmatechamp13]

8 hours ago, Future ENY OP said:

YES! The B103 is definitely king.. However, to this day I just don't like the way they added the 4th Avenue stops. Under command and pre bus those 4th Avenue stops were a no-no and the 3rd Avenue stops were definitely out of the question. I wonder are those stops even utilized in Gowanus and Park slope.

Those stops were added as a way to avoid extending the B37 into Downtown Brooklyn. (So riders in Gowanus still had a direct ride, and riders transferring off the B37 had an easier transfer compared to crossing the street for say, the B45 or something). 

[bwwnyc123]

The best part of B103 is when it runs thru Prospect Expwy

[RailRunRob]

S79,Bx12,Q50 and I have to say the Q53

 

[RTSTdrive]

As a regular B103 rider from Canarsie, I'd say the only problems it has is crowding during rush hour (though the service frequency makes up for it) and lack of late night service.

Given that it's a Limited, it has to stop in the midnight hours at some point but having it run at reduced headways late at night would be helpful when coming home late as opposed to relying solely on the B6/82 then either walking or transferring to the 17/42.

[Future ENY OP]

35 minutes ago, RTSTdrive said:

As a regular B103 rider from Canarsie, I'd say the only problems it has is crowding during rush hour (though the service frequency makes up for it) and lack of late night service.

Given that it's a Limited, it has to stop in the midnight hours at some point but having it run at reduced headways late at night would be helpful when coming home late as opposed to relying solely on the B6/82 then either walking or transferring to the 17/42.

I thought the last 103 ends at 1:30AM coming from Downtown Brooklyn??? reaching Williams Avenue at 2:35A. I know they recently added additional service, and weekends respectively at 2:25AM ending at Williams Avenue. 

[checkmatechamp13]

4 hours ago, RTSTdrive said:

As a regular B103 rider from Canarsie, I'd say the only problems it has is crowding during rush hour (though the service frequency makes up for it) and lack of late night service.

Given that it's a Limited, it has to stop in the midnight hours at some point but having it run at reduced headways late at night would be helpful when coming home late as opposed to relying solely on the B6/82 then either walking or transferring to the 17/42.

Says who? The Q53 was a 24/7 limited. There's nothing stopping the B103 from running 24/7. Heck, if they wanted to, they could've run it as a shuttle from Flatbush to Canarsie once per hour and coordinated it with the B6 to provide 30 minute headways along Avenue H. 

[Via Garibaldi 8]

5 minutes ago, checkmatechamp13 said:

Says who? The Q53 was a 24/7 limited. There's nothing stopping the B103 from running 24/7. Heck, if they wanted to, they could've run it as a shuttle from Flatbush to Canarsie once per hour and coordinated it with the B6 to provide 30 minute headways along Avenue H. 

Apparently the  , that's who, otherwise it would be running 24/7 already as a limited.