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Via Garibaldi 8

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4 minutes ago, Around the Horn said:

You can't even pay the difference on a half fare card with another MetroCard... its ridiculous...

It would have been great in high school if I could load money on a Student Metro and it just deduct the 1.25 every time I dipped it.

(Sorry for the side tangent, but this reminded me of it)

lol It’s fine. It wasn’t originally part of my agenda for the upcoming meeting with the (MTA) , but I will add it. Most of it will pertain to on-time performance and the current metrics and how we want that simplified, HOV lanes and bus lanes and keeping them clear, traffic signal priority for express buses, and detours on weekends and if there can be fewer of these street closures. While rush hour service is abysmal, weekend service is even worse and for people that have to work, it’s creating a huge problem. Practically every weekend now some major street is shut down. We’ll be doing a route by route review with comments and requests. 

Edited by Via Garibaldi 8
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35 minutes ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

lol It’s fine. It wasn’t originally part of my agenda for the upcoming meeting with the (MTA) , but I will add it. Most of it will pertain to on-time performance and the current metrics and how we want that simplified, HOV lanes and bus lanes and keeping them clear, traffic signal priority for express buses, and detours on weekends and if there can be fewer of these street closures. While rush hour service is abysmal, weekend service is even worse and for people that have to work, it’s creating a huge problem. Practically every weekend now some major street is shut down. We’ll be doing a route by route review with comments and requests. 

I'm thinking that some streets in Manhattan should be bus-only (like the Fulton Mall in Brooklyn) That should boost the speed of buses. I was thinking that 5th Ave south of 57th street could be a good street to make Bus-Only as well as 42nd street.

Edited by Lil 57
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13 minutes ago, Lil 57 said:

I'm thinking that some streets in Manhattan should be bus-only (like the Fulton Mall in Brooklyn) That should boost the speed of buses. I was thinking that 5th Ave south of 57th street could be a good street to make Bus-Only as well as 42nd street.

I don’t see the DOT going for that, but we definitely would like to see no right turns from say 57th to 34th, and something done about 23rd. That bus lane isn’t cutting it. Lots of complaints about traffic.

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5 minutes ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

I don’t see the DOT going for that, but we definitely would like to see no right turns from say 57th to 34th, and something done about 23rd. That bus lane isn’t cutting it. Lots of complaints about traffic.

I also think that cabs and other vehicles should only be allowed to pick up/drop off passengers on the left side of the street. The cabs are blocking the bus lanes way too much.

Edited by Lil 57
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Just now, Lil 57 said:

I also think that cabs and other vehicles should only be allowed to pick up/drop off passengers on the left side of the street. The cabs are blocking the bus lanes a lot.

It’s supposed to be that way already, but because enforcement has been so lax, Ubers, taxis and everything else are abusing the lanes. The other morning, I had to shake off a cab looking to pick me up when I didn’t even want one. The no right turns is a big one from say 3-7 or longer during rush hour. Road ops and I agree, but the DOT pushed back originally when the (MTA) requested it.

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Speaking on the student MetroCard, since that thing needs to be replaced anyways, what I think should happen for students should be one of the following: 

1. Do an express only pass similar to what was said earlier, 3 trips with either two for the express and one for subway/locals or all 3 that works on both express routes only.

2. Program the student pass to be able to add fares on it. Could be useful even on the weekends if the MTA also decides to go that route. That way at the very least the pass can be used on all routes in the city no problem during school days. 

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I'm shocked by how little time the operators have between runs. The 5:00pm SIM3C from Castleton is scheduled to reach CPS at 6:20, and the next outbound SIM3C leaves at 6:30. I know it's Sunday, but what if there's an accident? Any minor incident or traffic can cause highly unreliable service. If it's early in the day, the operator might not be able to catch up on the time lost, resulting in late buses all day long. 10 minutes is just not enough wiggle room. Reevaluating run times and adjusting the schedules to allow for unexpected delays or hold-ups would really help reliability, which seems to be worse under the SIM system.

I was watching BusTime for a bit, and today that SIM3C I was talking about (bus #2670) reached CPS at 6:30 on the dot, but to my surprise he sat there for 14 minutes before leaving late at 6:44. Could he have been taking a bathroom break? Did he stop to make a phone call? I am curious as to why he left so late...

 

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5 minutes ago, SIMplicity said:

I was watching BusTime for a bit, and today that SIM3C I was talking about (bus #2670) reached CPS at 6:30 on the dot, but to my surprise he sat there for 14 minutes before leaving late at 6:44. Could he have been taking a bathroom break? Did he stop to make a phone call? I am curious as to why he left so late...

 

From what I remember, B/Os are allowed to take a 20-minute personal or something like that. If that’s wrong, maybe @SevenEleven or @trife86 could chime in.

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42 minutes ago, SIMplicity said:

I'm shocked by how little time the operators have between runs. The 5:00pm SIM3C from Castleton is scheduled to reach CPS at 6:20, and the next outbound SIM3C leaves at 6:30. I know it's Sunday, but what if there's an accident? Any minor incident or traffic can cause highly unreliable service. If it's early in the day, the operator might not be able

 

That might possible be a different bus already on layover or deadheading up to start. 

Edited by Jdog14
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1 hour ago, S78 via Hylan said:

From what I remember, B/Os are allowed to take a 20-minute personal or something like that. If that’s wrong, maybe @SevenEleven or @trife86 could chime in.

Yes, if you need to GO, call up on the radio your allowed unlimited 20 minute personals as long as you call it in... 95% of the time we try to make it to the end of the line but if not even if your in service if nature calls, you gotta answer lol. After all the bus is our office.

It's kind of tough sometimes but we try for be considerate. I like to drink alot of liquid but you try to think of the time you will end up and the terminals and adjust your intake accordingly.

 

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I forgot to post about this when it happened, but apparently NYCT workers were getting on buses during rush hour to survey as many passengers as possible. Two weeks ago I was riding the SIM25 in the morning when a friendly NYCT worker with a tablet got on at Victory Blvd and moved through the bus surveying us passengers during the length of the ride. If I remember correctly these were the questions.

  • How many days per week do you take this route? Do you take the same route in the afternoon? If not which route do you take?
  • How do you get to the bus stop in Staten Island (walk, drive, etc.)?
  • Rate the following as Better, Same, or Worse than they had been before August 19th
    • Bus stop location relative to your starting point a) in Staten Island, and b) in Manhattan
    • Travel time a) in the morning, and b) in the afternoon
    • Scheduled bus arrival times a) in the morning, and b) in the afternoon
    • Seat availability a) in the morning, and b) in the afternoon
    • Reliability of buses
  • Rate the following Strongly Agree, Agree, Disagree, Strongly Disagree
    • MTA listened to customers in the redesign process
    • MTA has been trying to improve the system by listening to customers and making changes

These were most of the questions, there were a few others but I can't remember them. Hopefully the MTA listens to the feedback and uses it in a meaningful way somehow.

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13 minutes ago, SIMplicity said:

I forgot to post about this when it happened, but apparently NYCT workers were getting on buses during rush hour to survey as many passengers as possible. Two weeks ago I was riding the SIM25 in the morning when a friendly NYCT worker with a tablet got on at Victory Blvd and moved through the bus surveying us passengers during the length of the ride. If I remember correctly these were the questions.

  • How many days per week do you take this route? Do you take the same route in the afternoon? If not which route do you take?
  • How do you get to the bus stop in Staten Island (walk, drive, etc.)?
  • Rate the following as Better, Same, or Worse than they had been before August 19th
    • Bus stop location relative to your starting point a) in Staten Island, and b) in Manhattan
    • Travel time a) in the morning, and b) in the afternoon
    • Scheduled bus arrival times a) in the morning, and b) in the afternoon
    • Seat availability a) in the morning, and b) in the afternoon
    • Reliability of buses
  • Rate the following Strongly Agree, Agree, Disagree, Strongly Disagree
    • MTA listened to customers in the redesign process
    • MTA has been trying to improve the system by listening to customers and making changes

These were most of the questions, there were a few others but I can't remember them. Hopefully the MTA listens to the feedback and uses it in a meaningful way somehow.

They’d better start listening because between myself and the other local team dealing with Staten Island express bus service, we intend to keep on them until service is provided as needed. My focus is going to be on pushing for the restoration of the X18 and the X14. The SIM30 is not working and having Rosebank riders take a tour of Forest Avenue is unacceptable. In less than a month we have over 400 members and we’re growing by the day. Strength is in numbers and most people joining are PISSED with their service, but it Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island or the Bronx. My area in Riverdale seems more interested in having the BxM2 serve more the Upper West Side, so in order to do that, I threw out the idea of moving the bus up to West 86th, turning there and coming across the park that way.  Madison and 80th and 84th would be consolidated into one stop at 86th and Madison, and then 99th and Madison.This maintains to the same connections along Central Park West that currently exist.

Edited by Via Garibaldi 8
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The consolidation pattern with the X13/X14 worked out fine. There was nothing wrong with the X14 because it wasn't like the other Midtown-via-Downtown routes as it just made a few stops along Water before continuing up the FDR Drive to Midtown. 

It's an outright cut to have the SIM35 (aka X13) be reinstated and the X14 be cut because the former only serves Downtown, and there are barely any transfer points in the vicinity of Water St to the subway since most of the subway lines are concentrated near the center. The SIM3/c (aka the X10/X42) and SIM30 (aka the X30) can't be the only Midtown routes serving the North Shore. Same goes with the SIM6 (X5) and SIM10 (X2) being the only Midtown routes along Hylan Blvd...

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40 minutes ago, Coney Island Av said:

The consolidation pattern with the X13/X14 worked out fine. There was nothing wrong with the X14 because it wasn't like the other Midtown-via-Downtown routes as it just made a few stops along Water before continuing up the FDR Drive to Midtown. 

It's an outright cut to have the SIM35 (aka X13) be reinstated and the X14 be cut because the former only serves Downtown, and there are barely any transfer points in the vicinity of Water St to the subway since most of the subway lines are concentrated near the center. The SIM3/c (aka the X10/X42) and SIM30 (aka the X30) can't be the only Midtown routes serving the North Shore. Same goes with the SIM6 (X5) and SIM10 (X2) being the only Midtown routes along Hylan Blvd...

I don’t know who told you that lie. I was a regular X14 rider when it only served Midtown, and the revised X14 that only made a “few stops” along Water, crawled to the FDR, so I prefer that the old X14 returned.

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7 hours ago, SIMplicity said:

I agree. My high school is in Manhattan but the average student commute is over an hour, people come from all over the city and the tri-state area. (Just saying, it’s sad that some kids from Connecticut have a commute at least 20-30 minutes shorter than mine.) A bunch of kids who go to my school take the express buses (SIM, QM and BxM). A student MetroCard to cover part of the cost would be ideal (and fair). Especially when the alternatives are lacking. A few of my friends live in transit deserts in Queens and the express bus is the only option that makes sense to get to school. For me, if I didn’t take the SIMs, it would be either the S78 to the S79 to the R to the N to the 4/5, or the S59 to the SIR to the ferry to the 4/5. I would never make it to school. I’d probably have to wake up almost an hour earlier each morning. 

I just checked BusTime and the 2:30pm SIM2 left Tottenville 24 minutes late at 2:54pm (bus#2578). The 3:00pm bus left on time, just six minutes behind it.

The 2:45pm SIM2 (#2732) from Chambers passed Battery/Washington and entered the tunnel at 2:49 instead of the scheduled 2:56.

I wonder if in that situation, it would make sense to have the 2:30pm SIM2 bypass Arden Avenue (and just run straight up Huguenot) to save some time. Did the 3pm SIM2 end up catching up with the 2:30pm bus later on?

7 hours ago, Lil 57 said:

Another thought, the 9:00 PM SIM3C bus to Midtown on Saturdays goes back with the 10:30 PM Bus to Port Richmond. Meaning that the 11 PM, 11:30 PM and 12 AM buses are all deheads from Staten Island. Since the Midtown Route is reasonably quick at that time, wouldn't it be reasonable to convert those deadheads into Midtown SIM3C trips? New trips would leave at 9:30 PM, 10:00 PM and 10:30 PM and come back on the 11 PM, 11:30 PM and 12 AM trips, respectively. 

I agree.

53 minutes ago, Coney Island Av said:

The consolidation pattern with the X13/X14 worked out fine. There was nothing wrong with the X14 because it wasn't like the other Midtown-via-Downtown routes as it just made a few stops along Water before continuing up the FDR Drive to Midtown. 

It's an outright cut to have the SIM35 (aka X13) be reinstated and the X14 be cut because the former only serves Downtown, and there are barely any transfer points in the vicinity of Water St to the subway since most of the subway lines are concentrated near the center. The SIM3/c (aka the X10/X42) and SIM30 (aka the X30) can't be the only Midtown routes serving the North Shore. Same goes with the SIM6 (X5) and SIM10 (X2) being the only Midtown routes along Hylan Blvd...

By getting off the FDR, the X14 got caught up in the Battery Place traffic (since the traffic agents favor the FDR traffic, which backs up traffic along Battery Place, Broadway, and sometimes even State Street). 

Keep in mind that about 80% of the Hylan-Midtown riders took the X2/5 instead of the X7/9 (which were mainly used by riders south of 23rd). The thing that screwed everything up is the fact that they eliminated the New Dorp short-turn point, which was important for reliability purposes (and actually saved the MTA money since the routes were shorter).

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7 hours ago, checkmatechamp13 said:

I wonder if in that situation, it would make sense to have the 2:30pm SIM2 bypass Arden Avenue (and just run straight up Huguenot) to save some time. Did the 3pm SIM2 end up catching up with the 2:30pm bus later on?

I was thinking that too with my SIM3C trips that came bunched on Saturday. I was on the late 6:50 AM bus to Midtown and the 7:10 AM was right behind it. I thought, wouldn't it make sense for the late 6:50 bus to skip the Narrows Road and have the 7:10 make the stops since that bus was carrying air? Mabye it's a (MTA)policy?

Edited by Lil 57
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4 hours ago, Lil 57 said:

I was thinking that too with my SIM3C trips that came bunched on Saturday. I was on the late 6:50 AM bus to Midtown and the 7:10 AM was right behind it. I thought, wouldn't it make sense for the late 6:50 bus to skip the Narrows Road and have the 7:10 make the stops since that bus was carrying air? Mabye it's a (MTA)policy?

It is likely a NYCT policy.  When Staten Island had the old system, a B/O told me that they are VERY strict about Staten Island express buses going off-route.

 

----

The gaps in service and the waits continue to amaze me.  There are so many missing buses during rush hour. 

 

  • I have at least one or two buses every single week go missing, sometimes more during rush hour. This morning I tried to get the Super Express BxM2 (the 07:15).  Long line at the stop.  The bus was a no-show. We all broke out and went to different stops for another bus. 
  • Ulmer Park Depot is having TERRIBLE problems making service.  It seems that maintenance is overwhelmed or they simply aren't fixing buses at all.    Either way, we had a X38 break down this morning, and one driver tried to take a bus THREE times unsuccessfully, thus making her late to do her X37 trip.  Buses that are roughly six years old breaking down like this due to a lack of maintenance. 

I do not see how we can continue to allow this BS to go on.  I'm going to be calling for an audit, not just of on-time performance, but also how many buses aren't being sent out because of a lack of maintenance.   The heart of rush hour and we have people all around the city that can't get a bus to work.  Because of that missing bus, it took me almost two hours to reach Midtown.

Edited by Via Garibaldi 8
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If an express bus breaks down, I’d rather them send out an local bus to cover service. Rather have a local bus try to make service than no bus. They might be governed so they’ll be going really slow on the expwy. Ulmer Park definitely has some spare local buses, it’s a shame to send a local bus out and make sure they don’t make it a habit.

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Just now, danielhg121 said:

If an express bus breaks down, I’d rather them send out an local bus to cover service. Rather have a local bus try to make service than no bus. They might be governed so they’ll be going really slow on the expwy. Ulmer Park definitely has some spare local buses, it’s a shame to send a local bus out and make sure they don’t make it a habit.

The type of bus doesn't matter because now when a bus breaks down, NOTHING is sent out.  This is the new cheap (MTA) .  In the old days, if the bus broke down, they'd send out another one. Now they take your $6.50, and if your bus breaks down, you will be waiting for the next bus and hope that it comes or you're on your own.  They do this even when it's hourly service.  The real kicker is, I've seen people pay $6.50 at the actual bus stop, take a seat only to find out that the bus is broke down, so now they just paid for nothing.  

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11 hours ago, Lil 57 said:

I was thinking that too with my SIM3C trips that came bunched on Saturday. I was on the late 6:50 AM bus to Midtown and the 7:10 AM was right behind it. I thought, wouldn't it make sense for the late 6:50 bus to skip the Narrows Road and have the 7:10 make the stops since that bus was carrying air? Mabye it's a (MTA)policy?

Either that, or if the dispatcher wanted to get creative, they could send it down Willowbrook Road to Watchogue (since it cuts out 2 turns and 5 traffic lights). 

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1 hour ago, checkmatechamp13 said:

Either that, or if the dispatcher wanted to get creative, they could send it down Willowbrook Road to Watchogue (since it cuts out 2 turns and 5 traffic lights). 

Ideally, if the buses were close to each other, the 6:50 AM could have also stayed in front, and bypass everything south of 23rd Street (while the other makes all stops). The FDR and 23rd Street are generally free-flowing at those times on Saturday, so that bus could have bypassed Lower Manhattan entirely. 

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14 minutes ago, BM5 via Woodhaven said:

Ideally, if the buses were close to each other, the 6:50 AM could have also stayed in front, and bypass everything south of 23rd Street (while the other makes all stops). The FDR and 23rd Street are generally free-flowing at those times on Saturday, so that bus could have bypassed Lower Manhattan entirely. 

Or just convert the 6:50 AM Bus into a rush hour SIM3.

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45 minutes ago, 7-express said:

Add this to your list.  Today's 1600 QM20 departure (bus #3027) left 34th St 20 minutes late for unknown reasons creating a lovely 50 minute gap in the PM ramp up.

We know about the complaints to the QM2 and QM20, and will be requesting that the QM2 and QM20 be removed from 59th and returned back to 57th street.  We have been taking a lot of QM2 trips especially and requesting that road ops give additional attention to both Bay Terrace branches.  Furthermore, we will be requesting that the 00:00 QM2 be restored, and if necessary the QM32 trips back to Bay Terrace in the morning be considered for elimination to ensure that said QM2 trip is restored. The QM2 via 6th Avenue would still run every 30 minutes as it currently does in the mornings back to Bay Terrace.

We'd also ask for one or two more QM20 Super Express trips back to Bay Terrace at night so that more people could take advantage of the 6th and 36th stop. This could be done with some tweaking to the schedule and thus be cost neutral.

Finally, we'd call for the implementation of the QM20 running on weekends.  The feedback we've received seems to indicate that a lot of QM2 riders on weekends are actually QM20 riders, but since the QM2 tends to serve the more tonier parts of Northeast Queens such as Beechhurst and Malba (Whitestone), it is understood why the (MTA) runs the QM2, aside from those areas being more isolated.  The other option we considered was just having the QM2 run every 30 minutes for part of the day on weekends, but that doesn't seem to be as popular.

 

 

Edited by Via Garibaldi 8
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I've also received some confirmation regarding some trips.  For whatever reason, some trips are going missing either due to a lack of manpower or maintenance.  I'm really hoping to get a better understanding of both things, because I find both problems extremely troubling.  For example, there has been one BxM2 trip in the morning that has not been filled with a regular driver going back to the summertime, and that trip has not had a regular driver even after the new pick.  I'll refrain from my criticisms until I have a better understanding of why so many trips are going unfilled, but nevertheless at least my suspicions are correct which is unfortunate.  What angered me the most was when I would inquire with my elected official about why such and such trip kept going missing, I wouldn't get a straight answer.  Honesty is always the best policy.  That said, it does make me rather uneasy about waiting for the express bus now because now I know that some trips are going to remain a problem for the foreseeable future.

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