2020 Bus Ridership Statistics

[Mpn4179]

https://new.mta.info/agency/new-york-city-transit/subway-bus-ridership-2020

The ridership statistics are out.

Some changes:

The Bus Ridership tables (NYCT and MTA Bus) are now in the same chart. You can now see all the Express Bus Routes (BxM, BM, QM, SIM, X) together, as well as all of Queens bus routes. (The B100 and B103 is with the rest of the Brooklyn bus routes and the Bx23 is with the rest of the Bronx bus routes.)

There was a surprise move in the Top 10 busiest routes by bus. (One route that's been on the list for years has dropped off the list, but another route that hasn't been on the list for a while has returned.) I'll let you figure out which one was which.

No surprise here. Every bus route lost ridership mostly due to the pandemic. The surprise: how much did each bus route lost in ridership. Some routes lost big. Others did not.

Keep in mind that this might not reflect the actual numbers due to the fact that Local buses were free during a point of time in the pandemic. (They count passengers through the farebox) Passengers were rear door boarding and exiting the bus due to the MTA blocking the front part with chains, seatbelts or plastic partition to ensure safety for their drivers, and since the farebox is located near the driver, passenger had no access to pay on the bus making the ride free. 

Enjoy.

[ParkerTheM7]

53 minutes ago, Mpn4179 said:

https://new.mta.info/agency/new-york-city-transit/subway-bus-ridership-2020

The ridership statistics are out.

Some changes:

The Bus Ridership tables (NYCT and MTA Bus) are now in the same chart. You can now see all the Express Bus Routes (BxM, BM, QM, SIM, X) together, as well as all of Queens bus routes. (The B100 and B103 is with the rest of the Brooklyn bus routes and the Bx23 is with the rest of the Bronx bus routes.)

There was a surprise move in the Top 10 busiest routes by bus. (One route that's been on the list for years has dropped off the list, but another route that hasn't been on the list for a while has returned.) I'll let you figure out which one was which.

No surprise here. Every bus route lost ridership mostly due to the pandemic. The surprise: how much did each bus route lost in ridership. Some routes lost big. Others did not.

Keep in mind that this might not reflect the actual numbers due to the fact that Local buses were free during a point of time in the pandemic. (They count passengers through the farebox) Passengers were rear door boarding and exiting the bus due to the MTA blocking the front part with chains, seatbelts or plastic partition to ensure safety for their drivers, and since the farebox is located near the driver, passenger had no access to pay on the bus making the ride free. 

Enjoy.

I think what was pretty surprising was how the B39 actually INCREASED in ridership (which they didn’t have a lot of). I assume it was because a lot of people didn’t like taking the subway during Covid so they use subway duplicates (Bx1/Bx2, B39, Bx4, M10) to avoid the subway as much as possible 

[Mpn4179]

58 minutes ago, ParkerTheM7 said:

I think what was pretty surprising was how the B39 actually INCREASED in ridership (which they didn’t have a lot of). I assume it was because a lot of people didn’t like taking the subway during Covid so they use subway duplicates (Bx1/Bx2, B39, Bx4, M10) to avoid the subway as much as possible 

OMG. Thank you for that information. I was reading through so much on that spreadsheet that I didn’t notice that the B39 had actually increased not decreased. I just went through it again and the B39 is the only route that increased out of all the routes. That is definitely quite a surprise.

[NBTA]

2 hours ago, Mpn4179 said:

https://new.mta.info/agency/new-york-city-transit/subway-bus-ridership-2020

The ridership statistics are out.

Some changes:

The Bus Ridership tables (NYCT and MTA Bus) are now in the same chart. You can now see all the Express Bus Routes (BxM, BM, QM, SIM, X) together, as well as all of Queens bus routes. (The B100 and B103 is with the rest of the Brooklyn bus routes and the Bx23 is with the rest of the Bronx bus routes.)

There was a surprise move in the Top 10 busiest routes by bus. (One route that's been on the list for years has dropped off the list, but another route that hasn't been on the list for a while has returned.) I'll let you figure out which one was which.

No surprise here. Every bus route lost ridership mostly due to the pandemic. The surprise: how much did each bus route lost in ridership. Some routes lost big. Others did not.

Keep in mind that this might not reflect the actual numbers due to the fact that Local buses were free during a point of time in the pandemic. (They count passengers through the farebox) Passengers were rear door boarding and exiting the bus due to the MTA blocking the front part with chains, seatbelts or plastic partition to ensure safety for their drivers, and since the farebox is located near the driver, passenger had no access to pay on the bus making the ride free. 

Enjoy.

Interesting, I see a few routes that reached a 70% decrease. The M5 (which I pretty much used all the time during the beginning of the pandemic), the Q70 (yeah.....you already know why), and the QM25. 

Then, you see the routes with the lowest decreases, the Bx19 (21.8%), Bx39 (a staggering 18.7%), Q48 (21.0%), Q56 (24.1%) and the S40/90 (25.5%).

The Bx1/2, Q44 and M14 flew outta the rankings (albeit the Bx1/2 is 11th still), while the Bx19, B35 and B41 return to the top 10. Interesting.

I also like the new table format, while you can’t really sort it, having MTA Bus and NYCT Bus together fixes the issues I had years earlier when trying to decipher if the Q25 was in the top 20 in ridership. Lol

[trainfan22]

Nice to see the B41 in the top 10 again!

[Lex]

In all honesty, I'm mildly surprised to see the B41 back in the top 10.

I say mildly because I've still seen pretty good numbers on those buses whenever I did go out. (I'm actually less surprised about the B35.)

[BM5 via Woodhaven]

I'm kinda surprised they released the stats for 2020 tbh.

Anyways, while the Bx4 saw an annual decrease, weekend ridership actually went up notably (23.1%). To me, along with the B39 stats, shows me that there is some sort of shift of casual subway riders to buses. 

 

Also interesting to note, the SIM33C lost a much lower percentage of riders on weekends (-38.2%) compared to the other SI express routes (roughly between 54-55%). Although I do think neighborhoods along the route might be more dependent on the bus (I've noticed quite a few outbound buses on Forest Avenue and having more than 10 people on board), but the SIM3C is managed pretty badly. Buses sometimes are no shows. I've seen that on bustime, and when I go to check the SIM33C that operates near an SIM3C interval in Brooklyn, there's like 20-30 people onboard. 

 

Edited May 2, 2021 by BM5 via Woodhaven

[NBTA]

1 hour ago, BM5 via Woodhaven said:

I'm kinda surprised they released the stats for 2020 tbh.

Anyways, while the Bx4 saw an annual decrease, weekend ridership actually went up notably (23.1%). To me, along with the B39 stats, shows me that there is some sort of shift of casual subway riders to buses. 

 

Also interesting to note, the SIM33C lost a much lower percentage of riders on weekends (-38.2%) compared to the other SI express routes (roughly between 54-55%). Although I do think neighborhoods along the route might be more dependent on the bus (I've noticed quite a few outbound buses on Forest Avenue and having more than 10 people on board), but the SIM3C is managed pretty badly. Buses sometimes are no shows. I've seen that on bustime, and when I go to check the SIM33C that operates near an SIM3C interval in Brooklyn, there's like 20-30 people onboard. 

 

You can even check right now, there’s one 33C aboutta head up, but all three 3Cs are heading down to SI. 

[B35 via Church]

Yeah, negatives galore.... We get it.

For the sake of not wasting the post here, I'll bring up some food for thought:

The overnight subway shutdown definitely assisted in some of these routes' percent-losses in being well below the median that they are....  I can speak to some of those routes, because I was out there fanning during those hours quite heavy during the first few weeks of the operation of the "99's" & some of the other routes throughout the city got that temporary extra overnight service...

...speaking of which, although all the "99's" were created within the timeframe when the base fare was temporarily lifted (as in, before the end of August), they should still have *some* numbers on the B99/Bx99/M99... FFS, I hope they didn't throw their stats in the "B OTHER", "Bx OTHER", and "M OTHER" category, respectively..... Shit shouldn't be a thing anyway.... One category I'd like to see though, is an F5 category at the end tally for each borough !

[B35 via Church]

5 hours ago, NBTA said:

Interesting, I see a few routes that reached a 70% decrease. The M5 (which I pretty much used all the time during the beginning of the pandemic), the Q70 (yeah.....you already know why), and the QM25. 

Then, you see the routes with the lowest decreases, the Bx19 (21.8%), Bx39 (a staggering 18.7%), Q48 (21.0%), Q56 (24.1%) and the S40/90 (25.5%).

The Bx1/2, Q44 and M14 flew outta the rankings (albeit the Bx1/2 is 11th still), while the Bx19, B35 and B41 return to the top 10. Interesting.

I also like the new table format, while you can’t really sort it, having MTA Bus and NYCT Bus together fixes the issues I had years earlier when trying to decipher if the Q25 was in the top 20 in ridership. Lol

 Some of us on here spoke to how much of a failure the M5/M55 debacle (or whatever you wish to call it) ended up being & currently is.... Although not to the tune of 70%, losses on that route (had the crisis not been a thing) were still going to be pretty high.... I have quite a few posts breaking down the ridership patterns of the old (as in, the Greenwich Village - GWB rendition) & the current (Midtown - GWB) rendition of the thing.... The thing is really only relevant up there north of 135th - and whatever stragglers take it along Riverside dr. anymore.... In Midtown though, pfft - the thing's an afterthought & is completely anything other than primary for most riders in that particular part of the borough....

[QM1to6Ave]

2 hours ago, B35 via Church said:

 Some of us on here spoke to how much of a failure the M5/M55 debacle (or whatever you wish to call it) ended up being & currently is.... Although not to the tune of 70%, losses on that route (had the crisis not been a thing) were still going to be pretty high.... I have quite a few posts breaking down the ridership patterns of the old (as in, the Greenwich Village - GWB rendition) & the current (Midtown - GWB) rendition of the thing.... The thing is really only relevant up there north of 135th - and whatever stragglers take it along Riverside dr. anymore.... In Midtown though, pfft - the thing's an afterthought & is completely anything other than primary for most riders in that particular part of the borough....

I see it carry air when it goes up riverside drive. Cant remember the last time i saw anyone get on at those riverside stops 

[Q43LTD]

Top 10 by Borough

Bronx

Bx12

Bx19

Bx1/2

Bx36

Bx6

Bx9

Bx40/42

Bx15

Bx41

Bx39

Brooklyn

B46

B6

B44

B35

B82

B41

B15

B1

B103

B12

Manhattan

M15

M14

M101

M86

M100

M102

M34

M60

M23

M103

Queens

Q58

Q52/53

Q65

Q10

Q44

Q27

Q25

Q23

Q66

Q46

Staten Island

S79

S53

S48/98

S46/96

S44/94

S40/90

S78

S74/84

S76/86

S51/81

Express

SIM1

SIM4

BxM7

X27/37

X28/38

BxM9

SIM8

SIM10

SIM33

SIM3

Some shockers here

Edited May 4, 2021 by Q43LTD
Formatting

[MHV9218]

On 5/2/2021 at 11:00 PM, QM1to6Ave said:

I see it carry air when it goes up riverside drive. Cant remember the last time i saw anyone get on at those riverside stops 

Until 2016, is the answer to that. There was a nice base of ridership traveling UWS to the Village, Downtown, SoHo, and vice versa, and then they pointlessly curtailed the route in Midtown and ruined the service. Now it's a ghost town on Riverside.

[BM5 via Woodhaven]

From my experiences, ridership on the M5 along Riverside Drive tends to be stronger in the northbound direction. I've been on various buses (pre and post covid) where almost all seats were taken, and some with standees. The opposite direction though, yeah it tends to be emptier. 

----------------------------

I think it would be interesting to see this year's stats to see what routes decreased in ridership (compared to last year). 

[B35 via Church]

On 5/2/2021 at 11:00 PM, QM1to6Ave said:

I see it carry air when it goes up riverside drive. Cant remember the last time i saw anyone get on at those riverside stops 

For the most part, the entirety of Riverside Dr. isn't exactly a nonstop segment (although from a routefanner's perspective, I go in hoping that it ends up being one )...

Of course, when the Lance Armstrong type bicyclists outnumber waiting M5 passengers along that stretch, there's definitely something to be said there....

41 minutes ago, BM5 via Woodhaven said:

From my experiences, ridership on the M5 along Riverside Drive tends to be stronger in the northbound direction. I've been on various buses (pre and post covid) where almost all seats were taken, and some with standees. The opposite direction though, yeah it tends to be emptier.

....because the Washington Heights folks are off the bus, the second it turns off Broadway!

Edited May 5, 2021 by B35 via Church