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Express Bus Advocacy Group


Via Garibaldi 8

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10 hours ago, Lil 57 said:

I'm surprised by how the SIM3C was able to stay up with the SIM33C also running. I'm not sure how the SIM33C is doing because whenever I ride it, it's during low-ridership times. However, I remember taking the 12:30 PM SIM3C to the city and that bus had a good load (at least 30-35 people). But the SIM33C right behind it only had a handful of people when I saw it pass by when I got off at the WTC.

In addition, Port Richmond Ridership has skyrocketed with the SIM3 and even the SIM3C than with the X10/X14.

That's the key. For whatever reason the 3C tends to come before the 33C (even when they are scheduled at the exact same time the 3C tends to leave first). But I agree they should be more spread out (so that the better effective frequency attracts ridership)

9 hours ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

At this point they wanted to be DONE with Staten Island, but there has been so much push back from riders that they're being forced to deal with us.  They don't want to deal with me either, but I've been relentless in forcing them to deal with me.  You guys sit back and make proposals... These redesigns are about SAVING money and cutting service where possible. Yes they are spending a bit more money with the new network, but by cutting back routes, they can cut back on run times, which means lower operational costs.  They don't want to take the time to for lines to blossom.  They want buses full, so the goal here is to do just that.

The problem is that they messed up so bad that they don't have much of a choice. And sadly they continue to mess up and they're just dragging it out for themselves and for the riders. For example, all of us agree on splitting up the Hylan routes (New Dorp via Hylan and ETC via Father Capodanno). Doing that would solve so many reliability issues and ridership imbalances and yet they refuse to do it. Back in December I was told they were going to restore the X4 in a cost-neutral manner and now from what I hear they are strictly focusing on the runtimes and frequencies and that's it, no route changes

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7 hours ago, checkmatechamp13 said:

That's the key. For whatever reason the 3C tends to come before the 33C (even when they are scheduled at the exact same time the 3C tends to leave first). But I agree they should be more spread out (so that the better effective frequency attracts ridership)

The problem is that they messed up so bad that they don't have much of a choice. And sadly they continue to mess up and they're just dragging it out for themselves and for the riders. For example, all of us agree on splitting up the Hylan routes (New Dorp via Hylan and ETC via Father Capodanno). Doing that would solve so many reliability issues and ridership imbalances and yet they refuse to do it. Back in December I was told they were going to restore the X4 in a cost-neutral manner and now from what I hear they are strictly focusing on the runtimes and frequencies and that's it, no route changes

And that’s precisely why we need to keep on them to make changes, otherwise we’ll be stuck with garbage service.

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Today there was a 5:30 QM1 bus I didn't see a 5 PM bus. I checked around 5:40 PM so I'm not sure if there was a 4:30 PM bus either because it wasn't on the map.

Edit: Nevermind, they popped up now.

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

Today there was a 5:30 QM1 bus I didn't see a 5 PM bus. I checked around 5:40 PM so I'm not sure if there was a 4:30 PM bus either because it wasn't on the map.

Edit: Nevermind, they popped up now.

5pm was almost 30 minutes late, and they pulled a fast one. They had him start further up to try to get him back on schedule. Still late though, but they want to show that they filled the trip. I noted it in my log and if keep seeing that happen, I'm going to raise hell.  The 5pm is 2906.  There's an issue that have may have caused this though, so they get a pass today, but if I see that happening over and over... No good...

Edited by Via Garibaldi 8
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1 minute ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

5pm was almost 30 minutes late, and they pulled a fast one. They had him start further up to try to get him back on schedule. Still late though, but they want to show that they filled the trip. I noted it in my log and if keep seeing that happen, I'm going to raise hell.  The 5pm is 2906.

And to add on to that, the 4:30 PM hasn't even reached Main street yet and is currently 45 minutes late. Bus #3126

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18 minutes ago, Lil 57 said:

And to add on to that, the 4:30 PM hasn't even reached Main street yet and is currently 45 minutes late. Bus #3126

Yeah well traffic is a mess today. That's why I said they get a pass.  I'm also aware of what these trips do beforehand, but that doesn't excuse not sending buses out. I still want them coming, even if they're a bit late.  Not having a bus for days and weeks at a time is an unofficial service cut, and that I won't tolerate.

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

Yeah well traffic is a mess today. That's why I said they get a pass.  I'm also aware of what these trips do beforehand, but that doesn't excuse not sending out. I still want them coming, even if they're a bit late.  Not having a bus for days and weeks at a time is an unofficial service cut, and that I won't tolerate.

Mabye a good idea for the future is to add Bus Lanes on Queens Blvd from Queens Plaza to Union Turnpike to speed up the express buses (and the local buses as well).

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Just now, Lil 57 said:

Mabye a good idea for the future is to add Bus Lanes on Queens Blvd from Queens Plaza to Union Turnpike to speed up the express buses (and the local buses as well).

There was a pilot tried out years ago with some of the Union Turnpike buses. It didn't work out so well though, but I've been pushing hard to have them revise those run times.  

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3 minutes ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

There was a pilot tried out years ago with some of the Union Turnpike buses. It didn't work out so well though, but I've been pushing hard to have them revise those run times.  

Those run times are ridiculous. Buses consently run 30+ minutes late, causing return trips and other peak trips showing up late. I believe that those run times remained the same since the 80's IIRC.

Also do you know why the bus lane pilot failed?

Edited by Lil 57
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Just now, Lil 57 said:

Those run times are ridiculous. Buses consently run 30+ minutes late, causing return trips and other peak trips showing up late. I believe that those run times remained the same since the 80's IIRC.

Problem is no one wants to actually do any work. That's why I've been pushing for another audit, which I doubt they want.  They were supposed to (and agree to) align those schedules with the last audit in 2015. They did that with some lines, but not all of them.

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Latest updates:

-Wrote to the Brooklyn Borough President's Office (Eric Adams) regarding the appalling conditions on the X27, X28, X37 and X38 - overcrowding, unsafe express buses breaking down repeatedly on the Gowanus, along with the anti-freeze incident.  His office has contacted us and we will have a conference call tomorrow to discuss this further.  We are calling on the (MTA) to address the ongoing maintenance issues out of Ulmer Park Depot, along with the reliability problems.

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3 minutes ago, QM1to6Ave said:

I'm on the 6:30 QM1, running right on time and doing just what it should--supplementing the very full QM5 that is right in front of it. 

So far, it seems like all of the QM1 buses have been running this week, just like it should.

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10 hours ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

Latest updates:

-Wrote to the Brooklyn Borough President's Office (Eric Adams) regarding the appalling conditions on the X27, X28, X37 and X38 - overcrowding, unsafe express buses breaking down repeatedly on the Gowanus, along with the anti-freeze incident.  His office has contacted us and we will have a conference call tomorrow to discuss this further.  We are calling on the (MTA) to address the ongoing maintenance issues out of Ulmer Park Depot, along with the reliability problems.

... Ulmer Park becoming the old Yukon depot with lack of Maintenance. I thought once upon of time UP really prided it’s self in the Maintenance department but I digress. 

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15 hours ago, Lil 57 said:

So far, it seems like all of the QM1 buses have been running this week, just like it should.

That's correct and I've asked all of my Union Turnpike customers to message me if they have any problems with service.  We had a problem with the QM7 the other morning, but that was likely due to traffic so they came bunched, but the trips were filled.

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12 hours ago, Future ENY OP said:

... Ulmer Park becoming the old Yukon depot with lack of Maintenance. I thought once upon of time UP really prided it’s self in the Maintenance department but I digress. 

I have a conference call later today with Eric Adam's office. I sent his office plenty of photos from passengers over the last several months with express buses broken down. I  actually have been sent in the last few weeks on the Gowanus alone backing up traffic.

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11 minutes ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

I have a conference call later today with Eric Adam's office. I sent his office plenty of photos from passengers over the last several months with express buses broken down. I  actually have been sent in the last few weeks on the Gowanus alone backing up traffic.

Ask him why the exclusive bus lane is only open in rush hours. I am often going south in my car on the BQE on Saturday nights and see heavy northbound traffic with express buses stuck in it. The lane should always be open either north or south whichever is needed most. Six hours a day is ridiculous. 

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15 minutes ago, BrooklynBus said:

Ask him why the exclusive bus lane is only open in rush hours. I am often going south in my car on the BQE on Saturday nights and see heavy northbound traffic with express buses stuck in it. The lane should always be open either north or south whichever is needed most. Six hours a day is ridiculous. 

He's actually already pushing for the hours to be expanded.  He's been meeting regularly with SI Borough President James Oddo and Councilman Justin Brannan about the bus lanes on the Gowanus. The problem is until the State DOT relinquishes control of the HOV lanes to the City DOT, not much will change.  I had two City reps from the DOT in my last meeting and I tried to get them to spill the beans but they wouldn't give me anything.  Their response was we can't make any comments about what will happen because we don't control the HOV lanes at the moment, so that's where it's at.  They wouldn't even answer my hypothetical questions, so I left it there and moved on since I had a lot to cover in an almost two hour meeting, which I ran with about 20 other people in the room - planners and schedulers from the (MTA) along with Road Ops, Craig Cipriano, one person from Senator Biaggi's office, and my right hand guy that helps me run the group and the two DOT reps. You've seen the size of those conference rooms. It was so crowded we had extra chairs in there.  

Couldn't keep up with everyone that I met and shook hands with. lol

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

I have a conference call later today with Eric Adam's office. I sent his office plenty of photos from passengers over the last several months with express buses broken down. I  actually have been sent in the last few weeks on the Gowanus alone backing up traffic.

Hoping the conference call can yield some success for Ulmer Park. They are in real bad shape. I don’t know if it’s still in the MTA plans to re-construct Ulmer Park. I drove thru there last Friday taking the back streets to Bay Ridge. Depot needs work and expansion. 

Edited by Future ENY OP
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30 minutes ago, Future ENY OP said:

Hoping the conference call can yield some success for Ulmer Park. They are in real bad shape. I don’t know if it’s still in the MTA plans to re-construct Ulmer Park. I drove thru there last Friday taking the back streets to Bay Ridge. Depot needs work and expansion. 

Well between the meetings I've had with them and the meeting that Senator Gounardes is supposed to have with them soon, it should signal to them that this is unacceptable. Senator Gounardes is in our group and has been closely following the developments and has stated that the situation is unacceptable. I'll post later once I have the conference call.

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All of the QM1 trips came for this week, seems the (MTA) is finally listening to us about the missing QM1 trips.

Anyways, I was taking the QM11 today to queens and the B/O went via the LIE service road because it was quicker than staying on the LIE. This isn't the first time that this happened so an idea popped into my head. I thought that if buses were constantly detouring through Maspeth via the LIE service road to avoid traffic, why not have some routes stop there? Maspeth always wanted some sort of Express Bus service so if lower-ridership routes stopped there on the way to their destination, that might boost ridership.

During the rush, I'll have the QM11 and the QM18 stop along the LIE service road and during off-peak hours the QM4 would stop along there with those trips being called "QM4C". QM4C buses would also make all QM11 stops on Queens Blvd until Jewel Ave.

Eastbound Stops:

Borden Ave/Maurice Ave

Borden Ave/61st Street

Borden Ave/Hamilton Place

Borden Ave/69th Street

Queens-Midtown Expy/71st Street

Westbound Stops:

Borden Ave/69th Street

Borden Ave/Hamilton Place

Borden Ave/63rd Street

Queens-Midtown Expy/Maurice Ave

 

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

All of the QM1 trips came for this week, seems the (MTA) is finally listening to us about the missing QM1 trips.

Anyways, I was taking the QM11 today to queens and the B/O went via the LIE service road because it was quicker than staying on the LIE. This isn't the first time that this happened so an idea popped into my head. I thought that if buses were constantly detouring through Maspeth via the LIE service road to avoid traffic, why not have some routes stop there? Maspeth always wanted some sort of Express Bus service so if lower-ridership routes stopped there on the way to their destination, that might boost ridership.

During the rush, I'll have the QM10/40 and QM11 buses stop along the LIE service road and during off-peak hours the QM4 would stop along there with those trips being called "QM4C". QM4C buses would also make all QM11 stops on Queens Blvd until Jewel Ave.

Eastbound Stops:

Borden Ave/Maurice Ave

Borden Ave/61st Street

Borden Ave/Hamilton Place

Borden Ave/69th Street

Queens-Midtown Expy/71st Street

Westbound Stops:

Borden Ave/69th Street

Borden Ave/Hamilton Place

Borden Ave/63rd Street

Queens-Midtown Expy/Maurice Ave

 

3

Edits in red. The QM18 is too long for this.

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2 minutes ago, QM1to6Ave said:

Anyone know how reliable the 9:30 am QM6 to NST on Sunday mornings is? I may be doing some reverse commuting on sundays for a while, but never took the bus to queens that early

@Lil 57

@Via Garibaldi 8

I never took the QM6, I mostly take SI express routes and the QM11/25 every once in a while. Sorry.

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