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Via Garibaldi 8

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1 hour ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

@QM1to6Ave Did you wait for either the 6:30 or the 7pm tonight? Some games going on for sure...

I have data for everything thing except the 7 PM bus. No 5:30 or 6:30 but at 6 BusTime showed buses 3055 and 3161 sitting around 40th street form 6 to nearly 7 PM when I didn't check.

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10 hours ago, Lil 57 said:

I have data for everything thing except the 7 PM bus. No 5:30 or 6:30 but at 6 BusTime showed buses 3055 and 3161 sitting around 40th street form 6 to nearly 7 PM when I didn't check.

Yeah I asked because another person who lives near Union Turnpike posted in my group that a QM5 to Midtown was 40 minutes late, and I have rode such buses going to Midtown AND tracked them too during off-peak periods. Then we started talking about the 6:30 and 7pm QM1 sitting on BusTime. Someone also gave me a heads up about some semantics that was noticed at the first stop during the rush yesterday evening. There appears to be a driver that will check their bus VERY thoroughly to look for a defect, BUT they leave the depot with the defect, then will claim that they can’t drive the bus in service because of said defect, so now they are out and supposed to do a run but then basically put out of service for such a defect. Apparently this happened yesterday evening, and happens regularly.

There is a dispatcher that I have seen at 36th and 6th that may be doing favors for drivers, and it wouldn’t surprise me. If you are “in” with the dispatcher, then things will be “overlooked”. Either they legitimately don’t have a driver or a bus, and/or someone is looking the other way to allow this mess to go on, because it makes no sense otherwise, and people on the inside have told me the same thing... They are allowed to embellish with their reports about buses, so reports are made regarding how many buses are missing to make service, as well as if a bus is on-time or late. Without going into too many details, a bus that is clearly late can be reported as “on-time”. Who is going to double check that information? This is the problem. Not only that but the metrics that the (MTA) uses makes service appear much better than what it is. Their argument is that these are metrics used by other agencies around the country, which allows them to run lackluster service and get away with it.

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11 hours ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

Yeah I asked because another person who lives near Union Turnpike posted in my group that a QM5 to Midtown was 40 minutes late, and I have rode such buses going to Midtown AND tracked them too during off-peak periods. Then we started talking about the 6:30 and 7pm QM1 sitting on BusTime. Someone also gave me a heads up about some semantics that was noticed at the first stop during the rush yesterday evening. There appears to be a driver that will check their bus VERY thoroughly to look for a defect, BUT they leave the depot with the defect, then will claim that they can’t drive the bus in service because of said defect, so now they are out and supposed to do a run but then basically put out of service for such a defect. Apparently this happened yesterday evening, and happens regularly.

There is a dispatcher that I have seen at 36th and 6th that may be doing favors for drivers, and it wouldn’t surprise me. If you are “in” with the dispatcher, then things will be “overlooked”. Either they legitimately don’t have a driver or a bus, and/or someone is looking the other way to allow this mess to go on, because it makes no sense otherwise, and people on the inside have told me the same thing... They are allowed to embellish with their reports about buses, so reports are made regarding how many buses are missing to make service, as well as if a bus is on-time or late. Without going into too many details, a bus that is clearly late can be reported as “on-time”. Who is going to double check that information? This is the problem. Not only that but the metrics that the (MTA) uses makes service appear much better than what it is. Their argument is that these are metrics used by other agencies around the country, which allows them to run lackluster service and get away with it.

That is so interesting, and not at all surprising. I've seen some B/Os that are a little too friendly with the dispatchers. Reminds me of a car service driver who told me he had to bribe his company's dispatcher so he was always given the profitable trips from Queens to Manhattan 

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2 minutes ago, QM1to6Ave said:

That is so interesting, and not at all surprising. I've seen some B/Os that are a little too friendly with the dispatchers. Reminds me of a car service driver who told me he had to bribe his company's dispatcher so he was always given the profitable trips from Queens to Manhattan 

lol That is true!! When I would take car service from the express bus, I’d have this one driver who would bitch to me about how some dispatchers would play favorites with who got what and who did the most brown nosing. Same deal here. Certainly makes sense...

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1 hour ago, QM1to6Ave said:

That is so interesting, and not at all surprising. I've seen some B/Os that are a little too friendly with the dispatchers. Reminds me of a car service driver who told me he had to bribe his company's dispatcher so he was always given the profitable trips from Queens to Manhattan 

So I guess little has changed over the years. When I was head of Brooklyn planning almost 40 years ago, a chief dispatcher in the office reported to me. He told me that drivers are often in cahoots with bus drivers. The reason Is that most or all dispatchers were once bus drivers and knew the bus operator when they were both bus operators. The MTA must know this and nevertheless tried to correct the problem. 

Also, several years ago I witnessed a bus dispatcher holding a bus at the terminal for 30 minutes just to give him overtime. I know that was the reason because I confronted the dispatcher who told me the operator completed his final trip of the day. I notified management and never received a response. My guess is that they ignored it because they didn’t even say thank you.

 

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8 hours ago, QM1to6Ave said:

LOL At this point it is just laughable how ridiculous it is. I'm sure tomorrow with the ice, sleet, and snow all the QM1's will roll on time (eye roll)

 

10 hours ago, Lil 57 said:

2/11 - QM1 service was the "norm". No 5:30 or 6:30 tonight.

My meeting was supposed to be yesterday morning but it had to be pushed back to next week. Counting down the days to grill them over this pathetic service. I’ve had a few buses missing myself of late. NoBxM1 one morning. No BxM2 one evening, and over the weekend, I was 30 minutes late because the BxM2 driver wasn’t aware of the PLANNED detour, so we sat while he called in, then had to circle around to get back to the 85th street Transverse.

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11 hours ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

 

My meeting was supposed to be yesterday morning but it had to be pushed back to next week. Counting down the days to grill them over this pathetic service. I’ve had a few buses missing myself of late. NoBxM1 one morning. No BxM2 one evening, and over the weekend, I was 30 minutes late because the BxM2 driver wasn’t aware of the PLANNED detour, so we sat while he called in, then had to circle around to get back to the 85th street Transverse.

I can't wait to hear about the meeting!

 

As usual, no 6:30 QM1, thought the 7 pm is running on time (I saw it sitting at the terminal at 6:50. The 6:45 QM31 (which I am currently on) is running perfectly as usual. Clearly major games going on with the QM1 in particular.


Also, since you've been posting about how late the QM5/6 on weekends are back to Queens, I took a look at the timetables, which I haven't done in years since I already have a mental timetable after all these years, and I burst out laughing. The times listed to get back to Queens, especially past 188th Street, are laughable. Even with no traffic, it just isn't possible now. I'm not sure they were ever really realistic. More like aspirations LOL

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13 minutes ago, QM1to6Ave said:

 

I can't wait to hear about the meeting!

 

As usual, no 6:30 QM1, thought the 7 pm is running on time (I saw it sitting at the terminal at 6:50. The 6:45 QM31 (which I am currently on) is running perfectly as usual. Clearly major games going on with the QM1 in particular.


Also, since you've been posting about how late the QM5/6 on weekends are back to Queens, I took a look at the timetables, which I haven't done in years since I already have a mental timetable after all these years, and I burst out laughing. The times listed to get back to Queens, especially past 188th Street, are laughable. Even with no traffic, it just isn't possible now. I'm not sure they were ever really realistic. More like aspirations LOL

I took the QM6 out there last Sunday.  Got the 12:30 to Lake Success. Got on at 6th and 42nd. Got an Asian guy (middle aged guy) who I've had before (always seems to do some QM6 trip on Sunday) and he must smoke on the bus because his bus always smells slightly of cigarettes.  Supposedly the trip should be done in an hour and six minutes... Yeah right... lol He finished up to North Shore Towers at 01:46.  Got him back to Manhattan as the 2:00 pm trip. I basically told him who I was and that I was taking his bus to monitor service because some of these guys have seen me and they're starting to flip out because they see me with my tablet taking notes and know that something is up, so I let them know that YES, I am monitoring service, and yes, I WILL be meeting with the (MTA) to discuss express bus service.  All depends on the driver. He invited me to stay on the bus. I told him it was fine and would wait until he was ready to start up again. I have a habit of getting buses at time points too which I'm sure makes them wonder what in the hell is going on. 

There was no traffic to speak of, and as usual he was late by the time he reached Union Turnpike and Main by almost 10 minutes.  On the trip back to City, we got to 6th and 36th by 2:56pm.  Better than a lot of other trips, because as I said some of them have been 40 minutes late by the time we reach Manhattan because they finish the Queens trips so late. Even with them flipping out with me riding and hauling @ss, they are lucky if they can meet the schedule.  Really ridiculous.  Now that I have notes and particulars I can grill them on specifics. For example, I'd like to know why the QM15 has almost 20 minutes to go from 44th and 6th to 57th and 3rd, but the QM1, QM5 and QM6 all get 10 minutes regardless of the time of day from 6th and 36th up to 57th and 3rd during the week. Just retarded.  

Edited by Via Garibaldi 8
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25 minutes ago, QM1to6Ave said:

As usual, no 6:30 QM1, thought the 7 pm is running on time (I saw it sitting at the terminal at 6:50. The 6:45 QM31 (which I am currently on) is running perfectly as usual. Clearly major games going on with the QM1 in particular.

In addition to that, only the 5, 6 and 7 PM buses ran today. That's more than half the buses missing.

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2 minutes ago, Lil 57 said:

In addition to that, only the 5, 6 and 7 PM buses ran today. That's more than half the buses missing.

There was a 4:30pm. I didn't see a 4pm bus though. I didn't log anything today because of the weather, but I was checking. You're right about the others.  Basically just a little more than 50% of the PM service runs that is on the schedule, and sometimes less than that.  Ridiculous.  

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10 minutes ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

There was a 4:30pm. I didn't see a 4pm bus though. I didn't log anything today because of the weather, but I was checking. You're right about the others.  Basically just a little more than 50% of the PM service runs that is on the schedule, and sometimes less than that.  Ridiculous.  

Guess it was untrackable. The (MTA) should be providing the service that people need. Not plotting to cut service by running terrible service, hoping that ridership drops.

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9 minutes ago, Lil 57 said:

Guess it was untrackable. The (MTA) should be providing the service that people need. Not plotting to cut service by running terrible service, hoping that ridership drops.

There’s no hoping. There’s been a 5:30pm trip literally a handful of times in WEEKS. No one is going to wait around for that bus or that 6:30pm trip either. I know my contact is going to say it’s a manpower problem but we had this conversation MONTHS ago. Either they have a bus but no driver, or drivers with no buses for them. The same crap goes on regularly on Staten Island, and now suddenly their planners and schedulers have become completely incompetent, so they can’t allot the proper run time. Right... More like they are trying to cut run times to the bone to cut back on costs. Cutting back on maintenance as well. Everybody that was in my meeting was more than competent, and quite a few of them were recently promoted, and none of them are new to the field.

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