Shortage of drivers forces MTA to trim NYC bus service

[Via Garibaldi 8]

Shortage of drivers forces MTA to trim NYC bus service

By CLAYTON GUSE NEW YORK DAILY NEWS | APR 14, 2021 AT 5:46 PM

A bus driver shortage has forced the MTA to trim bus service across the city, sticking some New Yorkers with longer commutes.

The pandemic led to a surge of retirements among transit workers in 2020 — leaving the Metropolitan Transportation Authority with too few bus operators to cover the agency’s planned schedules, said J.P. Patafio, head of Brooklyn buses for Transport Workers Union Local 100.

“The MTA is crippling service while acting like they’re in a financial crisis when they got $12 billion in federal aid over the last year,” said Patafio. “We want to improve the service, get out of this pandemic crisis mode and move forward.”

MTA officials confirmed the agency faces a shortage of bus operators, but said it’s had only a slight impact on service.

Patafio last month began to notice hundreds of bus operator shifts going uncovered each day in Brooklyn. A bus operator typically makes four round trips during a shift — and when a no one is able to cover a shift riders can be stuck waiting twice as long for their bus.

Raymond Simmons, 73, waiting for a B20 bus near Broadway Junction in East New York on Monday. (Clayton Guse/New York Daily News)

Some straphangers feel slighted by the holes in service.

Raymond Simmons, 73, waited 30 minutes for a B20 bus in East New York on Monday — and said service on the route has been dismal since February.

“I’ve lived in East New York for 17 years and this is the worst service I’ve seen,” said Simmons, who relies on an oxygen machine and a walker. “I’ve got to get to doctor appointments all the time. Now I leave 45 minutes earlier than I used to just to make sure I’m on time.”

The problem also affects bus service in Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx. MTA officials said the shortage is spread roughly equally across the city — but said they’re trying to meet the needs of bus riders without breaking the bank.

“Throughout this pandemic we have run as much service as possible with the resources we have,” said MTA spokesman Tim Minton. “When bus operators are not available as scheduled, managers ensure adequate service coverage based upon scarce resources and responsible use of taxpayer funds and overtime.”

An MTA employee with knowledge of the agency’s bus operations estimated each of the city’s 29 bus depots are short about 20 drivers. The transit worker said depot managers are allowed to pay overtime to cover just 10 shifts per day left vacant by bus operators out sick, on vacation or on leave.

An MTA bus on Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn. (Theodore Parisienne/for New York Daily News)

Mark Henry, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1056, which represents some bus operators in Queens, said the shortage can have ripple effects across wide swaths of the city.

“A bus operator might do round trips on three different routes during a shift,” said Henry. “So if someone’s missing and the MTA doesn’t cover them, riders are going to start to notice across several neighborhoods.”

MTA officials said roughly 3% of the agency’s roughly 11,900 bus operator positions are currently unfilled — but Patafio said they should have started onboarding new drivers months ago to avoid impacts on service.

“The MTA had a hiring freeze in place last year while there was a mass retirement in November and December,” said Patafio. “They should have seen this coming. Now the city is opening back up and they’re six months behind.”

Source: https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ny-mta-bus-service-drivers-shortage-20210414-k43cjq22lbdsnhoxjtkxbkvpky-story.html?fbclid=IwAR3a0VdtoVLEtWXop6bnEyTNkcfCRE7uGOnZcZnk--eJ-VCRQp5VeQRYSYI

[Via Garibaldi 8]

Ridiculous that they've received roughly over $10 billion dollars so far going back to last year and they're still claiming they're broke. If they can't hire some bus drivers out of the $12 billion they were given specifically to maintain service, there's a serious budget issue.

[QM1to6Ave]

It's not like they can't find qualified drivers, they just need to actually hire them. Devil's advocate could argue the MTA actually prefers to scrounge for overtime, since it's cheaper to pay overtime to existing employees rather than hire new employees and pay salary plus benefits, which costs more

[SevenEleven]

52 minutes ago, QM1to6Ave said:

It's not like they can't find qualified drivers, they just need to actually hire them. Devil's advocate could argue the MTA actually prefers to scrounge for overtime, since it's cheaper to pay overtime to existing employees rather than hire new employees and pay salary plus benefits, which costs more

We weren't allowed to work our days off for a good 2 and a half months. The only way I got work was if it was a shuttle. Anything else was an automatic no. They want to trim down on the OT (as they always do) but when you're already 20-30 operators short and don't want to havw 5-6 (or however many) ops come in to mitigate the issue, then this happens.

[paulrivera]

1 hour ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

The problem also affects bus service in Manhattan, Queens and the Bronx. MTA officials said the shortage is spread roughly equally across the city — but said they’re trying to meet the needs of bus riders without breaking the bank.

“Throughout this pandemic we have run as much service as possible with the resources we have,” said MTA spokesman Tim Minton. “When bus operators are not available as scheduled, managers ensure adequate service coverage based upon scarce resources and responsible use of taxpayer funds and overtime.”

Why does the  spew such blatant bullcrap?

They're getting $4 billion this year. I'm sure training new bus drivers won't break the bank, and it takes a good minute to exhaust the hiring lists from the exams. Don't they typically have 3 pools worth of people to hire through (NYCT, MaBSTOA, MTA Bus on separate lists?)

And if you can crowd 50 and 60 passengers in on a bus, you can still train at least a handful of B/O's at a time like pre-Covid, so don't give me the social distancing stuff.

Edited April 15, 2021 by paulrivera

[bobtehpanda]

4 minutes ago, paulrivera said:

Why does the  spew such blatant bullcrap?

They're getting $4 billion this year. I'm sure training new bus drivers won't break the bank, and it takes a good minute to exhaust the hiring lists from the exams. Don't they typically have 3 pools worth of people to hire through (NYCT, MaBSTOA, MTA Bus on separate lists?)

And if you can crowd 50 and 60 passengers in on a bus, you can still train at least a handful of B/O's at a time like pre-Covid, so don't give me the social distancing stuff.

Because pretty much all of NYS gov't and affiliate agencies are rotten to the core, starting from the top.

It is pretty hard to see how the system of governance in general could possibly improve. Remember when BdB's appointees to the MTA board stopped toeing the line and all they got to show for it was the same exact budget they had already voted down, but presented as fait accompli?

[MHV9218]

Why is so hard for people to conceive that the MTA NEEDED the money it received? Farebox revenue was zilch. Nada. Not only did ridership collapse, bus ridership was FREE. So yes, two things can be true at once: they received a ton of money, and they still have to be cautious about expenses, because that's how singularly terrible this pandemic was. By the way, somebody page me when we're at even close to 70-80% of 2019's farebox numbers and then we can talk about how to spend...

[Via Garibaldi 8]

41 minutes ago, MHV9218 said:

Why is so hard for people to conceive that the MTA NEEDED the money it received? Farebox revenue was zilch. Nada. Not only did ridership collapse, bus ridership was FREE. So yes, two things can be true at once: they received a ton of money, and they still have to be cautious about expenses, because that's how singularly terrible this pandemic was. By the way, somebody page me when we're at even close to 70-80% of 2019's farebox numbers and then we can talk about how to spend...

Please. They ASKED for money they needed and they've received what they've asked for, and the money is supposed to be used to avoid service cuts. Out of the $10+ billion they received, if they can't hire some bus drivers out of that there's a serious problem. They've been having a hiring freeze now since before COVID, so spare me with this they don't have a choice nonsense. Them refusing to cover missing trips and leaving them open has been going on for years now, wayyyy before COVID (they admitted this after they made a bunch of service cuts back in 2010), and this is their way of cutting costs, by simply not filling trips. The people that need the service the most have no choice, like the elderly man in the photo trying to get a doctor's appointment. 

I've had a number of elderly people now complain about having to cancel important doctors' appointments simply because there was no bus, and having people wait 30-45+ minutes for one bus in this environment is inexcusable. It doesn't impact you, so you don't get it. 

Edited April 15, 2021 by Via Garibaldi 8

[Via Garibaldi 8]

36 minutes ago, paulrivera said:

Why does the  spew such blatant bullcrap?

They're getting $4 billion this year. I'm sure training new bus drivers won't break the bank, and it takes a good minute to exhaust the hiring lists from the exams. Don't they typically have 3 pools worth of people to hire through (NYCT, MaBSTOA, MTA Bus on separate lists?)

And if you can crowd 50 and 60 passengers in on a bus, you can still train at least a handful of B/O's at a time like pre-Covid, so don't give me the social distancing stuff.

What I find most concerning is how horrendous overnight service is. Look at the tweets and how much service doesn't run overnight. The local buses especially is almost non-existent on some lines... Then the BM2, which is supposed to run 1am-5am... The same trips have been MIA now for WEEKS and now MONTHS... There is basically no 1am bus in both directions. The 2am trips... Only the one from Brooklyn runs... No 3am in both directions and no 4:30am in both directions, so out of about 12 total trips, maybe six of the trips run, if that. Then you look at all of the missing service during the day (local and express). It's ridiculous. I counted one day a good 15 trips for Bronx express bus service alone that I knew of, not to mention any other express or local lines. They're also leaving trips out that only run once an hour during the weekends. Someone waited two Sundays in a row over an hour recently with no Southbound BxM3.

These are all of the missing BM2 trips tonight that won't run that they just posted:

The following BM2 trips will not run tonight: Eastbound: 1:00AM, 2:00AM, 3:00AM, 4:00AM and 4:30AM Westbound: 1:00AM, 2:00AM, 3:00AM, 4:00AM and 4:30AM

That's 10 missing trips right there.

Now six missing Bx21 trips... That's 16 trips missing between two lines!

The following Bx21 trips will not run tonight: Northbound: 2:07AM, 3:37AM and 5:07AM Southbound: 1:22AM, 2:52am and 4:22AM

Edited April 15, 2021 by Via Garibaldi 8

[R10 2952]

Was going to comment on the article, until I saw it was written by that disingenuous tool Clayton Guse...

Objective journalism it ain't.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

6 minutes ago, R10 2952 said:

Was going to comment on the article, until I saw it was written by that disingenuous tool Clayton Guse...

Objective journalism it ain't.

What's the problem with the article? It simply states pretty straightforward info.

Edited April 15, 2021 by Via Garibaldi 8

[paulrivera]

28 minutes ago, MHV9218 said:

By the way, somebody page me when we're at even close to 70-80% of 2019's farebox numbers and then we can talk about how to spend...

 

14 minutes ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

These are all of the missing BM2 trips tonight that won't run that they just posted:

The following BM2 trips will not run tonight: Eastbound: 1:00AM, 2:00AM, 3:00AM, 4:00AM and 4:30AM Westbound: 1:00AM, 2:00AM, 3:00AM, 4:00AM and 4:30AM

That's 10 missing trips right there.

Now six missing Bx21 trips... That's 16 trips missing between two lines!

The following Bx21 trips will not run tonight: Northbound: 2:07AM, 3:37AM and 5:07AM Southbound: 1:22AM, 2:52am and 4:22AM

I want to see ridership numbers borough by borough. I'm willing to bet the ridership dip in Midtown and Lower Manhattan and other affluent neighborhoods are bogging down the average percentage of lost ridership (~50% atm). Plus, the way presents the numbers never tell the whole story. For all we know, maybe ridership in Manhattan and Staten Island could be down 90% and ridership in the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens could only be down by like 25%. Yeah, no one's really travelling to/from/within Manhattan, but I don't believe ridership within the outer boroughs are as down as the  would like to claim. They'd just rather chop 50% across the board, which would mean you'd still see ghost buses in Manhattan and sardine buses in the outer boroughs.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

10 minutes ago, paulrivera said:

 

I want to see ridership numbers borough by borough. I'm willing to bet the ridership dip in Midtown and Lower Manhattan and other affluent neighborhoods are bogging down the average percentage of lost ridership (~50% atm). Plus, the way presents the numbers never tell the whole story. For all we know, maybe ridership in Manhattan and Staten Island could be down 90% and ridership in the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens could only be down by like 25%. Yeah, no one's really travelling to/from/within Manhattan, but I don't believe ridership within the outer boroughs are as down as the  would like to claim. They'd just rather chop 50% across the board, which would mean you'd still see ghost buses in Manhattan and sardine buses in the outer boroughs.

I'd beg to differ. I see plenty of people using the local buses in Manhattan and people continue to travel to and from Manhattan. Bus ridership is only down about 50% of what it normally is. It's subway ridership that is A LOT worse. It's down still almost 70%. Bus ridership is normally a little over 2 million. It's over 1 million now, and that's with all of these missing trips. Subway ridership is normally north of 6 million. It's a little over 2 million now.

Don't forget that a lot of people are avoiding the subways because of COVID and the ongoing crime issues underground.

Edited April 15, 2021 by Via Garibaldi 8

[FamousNYLover]

Have any bus drivers here drove B98V and Q98V bus yet?

[paulrivera]

6 hours ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

Don't forget that a lot of people are avoiding the subways because of COVID and the ongoing crime issues underground.

Good point. For what little trips I've needed to take to Manhattan during the pandemic, I've been picking the express bus for just about all of them.

Even within the Bronx I recall taking a Bx1 instead of the  or the  one time.

[Lawrence St]

is also incredibly hardheaded when it comes to hiring. Someone told me there's close to a 40% shortage of drivers across the system (including bus), and instead of calling off multiple lists at once (including the most newer ones) they're extending list times. It shouldn't work like that, it should be something similar to first come/first served, not continue waiting on people on old lists to see if they still want to be hired.

[Gotham Bus Co.]

9 hours ago, paulrivera said:

Why does the  spew such blatant bullcrap?

They're getting $4 billion this year.

 

Cuomo just took $145M from the MTA to cover upstate pork barrels, and he'll probably grab a whole lot more before his term is over.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

21 minutes ago, Gotham Bus Co. said:

 

Cuomo just took $145M from the MTA to cover upstate pork barrels, and he'll probably grab a whole lot more before his term is over.

Your source? I've heard of no such incident.

[dman1455]

They are in the process of hiring additional bus operators. There should be a new class going in around early May if what I heard was true. 

[Via Garibaldi 8]

Just now, dman1455 said:

They are in the process of hiring additional bus operators. There should be a new class going in around early May if what I heard was true. 

If what was stated is true in the article they're short at least 357 bus operators... They need to do some serious hiring.

[dman1455]

Just now, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

If what was stated is true in the article they're short at least 357 bus operators... They need to do some serious hiring.

Well 180 Livingston is currently still a skeleton crew. Majority of HR is still working from home on most days and you have to factor in with covid restrictions, and hiring for other titles will only cause this issue to prolong for the foreseeable future. Hiring will go on but, much slower from what it seems.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

6 minutes ago, dman1455 said:

Well 180 Livingston is currently still a skeleton crew. Majority of HR is still working from home on most days and you have to factor in with covid restrictions, and hiring for other titles will only cause this issue to prolong for the foreseeable future. Hiring will go on but, much slower from what it seems.

My contacts have been working from home as well. That said, this situation has been going on since before the pandemic where they had drivers retiring and they simply decided not to hire as a cost cutting measure. That's the real issue here. No drivers to pay, no benefits to pay... Money saved. Meanwhile their hand is out asking for federal funding to supposedly avoid these service cuts and they can't provide the scheduled service. 

Edited April 15, 2021 by Via Garibaldi 8

[Gotham Bus Co.]

2 hours ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

Your source? I've heard of no such incident.

It's been public knowledge for almost two months...

https://www.nysenate.gov/newsroom/in-the-news/michael-gianaris/new-york-daily-news-cuomo-pushes-145m-raid-funds-dedicated

https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2021/02/19/mta-leadership-declines-to-fight-gov-cuomos-145m-transit-raid/

 

 

[dman1455]

55 minutes ago, Gotham Bus Co. said:

It's been public knowledge for almost two months...

https://www.nysenate.gov/newsroom/in-the-news/michael-gianaris/new-york-daily-news-cuomo-pushes-145m-raid-funds-dedicated

https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2021/02/19/mta-leadership-declines-to-fight-gov-cuomos-145m-transit-raid/

 

 

Last I heard he backed off this.

[Gotham Bus Co.]

6 minutes ago, dman1455 said:

Last I heard he backed off this.

He may or may not have. Pataki took MTA money at least twice, so Cuomo clearly sees a precedent and wants to exploit it.