Express Bus Advocacy Group

[Union Tpke]

Screen Shot 2019-05-17 at 2.29.49 PM by Union Turnpike, on Flickr

[R68OnBroadway]

Ridership began to decline again in August 2018... I wonder why 🤨

[Via Garibaldi 8]

4 minutes ago, R68OnBroadway said:

Ridership began to decline again in August 2018... I wonder why 🤨

Shocking.... *Sarcasm*... HORRENDOUS service that's why... So many missing buses...

[Via Garibaldi 8]

MTA BOARD MEETING THIS MONDAY FOLKS!! My two minute speech (if I can attend will cover the following):

1. NEW EXPRESS BUSES - Will call for AT LEAST 500 NEW EXPRESS BUSES TO EXPAND PEAK, OFF-PEAK AND WEEKEND SERVICE. We need service in the 21st Century!!

2. MONTHLY EXPRESS BUS METROCARD - We are the ONLY commuter group that does not have a monthly pass and we live in transportation deserts! This discriminatory practice MUST END!!

3. NO-COINS POLICY: Unfairly targets seniors on fixed incomes and other occasional riders that should not have to pay $30.00 for an Easy Pay Metrocard!! This from an agency that complains about fare beating costing them $225 million annually, yet they make it harder for their riders to pay!! Unacceptable!!

[QM1to6Ave]

My QM5 was very slow this morning because of POTUS visit.  Our B/O, who is a character announced on the PA "sorry for the delay folks, the president is eating breakfast somewhere. Oh wait, there he goes" [motorcade drives past us going into QMT]

[ViaWaterViaChurch]

This morning I was taking the 6:55am QM7. The guy was due at Peck and Pearl at 7:43am but got there 14 minutes late because he was taking us on a scenic tour on the lower level of the FDR drive. I've taken both the 6:40am bus and 7:07am bus right before and after this guy and they're packed and on time. This bus had maybe 15 to 20 people on it and now it makes sense. The FDR was wide open and there was no detour in effect, it seems like this guy just loves to take the lower level because I've been on the QM7 that leaves 12 minutes after this guy and we've beat him to Peck and Pearl on multiple occassions. I could at least excuse this if he was ahead of schedule, but we're sitting at lights somewhere between 34th Street and 23rd Street's service roads and he should been at Peck and Pearl 3 minutes ago. Whose brilliant idea at CP was it to tell B/Os to take the lower roadways in the morning?

Edited May 21, 2019 by ViaWaterViaChurch

[Via Garibaldi 8]

3 minutes ago, ViaWaterViaChurch said:

This morning I was taking the 6:55am QM7. The guy was due at Peck and Pearl at 7:43am but got there 14 minutes late because he was taking us on a scenic tour on the lower level of the FDR drive. I've taken both the 6:40am bus and 7:07am bus right before and after this guy and they're packed. This bus had maybe 15 to 20 people on it and now it makes sense. The FDR was wide open and there was no detour in effect, it seems like this guy just loves to take the lower level. I could at least excuse this if he was ahead of schedule, but we're sitting at lights somewhere between 34th Street and 23rd Street's services roads and he should been at Peck and Pearl 3 minutes ago. Who's brilliant idea was it to tell people to take the lower roadways in the morning?

Why don't you file a complaint?

[QM1to6Ave]

Whats going on with the MTA wifi?? The network has been down since Monday on all buses (exp and local). I submitted a complaint but did not hear back

[Lil 57]

11 minutes ago, QM1to6Ave said:

Whats going on with the MTA wifi?? The network has been down since Monday on all buses (exp and local). I submitted a complaint but did not hear back

It should be back on, I was in 8246 on the S53 an hour and a half ago and the Wifi was working.

[7-express]

8 minutes ago, Lil 57 said:

It should be back on, I was in 8246 on the S53 an hour and a half ago and the Wifi was working.

It was not active on a 31xx series QM2 I took today.

[Lil 57]

Just now, 7-express said:

It was not active on a 31xx series QM2 I took today.

What time was it? If you took the bus in the morning, they might have fixed it during the day.

[7-express]

1 hour ago, Lil 57 said:

What time was it? If you took the bus in the morning, they might have fixed it during the day.

This was in the afternoon

[Lil 57]

1 hour ago, 7-express said:

This was in the afternoon

Mabye it's a WiFi issue with that particular bus, see if you get WiFi tommorow.

[Jdog14]

3 hours ago, 7-express said:

It was not active on a 31xx series QM2 I took today.

 

Many buses have malfunctioning wifi equipment. The network is working on some the SBS 82 fleet when I checked today. 

[Via Garibaldi 8]

4 hours ago, QM1to6Ave said:

Whats going on with the MTA wifi?? The network has been down since Monday on all buses (exp and local). I submitted a complaint but did not hear back

I asked one of my folks to look into it. Everyone in my group has been complaining about it.

[QM1to6Ave]

43 minutes ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

I asked one of my folks to look into it. Everyone in my group has been complaining about it.

Thank you! I don't know if it was resolved today because my bus back to queens was a 2XXX without wifi installed 

[QM1to6Ave]

Update: wifi was at least working on the QM6 I took this morning!

[7-express]

CP ran an abysmal rush hour today.  Between 6 PM and 7 PM, there were hardly any buses running and I saw some riders leave the line on 59 Street in frustration.

The QM20 550 and 605 runs left together at 605 and bunched all the way back to Queens.  Then, the 620, 635, and 650 runs never showed up.  Only the 710 and 730 ran, leading to a one hour gap in service during the tail end of the rush.  The 710 bus was probably packed to hell with riders from the other runs that never showed up.

The QM2 wasn't much better.  The 630 run didn't happen, leading to overcrowding and standees on the 645 bus.  Now I'm looking at BusTime and the 705, 725, and 745 are all running 15-20 minutes later than schedule.

And the MTA wonders why they are hemorrhaging express bus riders.

Edited May 24, 2019 by 7-express

[Via Garibaldi 8]

16 minutes ago, 7-express said:

CP ran an abysmal rush hour today.  Between 6 PM and 7 PM, there were hardly any buses running and I saw some riders leave the line on 59 Street in frustration.

The QM20 550 and 605 runs left together at 605 and bunched all the way back to Queens.  Then, the 620, 635, and 650 runs never showed up.  Only the 710 and 730 ran, leading to a one hour gap in service during the tail end of the rush.  The 710 bus was probably packed to hell with riders from the other runs that never showed up.

The QM2 wasn't much better.  The 630 run didn't happen, leading to overcrowding and standees on the 645 bus.  Now I'm looking at BusTime and the 705, 725, and 745 are all running 15-20 minutes later than schedule.

And the MTA wonders why they are hemorrhaging express bus riders.

Yes, we posted about it in the group earlier. This was the QM2:

[QM1to6Ave]

2 hours ago, 7-express said:

CP ran an abysmal rush hour today.  Between 6 PM and 7 PM, there were hardly any buses running and I saw some riders leave the line on 59 Street in frustration.

The QM20 550 and 605 runs left together at 605 and bunched all the way back to Queens.  Then, the 620, 635, and 650 runs never showed up.  Only the 710 and 730 ran, leading to a one hour gap in service during the tail end of the rush.  The 710 bus was probably packed to hell with riders from the other runs that never showed up.

The QM2 wasn't much better.  The 630 run didn't happen, leading to overcrowding and standees on the 645 bus.  Now I'm looking at BusTime and the 705, 725, and 745 are all running 15-20 minutes later than schedule.

And the MTA wonders why they are hemorrhaging express bus riders.

I had the exact same issue at 7 pm...there were supposed to be 3 buses, and not one showed up (QM1, 5 6)! I couldn't believe it.  I had to take the QM4 instead. 

 

What the hell happened to CP tonight??

[7-express]

8 hours ago, QM1to6Ave said:

I had the exact same issue at 7 pm...there were supposed to be 3 buses, and not one showed up (QM1, 5 6)! I couldn't believe it.  I had to take the QM4 instead. 

 

What the hell happened to CP tonight??

Maybe all the drivers decided to go on vacation for the Memorial Day weekend and they didn't have enough drivers to make service?

[ViaWaterViaChurch]

Thursday night all around was an absolute traffic nightmare.  It took my QM7 two and a half hours (3:45pm bus) to get back to Fresh Meadows.  There were two accidents on the LIE between Maurice and Woodhaven, then a half hour to get down Queens Blvd to Union Turnpike and there looked to be major problems on Northern Blvd in Corona (it's always slow once you get to 80th street).  I bet a lot of BOs didn't get back in time for their PM runs and the traffic in Queens was still awful around 8pm.  Just an all around awful night for commuting.  

[Via Garibaldi 8]

On 5/23/2019 at 11:10 PM, QM1to6Ave said:

I had the exact same issue at 7 pm...there were supposed to be 3 buses, and not one showed up (QM1, 5 6)! I couldn't believe it.  I had to take the QM4 instead. 

 

What the hell happened to CP tonight??

I can tell you that the first two QM1 trips (the 4pm and 4:30pm) came but were severely delayed.  The 4pm trip did make it back to do the 6:30 but was late.  The 4:30pm got to Fresh Meadows so late, that I couldn't see him starting any earlier than 7:20 or 7:30. In those cases, they just send them back to the depot this way they don't have to pay overtime. That's the deal. They've also been becoming sloppy with the QM5 and QM6.  The 4pm QM6 last week was so late that the 5pm was right behind him going to Midtown.  We are meeting this weekend to discuss service issues and to start some petitions.

I also spoke at the board meeting last Monday calling for new express buses, a monthly express bus Metrocard and requested that the  reinstate the no coin policy on express buses:

 

[DetSMART45]

On 5/23/2019 at 8:07 PM, 7-express said:

CP ran an abysmal rush hour today.  Between 6 PM and 7 PM, there were hardly any buses running and I saw some riders leave the line on 59 Street in frustration.

The QM20 550 and 605 runs left together at 605 and bunched all the way back to Queens.  Then, the 620, 635, and 650 runs never showed up.  Only the 710 and 730 ran, leading to a one hour gap in service during the tail end of the rush.  The 710 bus was probably packed to hell with riders from the other runs that never showed up.

The QM2 wasn't much better.  The 630 run didn't happen, leading to overcrowding and standees on the 645 bus.  Now I'm looking at BusTime and the 705, 725, and 745 are all running 15-20 minutes later than schedule.

And the MTA wonders why they are hemorrhaging express bus riders.

 

On 5/24/2019 at 9:22 PM, ViaWaterViaChurch said:

Thursday night all around was an absolute traffic nightmare.  It took my QM7 two and a half hours (3:45pm bus) to get back to Fresh Meadows.  There were two accidents on the LIE between Maurice and Woodhaven, then a half hour to get down Queens Blvd to Union Turnpike and there looked to be major problems on Northern Blvd in Corona (it's always slow once you get to 80th street).  I bet a lot of BOs didn't get back in time for their PM runs and the traffic in Queens was still awful around 8pm.  Just an all around awful night for commuting.  

These two examples are why I don't trust any of the "metrics" presented in the Committee books, or anything that comes from Idiot Irick's mouth at Committee/Board meetings. If you look at the May book, those figures from March and April don't seem to "jive" with the tracking that's been presented in this topic over those months. Totally missing runs FOR WEEKS, and similar late runs, and the figures paint a totally different picture?

[BrightlinerNewFlyer]

Hi,

I think the BxM2 should run further up the west side to either 110th or 125th St. I know that a lot of people would find this super convenient. I also think that the M98 should be turned into an express bus.

Thanks,

BrightlinerNewFlyer