Express Bus Advocacy Group

[Jdog14]

12 minutes ago, Lawrence St said:

I can't tell at times what's a SIM33 and a SIM33C. I don't understand why they don't have the back and side say "3C" and the front alternate between "SIM" and "33C".

 

They put COMBINATION on the front sign but its too small. They should have just called it the SIM44 or some shit lol

 

[Lawrence St]

10 minutes ago, Jdog14 said:

 

They put COMBINATION on the front sign but its too small. They should have just called it the SIM44 or some shit lol

 

some people might be like "whats this COMBINATION place? is it a new terminal?"

[QM1to6Ave]

2 hours ago, Lil 57 said:

QM1 Update (1/24/2019):

Same as yesterday, no 5:30 or 6:30 bus. Since I started tracking the QM1 buses last Thursday, the 5:30 PM and the 6:30 PM buses only showed up once. Meanwhile, the 4:30 PM and the 7 PM buses showed up everyday.

I was hoping to catch the 6:30, but when it didnt come I hopped over to the 6:45 QM31, which had a lot of passengers

[BM5 via Woodhaven]

1 hour ago, Jdog14 said:

 

They put COMBINATION on the front sign but its too small. They should have just called it the SIM44 or some shit lol

 

They have space on the front of the Prevosts, but there is no space on the MCI front signs nor on the side signs of any of the buses. Most bus stop signs in Midtown only list SIM33 as well. The only issue where I can see this being a problem is during the transition period (after the AM rush outbound, and before and after the PM rush). There actually is an overlap between the PM rush SIM33 and Midday SIM33C going outbound.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

On 1/23/2019 at 12:18 AM, IAlam said:

I know this isn’t an express route but another route I’d suggest looking into is the M98. This route operates similarly to an express bus and deals with almost the same exact problems. I had a couple time I tried to use it over the summer and almost everytime I had to deal with either extremely late buses or no shows.

Perhaps you can consider that for another advocacy group. We don’t cover the M98, as it is not an express bus, hence the name “Express Bus Advocacy Group”. Express buses only... I’m sure the Riders Alliance would want to know though. They focus on the subways and the local buses.

[ViaWaterViaChurch]

So now that mayor has announced that any cars in bus lanes will be ticketed and towed, who’s going to ticket and tow the nypd and nypd traffic cars that park there?

[Lawrence St]

9 hours ago, BM5 via Woodhaven said:

They have space on the front of the Prevosts, but there is no space on the MCI front signs nor on the side signs of any of the buses. Most bus stop signs in Midtown only list SIM33 as well. The only issue where I can see this being a problem is during the transition period (after the AM rush outbound, and before and after the PM rush). There actually is an overlap between the PM rush SIM33 and Midday SIM33C going outbound.

Yes, this is a major problem. You cant tell the difference between the two.

[Lil 57]

Looked out the window and saw this...

3 express buses sitting on the ram from the BQE to the LIE towards the city, with their 4-way flashers on. not sure if they were deheading to the city to do a run and broke down, but if that's the case, some trips might not be filled this evening, knowing that  Bus is notorious for no-shows and not filling in trips.

Edit: One bus moved, leaving 2 buses sitting on the ramp.

Edit #2: Another bus moved but another bus stopped on the ramp. (still 2 buses) Maybe it's a layover spot? (Weird for buses to layover on a highway ramp though.)

Edited January 25, 2019 by Lil 57

[Via Garibaldi 8]

Well NO 5:30 QM1 for the ENTIRE WEEK!! Talk about the pits... For a line that runs every 30 minutes at night during rush hour only, and they want us to believe that they can provide "frequent service"...

[Lil 57]

2 minutes ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

Well NO 5:30 QM1 for the ENTIRE WEEK!! Talk about the pits... For a line that runs every 30 minutes at night during rush hour only, and they want us to believe that they can provide "frequent service"...

Same thing with the 6:30, unless the 6:30 comes today, the QM1 had a "modified" schedule for the past 2 days.

4:00 

4:30

5:00

6:00

7:00

Edited January 25, 2019 by Lil 57

[Via Garibaldi 8]

1 minute ago, Lil 57 said:

Same thing with the 6:30, unless the 6:30 comes today, the QM1 had a "modified" schedule for the past 2 days.

4:00 

4:30

5:00

6:00

7:00

I have a log going back to last year... That January 17th day was by far the worst, where they had a gap from 5pm - 7pm. I still can't get over that one.  You basically run NO service during the HEART of rush hour.

[Lil 57]

1 minute ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

I have a log going back to last year... That January 17th day was by far the worst, where they had a gap from 5pm - 7pm. I still can't get over that one.  You basically run NO service during the HEART of rush hour.

The 22nd was worse, no bus from 4:30 PM till 7 PM. People getting out of work at 5 didn't even have a chance.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

11 minutes ago, Lil 57 said:

The 22nd was worse, no bus from 4:30 PM till 7 PM. People getting out of work at 5 didn't even have a chance.

There was a bus at 4:30pm.  He was off and on BusTime. That's another problem on that line.  Buses popping up and disappearing...

January 17th:

QM1: 16:00, NO BUS. 16:30, 3000. 17:00, 3044. 17:30, NO BUS. 18:00, NO BUS. 18:30, NO BUS. 19:00, 3000.

January 22nd:

QM1: 16:00, 3467. 16:30, 3060. 17:00, NO BUS. 17:30, NO BUS. 18:00, NO BUS. 18:30, NO BUS. 19:00, 3060.

Pretty damn close... I forgot about the 22nd... On the 22nd, 3060 kept disappearing.  If you couldn't track it you probably didn't think the bus was coming. The 22nd had a longer gap but the same amount of missing buses overall.

Edited January 25, 2019 by Via Garibaldi 8

[Lil 57]

6 minutes ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

There was a bus at 4:30pm.  He was off and on BusTime. That's another problem on that line.  Buses popping up and disappearing...

That's what I meant. No service after 4:30 PM. Let's see if the 6:30 shows up today.

Edit: And it did, the first time since last Friday.

Edited January 25, 2019 by Lil 57

[Lil 57]

QM1 Update (1/25):

6/7 buses came today with the 5:30 PM bus being a no-show. Since 1/17/2019 73% of trips showed up while 27% of trips were missing.

Something needs to be done with the 5:30 PM trip. Last time it came was last Friday, going an entire week with a bus not showing up is completely unacceptable, especially since the QM1 runs every 30 minutes during the PM rush.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

40 minutes ago, Lil 57 said:

QM1 Update (1/25):

6/7 buses came today with the 5:30 PM bus being a no-show. Since 1/17/2019 73% of trips showed up while 27% of trips were missing.

Something needs to be done with the 5:30 PM trip. Last time it came was last Friday, going an entire week with a bus not showing up is completely unacceptable, especially since the QM1 runs every 30 minutes during the PM rush.

When did that 7pm show up? He was late...

[Lil 57]

Just now, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

When did that 7pm show up? He was late...

Around 10 minutes late bus #3061, just finished his run.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

1 hour ago, Lil 57 said:

Around 10 minutes late bus #3061, just finished his run.

I had him down as missing. Glad I checked here because that bus often times isn't sent out.

[Lil 57]

Just now, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

I had him down as missing. Glad I checked here because that bus often times isn't sent out.

Luckily, since 1/17 the 7 PM bus always came.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

3 minutes ago, Lil 57 said:

Luckily, since 1/17 the 7 PM bus always came.

Not luckily. I've been putting a lot on pressure on to have these QM1 trips filled and I know my contacts are reading what I write. We have elected officials in my group now who I can tag and show just what's going on. Case in point. Tonight the 8pm BxM2 to Riverdale was almost 30 minutes late. I tagged my local Assemblyman rep and local Senator rep because I have quite a few people that posted about waiting for that bus. I know that bus has been a mess for many months in fact years because I too have waited for it that long, so I have it logged now for several weeks to show them a pattern of horrendous service.

Edited January 26, 2019 by Via Garibaldi 8

[Lil 57]

Just now, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

Not luckily. I've been putting a lot on pressure on to have these QM1 trips filled and I know my contacts are reading what I write.

The last bus of the day is the most important bus to send because if doesn't come it could leave people stranded. Especially routes on the South Shore of Staten Island where some areas have no local service past 7 PM.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

1 minute ago, Lil 57 said:

The last bus of the day is the most important bus to send because if doesn't come it could leave people stranded. Especially routes on the South Shore of Staten Island where some areas have no local service past 7 PM.

Yep and I had this very conversation with my contact at Road Ops about this. He actually assured me that he would see to it that trips that I mentioned be filled and given how long this mess has been going on, I know that wasn’t easy for him to assure. They have really been running sh*tty service now for so many months prior to me starting this group, that they were caught with their pants down. Then they promoted a lot of people so there’s that. New faces everywhere. Things have improved in some cases and worsened in others.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

What I have been able to do is get express bus riders from all of the outer boroughs into one group where we can all see how service is Citywide. That is a very powerful thing, and something even I didn’t think was possible but social media it is. We are not that far away from 1,000 people in the group...

Edited January 26, 2019 by Via Garibaldi 8

[QM1to6Ave]

Thank you guys for validating my concerns with the QM1. In the past, whenever I complained to the MTA or even to dispatchers,  they poo-pooed it and tried to make me feel like I was crazy! 

[Via Garibaldi 8]

8 hours ago, QM1to6Ave said:

Thank you guys for validating my concerns with the QM1. In the past, whenever I complained to the MTA or even to dispatchers,  they poo-pooed it and tried to make me feel like I was crazy! 

When did it start becoming THIS bad? For me I would say it started really going down hill in the summer of 2017 with The Who missing bus saga (the commute has stunk now for several years as traffic has worsened but that’s an aside). On occasion there would be a bus missing, but then I started noticing DAYS where buses would go missing on various lines, morning AND night. That’s when I sprung into action. The commute is long enough. To have no idea if your bus will come or not is just absurd, and it adds to the commute. I got tired of having to scramble. If my bus on Madison didn’t come, I’d have to scramble over to 3rd and “hope” that the BxM1 came, and then they started screwing with that too. It’s like we aren’t supposed to get to and from any more in a reasonable amount of time, and these buses aren’t set up to come every 5-10 minutes. There’s a 20-30 gap between buses, so if there’s no bus, you feel it.