BUS - Random Thoughts Thread

[R179 8258]

Is Meredith really a bus depot as in like does it’s own Maintenance and have building like the other depot, or it’s really like a storage for buses ?

[Calvin]

9 minutes ago, R179 8258 said:

Is Meredith really a bus depot as in like does it’s own Maintenance and have building like the other depot, or it’s really like a storage for buses ?

It is a depot, it's just very small in picture. The location itself is surrounded by grass and high lands and truck/plumbing spot. 

Edited December 3, 2021 by Calvin

[SevenEleven]

1 hour ago, R179 8258 said:

Is Meredith really a bus depot as in like does it’s own Maintenance and have building like the other depot, or it’s really like a storage for buses ?

Meredith is a depot. It has its own work and operators. It’s a satellite facility equipped to do small maintenance. All of the heavy work gets sent out to the other 3 depots or Zerega. It does not have fueling or farebox handling capacities, those are done at Castle and Yukon daily.
 

I’m working at Meredith right now. My day starts and ends there, I get my bus there and I fuel at Castleton everyday. 

[4 via Mosholu]

I got on one of the Prevosts dispatched from New York Bus Service (Eastchester) yesterday on the BxM10 to Eastwood Manor. It was #1405 if I remember correctly.

The bus driver asked if I was headed to the Bronx from Manhattan after I paid my fare, just before I sat down to buckle up. He was courteous enough to turn off the air conditioner just to hear me out. I told him yes, that I was going to the Bronx. He said he asked me that question because he wanted to be sure I got in the right bus. The period that I entered into the bus, Madison Avenue looked like a madhouse with tons of sedans and other cars. Third Avenue was better, though there was a Fort George that almost got too close to the Prevost that I was on. Besides me, there were more than ten people on the Prevost that I boarded. The way the bus driver drove the bus looked insane; there was a point that a sedan due to a sudden stop almost hit the bus from the front while on the Sheridan. There were many stops along Madison and Third where he just drove into the pickup spots. Whenever he saw an opening along Madison for him to get past the sedan madness, he took it and became defensive with how he drove. Yet, the bus driver drove safely coming from Manhattan and entering the Bronx. Traversing the Bruckner into the Sheridan Expressway (make that the Boulevard) was worse compared to Madison or Third Avenues due to the construction, though the Triborough Bridge crossing as well as going through Morris Park Avenue and Eastchester Road were great. The Prevost managed to beat a New Flyer C40LF #306 on the that was headed to Woodlawn Heights, which I took the rest of the way to my place from the Manor.

Edited December 3, 2021 by 4 via Mosholu

[Calvin]

1 hour ago, SevenEleven said:

Meredith is a depot. It has its own work and operators. It’s a satellite facility equipped to do small maintenance. All of the heavy work gets sent out to the other 3 depots or Zerega. It does not have fueling or farebox handling capacities, those are done at Castle and Yukon daily.

I’m working at Meredith right now. My day starts and ends there, I get my bus there and I fuel at Castleton everyday. 

Do the Express buses at Meredith pulls in to the depot during the midday and out for the afternoon rush? Or it's either at Quill or Tuskegee b/c of the distance from Manhattan. 

Edited December 3, 2021 by Calvin

[XcelsiorBoii4888]

1 hour ago, Calvin said:

Do the Express buses at Meredith pulls in to the depot during the midday and out for the afternoon rush? Or it's either at Quill or Tuskegee b/c of the distance from Manhattan. 

That's what I've always wanted to ask but always forgot to ask...

 

How do they decide what buses stay at Quill until the PM rush hour? Does it even happen nowadays? I remember that being a thing pre-pandemic, but I haven't followed up post-lockdowns. If it still occurs, is it based on the specific run? It is operator preference to decide to leave the bus there? Do you have to request every morning? How do you get back to the island from the city if you leave the bus at Quill? How do you get into the city to start PM work? Do you need to stay in Manhattan during your swing?

[BM5 via Woodhaven]

B83 buses were detoured to operate out to Cross Bay Boulevard in Lindenwood a few days ago. Didn't know about it until now but that would have been an interesting sighting in person. 

 

[danielhg121]

1 hour ago, XcelsiorBoii4888 said:

That's what I've always wanted to ask but always forgot to ask...

 

How do they decide what buses stay at Quill until the PM rush hour? Does it even happen nowadays? I remember that being a thing pre-pandemic, but I haven't followed up post-lockdowns. If it still occurs, is it based on the specific run? It is operator preference to decide to leave the bus there? Do you have to request every morning? How do you get back to the island from the city if you leave the bus at Quill? How do you get into the city to start PM work? Do you need to stay in Manhattan during your swing?

I believe from what I’ve seen on the sheets. The space at Quill is assigned to certain runs. They have shuttles leaving Quill in the morning and arriving at Quill in the afternoon for the operators to get to their buses. These shuttles also go on to do their assigned runs too. It’s listed all on a sheet which runs park up at Quill and which afternoon runs have to catch a certain shuttle to meet their bus pullout on time.

[Future ENY OP]

8 hours ago, BM5 via Woodhaven said:

B83 buses were detoured to operate out to Cross Bay Boulevard in Lindenwood a few days ago. Didn't know about it until now but that would have been an interesting sighting in person. 

 

Now, that’s very interesting. I’ve always wonder if an expansion of the B83 to Lefferts/Air-train or Howard Beach-JFK  could be suitable to possibly help out the B15 (Rush-hours only). Although, I find the detour interesting. Could of they detoured within Brooklyn to get to the mall?  

Edited December 3, 2021 by Future ENY OP

[Via Garibaldi 8]

9 hours ago, XcelsiorBoii4888 said:

That's what I've always wanted to ask but always forgot to ask...

 

How do they decide what buses stay at Quill until the PM rush hour? Does it even happen nowadays? I remember that being a thing pre-pandemic, but I haven't followed up post-lockdowns. If it still occurs, is it based on the specific run? It is operator preference to decide to leave the bus there? Do you have to request every morning? How do you get back to the island from the city if you leave the bus at Quill? How do you get into the city to start PM work? Do you need to stay in Manhattan during your swing?

lol The run that is picked specifies what you do. I used to get a driver for my morning and night trips one summer and we'd both laugh because he was my morning and night driver on two different lines, which is not the norm. He had morning trips, finished those, then had to pull back into the depot, had a swing, then went back to the depot and did whatever evening trips he had and pulled back into the depot and was done. Another guy had something similar. He would make the best of it, go to the gym or whatever during his swing, etc. This is all paid, though during the swing it isn't full pay.

Quill isn't the only one where that happens. I've seen plenty of Queens express buses deadhead up to 100th St depot (Tuskegee) and lay up. All depends on how much space is available for that to happen. They get back either hopping public transit or they drive. It still occurs because it allows for less time and money spent on deadheading to and from the home depot, among other things.

My uncle used to do a mix of driving some days and taking public transit other days depending on what pieces he was doing. The times I went with him, he would just drive in to make things easy, but that was always on weekends.

All of this deadheading and the time allotted is worked out between the  and the unions. Earlier this year, I pushed for the 42nd St SIM schedules to be tweaked because there was too much runtime. That small change required the union agreeing to it, and the same happens if there are issues with buses repeatedly starting late because of a lack of time to deadhead. Everything is negotiated.

@4 via Mosholu Where is Eastwood Manor? 

Edited December 3, 2021 by Via Garibaldi 8

[4 via Mosholu]

1 hour ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

@4 via Mosholu Where is Eastwood Manor? 

It is at Eastchester on Boston Roads, where the 30, 31, W60, 61, and 62 meet up.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

10 minutes ago, 4 via Mosholu said:

It is at Eastchester on Boston Roads, where the 30, 31, W60, 61, and 62 meet up.

Oh you're talking about that catering hall. I thought you were referring to that as the neighborhood. I forgot about that place.

[paulrivera]

12 hours ago, XcelsiorBoii4888 said:

How do you get back to the island from the city if you leave the bus at Quill?

I know Eastchester has (or had? not sure nowadays) a deadhead trip that doubled as an employee shuttle from there to Quill for any B/O that needed to pick up their bus at Quill.

This arrangement makes a lot of sense imo. Why deadhead a handful of buses to drive 15 miles each from the Bronx to Midtown when you can seat a handful of B/O's as passengers on 1 bus and have only one B/O drive the 15 miles and the others only drive a mile and a half?

[Via Garibaldi 8]

29 minutes ago, paulrivera said:

I know Eastchester has (or had? not sure nowadays) a deadhead trip that doubled as an employee shuttle from there to Quill for any B/O that needed to pick up their bus at Quill.

This arrangement makes a lot of sense imo. Why deadhead a handful of buses to drive 15 miles each from the Bronx to Midtown when you can seat a handful of B/O's as passengers on 1 bus and have only one B/O drive the 15 miles and the others only drive a mile and a half?

It also means more reliable service. The Spring Creek express bus lines are the worst performing lines in the entire express bus system, and part of the issue is the amount of deadheading they have to do back and forth from Brooklyn to Manhattan. 

[checkmatechamp13]

4 hours ago, Future ENY OP said:

Now, that’s very interesting. I’ve always wonder if an expansion of the B83 to Lefferts/Air-train or Howard Beach-JFK  could be suitable to possibly help out the B15 (Rush-hours only). Although, I find the detour interesting. Could of they detoured within Brooklyn to get to the mall?  

The issue is they would have to serve the stops in reverse (they could swing up Van Siclen and serve Gateway II, but then they have to go back to serve Gateway I somehow, unless they just tell everyone to transfer to another bus to get to Gateway I)

I've always thought they should segment it up to avoid buses using the Belt (So a Pennsylvania Avenue route connecting Starrett City to Broadway Junction, a Pennsylvania-New Lots-Van Siclen route connecting ENY to Gateway, and then an extension of either the Q8 or B13 to Starrett City via Van Siclen, though I have other ideas on how to structure those two routes in general)

[NBTA]

BxM4 just skedaddled right on past me at 46th Street, 3414, he saw me too.

[SevenEleven]

21 hours ago, Calvin said:

Do the Express buses at Meredith pulls in to the depot during the midday and out for the afternoon rush? Or it's either at Quill or Tuskegee b/c of the distance from Manhattan. 

 Pull in and out during the midday. Charleston and Yukon are SI’s only two that have runs that go up to Quill. 
 

@XcelsiorBoii4888 During COVID, they stopped the Quill layovers so everyone went back to their depots for their swing. It’s back to the regular now tho. 
 

@paulrivera Charleston. Yukon, Ulmer Park, Spring Creek, College Point, Eastchester and I think Yonkers all have runs that layover in the city. Queens Village lays up in Long Island City and I think everyone else goes back home. 

[trainfan22]

All those "official" tags surrounding this thread reminds me of when B/Os in Brooklyn would put a whole bunch of limited signs in front of the bus lol. Most had one or two but I remember B6s with a excess amount of them. Sometimes they had limited AND green express signs in front of the bus!

 

[paulrivera]

5 hours ago, NBTA said:

BxM4 just skedaddled right on past me at 46th Street, 3414, he saw me too.

Report it if you haven't already.

Odds are it was a rookie driver too, since neither of the runs around the time you posted were even filled until the last minute.

Edited December 4, 2021 by paulrivera
grammar

[SoSpectacular]

1 hour ago, trainfan22 said:

All those "official" tags surrounding this thread reminds me of when B/Os in Brooklyn would put a whole bunch of limited signs in front of the bus lol. Most had one or two but I remember B6s with a excess amount of them. Sometimes they had limited AND green express signs in front of the bus!

 

Because people are still gonna ask the same question despite the destination sign saying otherwise...

"Is this a local?"

"Oh man, I didn't know this was a limited!"

[Lex]

1 hour ago, SoSpectacular said:

Because people are still gonna ask the same question despite the destination sign saying otherwise...

"Is this a local?"

"Oh man, I didn't know this was a limited!"

It's one thing if they have to ask because they can't see. It's another if they won't see.

I can only imagine every bus driver's frustration with the latter.

[TomaszSBklyn]

On 12/2/2021 at 7:17 PM, R179 8258 said:

Is Meredith really a bus depot as in like does it’s own Maintenance and have building like the other depot, or it’s really like a storage for buses ?

According to :

https://ppiaf.org/sites/ppiaf.org/files/documents/toolkits/UrbanBusToolkit/assets/3/3.1/35(vii)b.html

A bus depot "is a transport system’s operating base. It provides parking accommodation, servicing and maintenance facilities for vehicles, an administrative function, and facilities for staff. A fully enclosed depot is sometimes referred to as a garage".

All other MTA Bus and NYCT depots do have servicing facilities, although as I understand not all types of servicing and maintenance is available at all depots, hence the existence of specialized shops such as Zerega Avenue CMF.

Therefore, one would be hard-pressed to call Mermaid, I mean Meredith Avenue a "depot". A "storage for buses" or perhaps a glorified parking lot (with a valet perhaps?) seems a more appropriate term to describe the facility.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

4 hours ago, paulrivera said:

Report it if you haven't already.

Odds are it was a rookie driver too, since neither of the runs around the time you posted were even filled until the last minute.

Been having a lot of complaints from riders lately in the group about Yonkers drivers bypassing stops. Don't know what's going on, but yes I agree. It should be reported. There's a Bronx dispatcher in my group that has been trying to work on lowering such issues, putting up signage and such as bus stops as I've complained. Lots of bus stops moved either temporarily or permanently. I had the BxM1 stop at 86th St moved permanently to try to avoid the whole being bypassed problem. Union head spoke with me about moving the BxM2 stop from CPS & 6th up to 7th. DOT has to finish putting up signage at the new stop. The temporary stops I've been trying to make sure there is signage up, esp. if people complain about being bypassed, but some of stops have long-term construction. Need to see when some of the regular stops will come back.

@NBTA What stop was this?

[B35 via Church]

21 hours ago, Future ENY OP said:

Now, that’s very interesting. I’ve always wonder if an expansion of the B83 to Lefferts/Air-train or Howard Beach-JFK  could be suitable to possibly help out the B15 (Rush-hours only)....

I would alter the B20 to do that, and it wouldn't be just during the rush either... I would even scale back some of the trips running to JFK T5 to ending at Lefferts AIRTrain station before having something (a la the B83) running via Gateway Mall to Lefferts AIRTrain station (or Howard Beach )... Matter of fact, the MTA's been doing just that as of late during the PM rush (having some trips end at Lefferts AIRTrain instead of at T5).....

4 hours ago, SoSpectacular said:

Because people are still gonna ask the same question despite the destination sign saying otherwise...

"Is this a local?"

"Oh man, I didn't know this was a limited!"

Regardless of whatever's put up on a destination sign and/or a paper sign, the attitude is that pax. expect you to be the bus (in this case, service tyoe) they need at that particular time, no questions asked.

Also related to this, it always amazes me how people jump on a line at a bus stop that multiple routes serve & blindly board the first bus that arrives - expecting it to be the bus (or service type; local/LTD) they need... It's a combination of entitlement , laziness, & quite frankly, the notion that *since there's a line for something, it must be for something good* - in this case, the bus they need....

*If you're not the bus I need, then TURN into the bus I need... Why? Because I'm MEEEeeeeee*

 

Edited December 4, 2021 by B35 via Church

[Future ENY OP]

2 hours ago, B35 via Church said:

I would alter the B20 to do that, and it wouldn't be just during the rush either... I would even scale back some of the trips running to JFK T5 to ending at Lefferts AIRTrain station before having something (a la the B83) running via Gateway Mall to Lefferts AIRTrain station (or Howard Beach )... Matter of fact, the MTA's been doing just that as of late during the PM rush (having some trips end at Lefferts AIRTrain instead of at T5).....

I agree with you.. The 20 should be the better benefit to serve the airtrain than the 83. The 83 has to travel a bit further and as you indicated with service to Gateway.

This is new to me that MTA has been scale some T5 trips to Lefferts/Airtrain for the B15. Although, I haven't been in the area since 2015 not much has changed. My problem with the TA right now is that they have all this federal money and the fiscally responsible thing to do first is to possibly expand some bus routes to meet customer demand. You shouldn't have routes like the B15 being workhorses at JFK..