COVID-19 MTA/NYC Transit bus service cuts

[Via Garibaldi 8]

10 minutes ago, Gotham Bus Co. said:

 

Who decides that?  One specific passenger or the overall population of passengers? 

Overall, that's that WE the passengers want and what essential workers that need the express bus need. When we advocate for these things, we do so based on feedback we get from riders and what their needs are. There are about three of four Staten Island express bus groups, including mine which covers all express bus lines, with the purpose being us having a voice about what our needs are, and not the  just giving us whatever the hell they feel like doing. This decision is stupid. They could've taken the feedback they received from us and created a modified schedule for the lines that were needed the most. Now what they are going to do is have buses on standby on these lines towards the middle and the end of the lines to see if they need more buses to ensure social distancing. I don't have too much a problem with that part of it, but the rest of it is stupid. Staten Island has the highest ridership overall out of the other express bus lines because there are lots of essential workers.

Edited April 11, 2020 by Via Garibaldi 8

[MysteriousBtrain]

38 minutes ago, Gotham Bus Co. said:

 

Who decides that?  One specific passenger or the overall population of passengers? 

You realize how impossible it is for one person to get service changes on a route only they want. And regarding the SIMs I doubt "One specific passenger" is the only one fighting for service to the east side hospitals.

Edited April 11, 2020 by MysteriousBtrain

[RailBus63]

19 hours ago, Lil 57 said:

With the city cutting the budget from transportation and other industries due to the Covid-19 Crisis I wouldn’t be surprised if there is another 2010 style “doomsday” cuts to bus and subway service after this is over.

There will definitely be permanent cuts - the money is not going to be there, and ridership is going to be depressed also.

I fear that when the cuts are made, they are going to make the 2010 cuts look like a minor service reduction by comparison.  I hope I'm wrong.

[checkmatechamp13]

6 hours ago, Gotham Bus Co. said:

It's most logical to serve as many passengers as possible by running as much service as possible on the "core" routes with the available drivers. For local ferry-feeder routes, that probably means scaling back to match the 60-minute ferry headways. For express routes, it means focusing on the "C" variants (but maybe have them drop off on Madison or 3rd to bring passengers closer to East Side hospitals).

Considering how the maximum daytime Sunday headway is 30 minutes on the local routes, and many routes have significant intra-island ridership (especially the S40 to Amazon and the S46 to RUMC) that would be nothing short of stupid.

3 hours ago, Gotham Bus Co. said:

Who decides that?  One specific passenger or the overall population of passengers? 

The overall population of passengers...which only supports his argument. How about you get all of your facts straight about which specific routes we are talking about and what exactly is being requested and then come back to us?

[B35 via Church]

8 hours ago, Gotham Bus Co. said:

My takeaway from that article is basically a sense of "They have no right to reduce service just because there aren't enough drivers."  

The Big Question is this: What exactly do they want the MTA to do? It is physically impossible to run buses without drivers (otherwise, MTA would have tried already). Manhattan bus operators can help out in the Bronx because they belong to the same collective bargaining unit within TWU-100. Meanwhile, ATU-726 is its own world on Staten Island and drivers cannot be called in from elsewhere to help out — in fact, the ATU-726 contract explicitly states that only its members are allowed to drive MTA buses to, from, and within Staten Island, whether in service or not.

5 hours ago, Gotham Bus Co. said:

5 hours ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

Your takeaway is incorrect. What we want them to do on the express bus is YES, scale back service, BUT run the lines that are MOST needed.

Who decides that?  One specific passenger or the overall population of passengers? 

Are you really seeking to get an understanding of how many passengers determines which bus routes are the most needed, or is this two part question of yours a sarcastic way of making the point that the MTA decides which lines are the most needed?

 

 

[Via Garibaldi 8]

2 hours ago, B35 via Church said:

Are you really seeking to get an understanding of how many passengers determines which bus routes are the most needed, or is this two part question of yours a sarcastic way of making the point that the MTA decides which lines are the most needed?

 

 

You know how he is... 

[Deucey]

Are all drivers doing a 5 on/5 off shift, or just Staten Island drivers?

https://www.silive.com/coronavirus/2020/04/si-coronavirus-diary-an-mta-bus-operators-plea-for-more-protection.html

[B35 via Church]

Quote

from the linked article in the above post:

Drivers are also only utilizing the backdoor for passengers, who are permitted to ride free of charge and instructed to sit apart near the back of the bus -- only 25 passengers are permitted to ride at a given time.

If this is an MTA rule, it's clearly not being followed.... I've seen plenty of buses this past week that's had more than 25 people on it.

[Deucey]

57 minutes ago, B35 via Church said:

If this is an MTA rule, it's clearly not being followed.... I've seen plenty of buses this past week that's had more than 25 people on it.

If you’re quoting me, I was referring to the new rule in the SI Live article indicating BOs are working 5 days then getting 5 days off.

[B35 via Church]

24 minutes ago, Deucey said:

If you’re quoting me, I was referring to the new rule in the SI Live article indicating BOs are working 5 days then getting 5 days off.

I wasn't quoting you in that last post, I was quoting what was said within that same SI Live article you linked, regarding a supposed 25 person max. per bus rule....

I don't have any particular opinion or commentary on the type of shift/rotations b/o's work....

 

Edited April 13, 2020 by B35 via Church

[I Run Trains]

On 4/10/2020 at 8:12 PM, OrionVIIonM79 said:

There was also Hale #6789 on the Bx41 yesterday, and #6761 on the Bx28 today. Another crazy one was Tusky 3939 on the Bx9 yesterday 

Today I saw 8183 from Charleston on the Bx42!

[aemoreira81]

Staten Island Division service starting with the morning rush:

Only the SIM1C, 3C, 4C, and 33C will run.

All Limited-Stop service is suspended, except for the S89. The S42 and S66 will also be suspended.

(Those buses off the Island, I expect that they will remain in the Bronx for some time, as Bronx is an LFS division, with the O7 3Gs being at Kingsbridge.) When it's time to return the buses, then ATU 726 drivers can be called in; until then, I presume that TWU 100 drivers can drive those buses.

Edited April 13, 2020 by aemoreira81

[SevenEleven]

3 hours ago, B35 via Church said:

If this is an MTA rule, it's clearly not being followed.... I've seen plenty of buses this past week that's had more than 25 people on it.

Originally, there was no official number on max amount of riders or policy regarding limiting them.

2 hours ago, Deucey said:

If you’re quoting me, I was referring to the new rule in the SI Live article indicating BOs are working 5 days then getting 5 days off.

For bus operators iinm, SI is the only ones with 1 week on and 1 week off.

1 hour ago, aemoreira81 said:

Staten Island Division service starting with the morning rush:

Only the SIM1C, 3C, 4C, and 33C will run.

All Limited-Stop service is suspended, except for the S89. The S42 and S66 will also be suspended.

(Those buses off the Island, I expect that they will remain in the Bronx for some time, as Bronx is an LFS division, with the O7 3Gs being at Kingsbridge.) When it's time to return the buses, then ATU 726 drivers can be called in; until then, I presume that TWU 100 drivers can drive those buses.

Those buses are not loaners. They are back at their respective depots.

[OrionVIIonM79]

9 hours ago, I Run Trains said:

Today I saw 8183 from Charleston on the Bx42!

8705 and 7087 from Castleton were on the Bx15 

 

[WestFarms36]

9 hours ago, SevenEleven said:

Originally, there was no official number on max amount of riders or policy regarding limiting them.

For bus operators iinm, SI is the only ones with 1 week on and 1 week off.

Those buses are not loaners. They are back at their respective depots.

Have you covered runs up in the BX or intending to if available?

[SevenEleven]

2 hours ago, WestFarms36 said:

Have you covered runs up in the BX or intending to if available?

Nah. I'm an OT guy and this is a one off career opportunity but I'm not exposing myself to COVID anymore than I need to.

[MysteriousBtrain]

Day one of new social distancing changes on the SIMs and it's already out of control.

The current scene on the SIM1 Express Bus. Every passenger that gets on is now being audibly jeered by other passengers who shout things like "NO MORE", "PLEASE" or "SOCIAL DISTANCE". It's quite packed at the moment.

[QM1to6Ave]

2 hours ago, MysteriousBtrain said:

Day one of new social distancing changes on the SIMs and it's already out of control.

 

 

This is not gonna get rid of any stereotypes about SI, that's for sure. 

 

There were actually 9 people on the QM6 I took this afternoon. Even seeing that number of people seemed like a lot! Not so easy to keep 6 feet apart, I never really realized how close all the seats are on the MCIs

[checkmatechamp13]

On 4/12/2020 at 3:25 PM, Deucey said:

Are all drivers doing a 5 on/5 off shift, or just Staten Island drivers?

https://www.silive.com/coronavirus/2020/04/si-coronavirus-diary-an-mta-bus-operators-plea-for-more-protection.html

Different by depot. Some just get an extra 1-2 days off per week. Some get every 3rd week off.

On 4/13/2020 at 12:42 AM, aemoreira81 said:

Staten Island Division service starting with the morning rush:

Only the SIM1C, 3C, 4C, and 33C will run.

All Limited-Stop service is suspended, except for the S89. The S42 and S66 will also be suspended.

(Those buses off the Island, I expect that they will remain in the Bronx for some time, as Bronx is an LFS division, with the O7 3Gs being at Kingsbridge.) When it's time to return the buses, then ATU 726 drivers can be called in; until then, I presume that TWU 100 drivers can drive those buses.

Also, the S54/55/56/89 are operating every 60 minutes. See Trip Planner for more information.

[Calvin]

Day 2 from the SIM1C.

Edited April 14, 2020 by Calvin

[40MntVrn]

3 minutes ago, Calvin said:

Service on Staten Island but less from the rush

I may have overlooked but does anyone know the sick leave %'s the MTA is currently experiencing?

Also--its time for the MTA to get really creative, really quickly...this video proves the service cuts are having a negative impact and continuing this will only further deplete their workforce. Maybe force new travel patterns in Manhattan instead of trying to adhere to the current ones.

[QM1to6Ave]

I don't know if this B/O got instructions from the Console or was just playing games, but the QM31 I was about to get on this morning suddenly shut off it's sign half a block away from me and drove right past me flagging him down. Now the service gaps are getting longer for CP so I had a nice little wait for the next bus

[Via Garibaldi 8]

25 minutes ago, 40MntVrn said:

I may have overlooked but does anyone know the sick leave %'s the MTA is currently experiencing?

Also--its time for the MTA to get really creative, really quickly...this video proves the service cuts are having a negative impact and continuing this will only further deplete their workforce. Maybe force new travel patterns in Manhattan instead of trying to adhere to the current ones.

They don't need to get "creative". They were told which lines needed service and which ones don't.  Run the ones that were requested and you take the burden off of the other lines. The SIM1C is overcrowded because there is no service on the South Shore, so EVERYONE does what they have done for YEARS, which is DRIVE to the Eltingville Transit Center for the SIM1C. Wow, what a surprise.... 

Edited April 14, 2020 by Via Garibaldi 8

[Via Garibaldi 8]

1 minute ago, QM1to6Ave said:

I don't know if this B/O got instructions from the Console or was just playing games, but the QM31 I was about to get on this morning suddenly shut off it's sign half a block away from me and drove right past me flagging him down. Now the service gaps are getting longer for CP so I had a nice little wait for the next bus

You should've filed a complaint. I had a QM6 pull that crap. He drove past me with a not in service sign on and I made sure I got the bus number to see if he went in service further up, and like clockwork, he shows up by 57th and 3rd on BusTime. I had to wait 30 minutes and take the QM5. Next time I got him, he was trying to figure out who was pissed. He was being extra courteous.

[B35 via Church]

Didn't someone mention that the B32 & B39 were suspended?

Just checked bustime & there's 1 total bus (7227) on the B39 & 2 total buses (7821 & 7245) on the B32...