Express Bus Advocacy Group

[Via Garibaldi 8]

5 hours ago, Lil 57 said:

What reason did Academy have for this? People are going to start driving to the SIM25/26 for a better ride.

Does Academy need to get  approval inorder to do changes to the SIM23/34 routes.

The decision to restore six bus stops on the SIM23 and SIM24 was based off of rider feedback. NOTHING to do with the  . Ultimately riders have been raising hell and not holding about the horrendous service, so their response was to just put things back the way it was. People have had enough. We are paying $13.00 a day for this service and it is being run like some Mickey Mouse organization.

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Latest news:

I slammed the  for the proposed fare hikes and certainly gave them hell at my meeting down at 2 Broadway last week. I ran that meeting for almost two hours and did not hold back about the horrendous express bus service and overall quality of service, from the planned detour mess to the missing buses day in and day out in 20 - 30 degree weather where passengers are literally left stranded with no service while paying $6.50.  

It seems as if all of our efforts paid off.  The new fare will be as follows:

-$6.75, down from $7.00 - 7.25

-$62.00 for the 7-day express bus pass, down from $63.00.

-Coins will no longer be allowed

-Depending on the circumstances, I may elect to speak before the Board again regarding service restorations, etc.  All depends on how things go with my contacts. If we can work out some things via conference calls or e-mails, great, if not I'll go back before the board again WITH the media there to put them on notice.

 

Edited February 27, 2019 by Via Garibaldi 8

[Lil 57]

3 hours ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

-Coins will no longer be allowed

There needs to be more places where you can get a MetroCard when coins get elimated. If you don't have enough money on your MetroCard you're going to have to drive or take the local bus, which can be a PITA if you live in places like the South Shore of Staten Island.

 

Also where do you get 7-day express bus passes from? Don't see them on the machines.

Edited February 27, 2019 by Lil 57

[trife86]

7 minutes ago, Lil 57 said:

There needs to be more places where you can get a MetroCard when coins get elimated. If you don't have enough money on your MetroCard you're going to have to drive or take the local bus, which can be a PITA if you live in places like the South Shore of Staten Island.

That can't happen until the farebox is fully eliminated, even if it wanted express bus card only than alot of people will lose the benefit of either having unlimited local card and paying cash difference or flat our change in general, what are they going to do block off the change area?

Edited February 27, 2019 by trife86

[Via Garibaldi 8]

1 minute ago, Lil 57 said:

There needs to be more places where you can get a MetroCard when coins get elimated. If you don't have enough money on your MetroCard you're going to have to drive or take the local bus, which can be a PITA if you live in places like the South Shore of Staten Island.

It's actually the one thing that I am VEHEMENTLY opposed to.  I just wrote one of my contacts a little while ago about this.  I don't think it should be implemented until OMNY is widely available to use, otherwise it penalizes express bus riders that don't live near subways.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

Just now, trife86 said:

That can't happened until the farebox is fully eliminated, even if it wanted express bus card only than alot of people will lose the benefit of either having unlimited local card and paying cash difference.

What can't happen? No coins goes away with the new fare increase come April 25th.  I plan on speaking about it before the board if need be. 

[trife86]

4 minutes ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

What can't happen? No coins goes away with the new fare increase come April 25th.  I plan on speaking about it before the board if need be. 

No coins accepted is what can't happen yet, people that purchase unlimited local cards will lose the ability to pay the cash difference after the swipe. 

[Lil 57]

3 minutes ago, trife86 said:

No coins accepted is what can't happen yet, people that purchase unlimited local cards will lose the ability to pay the cash difference after the swipe. 

You can do that on express buses? I thought if you used a local unlimited on an express bus it would just say CARD INVALID or something like that.

Edited February 27, 2019 by Lil 57

[Via Garibaldi 8]

Just now, trife86 said:

No coins accepted is what can't happen yet, people that purchase unlimited local cards will lose the ability to pay the cash difference after the swipe. 

Well that's precisely what they voted for today, to no longer accept coins on express buses which is absurd, given that the OMNY system won't be fully available for some months to come. Their argument is that very few people use coins, AND that more coins holds up the express buses. Both comments are true, BUT the people that use coins are the must vulnerable. Seniors and people that can't drive to places that have vending machines and are far from subways. I have ONE store that sells Metrocards in my entire neighborhood.... ONE.... For me it means a long walk to the nearest subway station and the machines are usually busted.  Maybe one out of the three works at 242nd street on a consistent basis.  On Staten Island, there were times when I had no choice but to pay with coins because all of the stores were out or I had to take car service to a store to get a Metrocard to then get the express bus.  That is extra money and time that riders have to put out just to try to pay their fare and some won't do it, leading to more lost revenue.

[trife86]

Just now, Lil 57 said:

You can do that on express buses? I thought if you used a local unlimited on an express bus it would just say CARD INVALID or something like that.

Yes you can, not sure why it was never widely known or advertised. It will give you the red light and say $3.75 unpaid or whatever. 

 

But yes you can just pay the difference the card reads just fine and we know it's a local unlimited because of it, but it will beep as unpaid because it is.

[trife86]

1 minute ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

Well that's precisely what they voted for today, to no longer accept coins on express buses which is absurd, given that the OMNY system won't be fully available for some months to come. Their argument is that very few people use coins, AND that more coins holds up the express buses. Both comments are true, BUT the people that use coins are the must vulnerable. Seniors and people that can't drive to places that have vending machines and are far from subways. I have ONE store that sells Metrocards in my entire neighborhood.... ONE.... For me it means a long walk to the nearest subway station and the machines are usually busted.  Maybe one out of the three works at 242nd street on a consistent basis.  On Staten Island, there were times when I had no choice but to pay with coins because all of the stores were out or I had to take car service to a store to get a Metrocard to then get the express bus.  That is extra money and time that riders have to put out just to try to pay their fare and some won't do it, leading to more lost revenue.

Yeah that's a little crazy coins aren't any slower than the idiots that see the bus coming for blocks than decide to wait at the farebox while they rifle through their stuff looking for the card.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

2 minutes ago, Lil 57 said:

You can do that on express buses? I thought if you used a local unlimited on an express bus it would just say CARD INVALID or something like that.

No, what it does now is takes all of the money off of the card and asks you to pay the difference in coins.  If you can't then the driver resets the Metrocard for you to dip again.  Another retarded thing about the Metrocard. I had that very thing happen to me two Saturdays ago.  I spent OVER $8.00 one way because it kept taking the money off of my card and asking for the balance in coins instead of letting me pay the difference with the Metrocard.

[Lil 57]

Just now, trife86 said:

Yes you can, not sure why it was never widely known or advertised. It will give you the red light and say $3.75 unpaid or whatever. 

 

But yes you can just pay the difference the card reads just fine and we know it's a local unlimited because of it, but it will beep as unpaid because it is.

If you can do that for local unlimiteds, I don't know why they eliminated that for Student MetroCards.

[trife86]

Just now, Lil 57 said:

If you can do that for local unlimiteds, I don't know why they eliminated that for Student MetroCards.

That was eliminated many years ago. For good reason I think, if your taking express bus to school your not doing something right lol.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

1 minute ago, trife86 said:

Yeah that's a little crazy coins aren't any slower than the idiots that see the bus coming for blocks than decide to wait at the farebox while they rifle through their stuff looking for the card.

What it really is is them trying to eliminate the need for the fareboxes to be emptied of coins and save money.

[trife86]

Just now, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

What it really is is them trying to eliminate the need for the fareboxes to be emptied of coins and save money.

That won't save anything besides more weight being hauled around on the money truck.

 

Fareboxes need to get probed regardless of if coins are in it or not. It's how it reads the MetroCard info as well. And sucking out the coins even on a fully loaded farebox is maybe 30sec more maximum over a empty one.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

1 minute ago, trife86 said:

That won't save anything besides more weight being hauled around on the money truck.

 

Fareboxes need to get probed regardless of if coins are in it or not. It's how it reads the MetroCard info as well. And sucking out the coins even on a fully loaded farebox is maybe 30sec more maximum over a empty one.

I agree, but we're talking about the  here. You should listen to their CFO go on and on about "cost savings" at the board meetings, and most of any "savings" usually means screwing over the passengers one way or another.

[Lil 57]

4 minutes ago, trife86 said:

That was eliminated many years ago. For good reason I think, if your taking express bus to school your not doing something right lol.

What do you mean? There are alot of students like @SIMplicity that use the express bus to go to school. It's the quickest way for some people.

Edited February 27, 2019 by Lil 57

[trife86]

3 minutes ago, Lil 57 said:

What do you mean? There are alot of students like @SIMplicity that use the express bus to go to school. It's the quickest way for some people.

While I know you don't have to be zoned for highschool's anymore I don't think they should be letting people go to different boroughs just for a public school and the overall effect on a teenagers rest and sleep scheduling and overall mental health adding in 2 hours travel each way.

But that's just my own opinion.

And what if there's a big emergency would anyone want their kids stranded somewhere over a bridge away 

Edited February 27, 2019 by trife86

[Lil 57]

8 minutes ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

I spent OVER $8.00 one way because it kept taking the money off of my card and asking for the balance in coins instead of letting me pay the difference with the Metrocard.

Sometimes the farboxs malfunction. It's annoying when it takes more money off your card. Like the time I got charged $6.50 for the S57 bus. I see alot of local buses with broken fare boxes but I never see an Express bus out with a broken farebox.

[trife86]

Just now, Lil 57 said:

Sometimes the farboxs malfunction. It's annoying when it takes more money off your card. Like the time I got charged $6.50 for the S57 bus. I see alot of local buses with broken fare boxes but I never see an Express bus out with a broken farebox.

That's not a malfunction that's the driver set it to wrong fare.

[Lil 57]

9 minutes ago, trife86 said:

While I know you don't have to be zoned for highschool's anymore I don't think they should be letting people go to different boroughs just for a public school and the overall effect on a teenagers rest and sleep scheduling and overall mental health adding in 2 hours travel each way.

But that's just my own opinion.

And what if there's a big emergency would anyone want their kids stranded somewhere over a bridge away 

Alot of people that travel between boroughs for High School go to Specialized High Schools. They might as well do it if it's for a better education. More than half of the students in my school don't even live on Staten Island (my school's on SI). And it can be much quicker to get to Brooklyn than places on SI from my high school. 30-40 minutes to Brooklyn on a bus that runs every 5-10 minutes vs 50-60 minutes on a bus to Port Richmond that runs every 25-30 minutes.

Edited February 27, 2019 by Lil 57

[trife86]

6 minutes ago, Lil 57 said:

Alot of people that travel between boroughs for High School go to Specialized High Schools. They might as well do it if it's for a better education. More than half of the students in my school don't even live on Staten Island (my school's on SI). And it can be much quicker to get to Brooklyn than places on SI from my high school. 30-40 minutes to Brooklyn on a bus that runs every 5-10 minutes vs 50-60 minutes on a bus to Port Richmond that runs every 25-30 minutes.

Yeah but we're talking about express bus here, not s53/79/93/89

[Lil 57]

7 minutes ago, trife86 said:

Yeah but we're talking about express bus here, not s53/79/93/89

I was just trying to bring a point up. If you want to use express buses, you can say if you lived in lower Manhattan and went to school on SI, it can take you 60-75 minutes to go to school via the SIM1C. Much quicker than taking the S79 to the  train and possibly another train (up to 2 hours sometimes). And we all know that the S79 and the  train are horrendous after school.

Edited February 27, 2019 by Lil 57

[Via Garibaldi 8]

10 minutes ago, Lil 57 said:

I was just trying to bring a point up. If you want to use express buses, you can say if you lived in lower Manhattan and went to school on SI, it can take you 60-75 minutes to go to school via the SIM1C. Much quicker than taking the S79 to the  train and possibly another train (up to 2 hours sometimes). And we all know that the S79 and the  train are horrendous after school.

His point is this is a thread for express buses, not locals, so just keep that in mind.

[Lil 57]

Just now, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

His point is this is a thread for express buses, not locals, so just keep that in mind.

I know, I should have worded it differently. Students use the express buses to school because it is much quicker than other options. That's why I'm confused about why using a local unlimited on an express bus and paying the difference in coins/pay-for-ride MetroCard is allowed while doing the same thing with a Student card isn't.