BUS - Random Thoughts Thread

[Kingsbridgeviewer382]

17 minutes ago, QM1to6Ave said:

Thanks! I will be working Friday 31st most likely, so I assume it'll be a Saturday schedule again, but I'll likely stick to the subway since the NYE closures around 6th ave make the bus somewhat useless for me

Bus schedules for Bus Co express buses will be the same as those on Black Friday, at least according to the MTA Site.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

1 hour ago, Kingsbridgeviewer382 said:

Bus schedules for Bus Co express buses will be the same as those on Black Friday, at least according to the MTA Site.

Which is what exactly? They usually release special schedules for the week after Christmas, at least they have lately.

[checkmatechamp13]

8 hours ago, QM1to6Ave said:

Thanks! I will be working Friday 31st most likely, so I assume it'll be a Saturday schedule again, but I'll likely stick to the subway since the NYE closures around 6th ave make the bus somewhat useless for me

Reduced weekday schedule on 12/31 (all the Union Turnpike variants will run, but with hourly service). The same schedule as Day After Thanksgiving: https://new.mta.info/article/thanksgiving-2021-mta-service-change

Also FWIW the rest of the week (12/27 - 12/30) is reduced weekday service for the NYCT routes (except Staten Island). The X63/64/68 have a couple of trips removed compared to the standard weekday schedule.

8 hours ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

Aside from that, I believe the kiddies are out of school for Winter break, so parents are likely taking off to be home with them. 

School vacation starts on Christmas Eve.

Edited December 23, 2021 by checkmatechamp13

[Calvin]

Picking up christmas gifts at Target around Kings Hwy  train, there were like 5 B82 buses backed up to Coney Island and 3 B7s to the last stop around Coney Island Av. So many parked vehicles between E. 14 and 15 Sts. 

[trainfan22]

Those Nova hybrids sound quite nice when they can open them up a little bit, as a buff the NF Hybrids are a little disappointing as they are very quiet, hardly make any noise. Maybe it's because they new and they will sound better as they get "broken in".

 

 

9500-9509 are great from a buff prospective but these new XDE40s don't hit the same so far.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

21 minutes ago, trainfan22 said:

Those Nova hybrids sound quite nice when they can open them up a little bit, as a buff the NF Hybrids are a little disappointing as they are very quiet, hardly make any noise. Maybe it's because they new and they will sound better as they get "broken in".

 

 

9500-9509 are great from a buff prospective but these new XDE40s don't hit the same so far.

I don't know which buses those are, but from the local bus trips I have taken lately here and there, it seems as if the very new buses are a lot quieter and maybe not as jerky as those hybrid buses from 2008 or whenever they came out. 

[Calvin]

From the past few Saturdays, the BM3 has been nothing but seen using the 2006-07 MCIs (3000 series). There hasn't been a CT 2200 in use except the weekdays. 

Edited December 25, 2021 by Calvin

[BM5 via Woodhaven]

Bus 6279 got into an accident in Jackson Heights, and it's blocking the entire intersection of Roosevelt Ave & Broadway. There appears to be no injuries, at least from what I've seen (I wasn't there when it crashed).

Edited December 25, 2021 by BM5 via Woodhaven

[Lil 57]

Google maps and Apple Maps messed up big time when it comes to showing the bus schedules today, instead of just showing the Sunday Schedules, it shows both the Saturday and Sunday schedules at the same time so for anyone traveling  today, check the actual schedules on the MTA website to make sure that you catch a bus that is actually running.

[B35 via Church]

1 hour ago, Lil 57 said:

Google maps and Apple Maps messed up big time when it comes to showing the bus schedules today, instead of just showing the Sunday Schedules, it shows both the Saturday and Sunday schedules at the same time so for anyone traveling  today, check the actual schedules on the MTA website to make sure that you catch a bus that is actually running.

That's the problem you end up running into when you rely on secondary sources for primary info...

Now if the primary source is relaying conflicting or otherwise inaccurate information, we as end-users (riders) have every right to heavily criticize that source....

[Via Garibaldi 8]

7 hours ago, Lil 57 said:

Google maps and Apple Maps messed up big time when it comes to showing the bus schedules today, instead of just showing the Sunday Schedules, it shows both the Saturday and Sunday schedules at the same time so for anyone traveling  today, check the actual schedules on the MTA website to make sure that you catch a bus that is actually running.

Why does anyone use third party apps when there is a direct source for that? Never got that one,

[SevenEleven]

I think the error is stemming from the GTFS data saying that today is a Sunday schedule and the apps themselves not being able to override the Saturday schedules. (Since it IS Saturday and normally when a holiday falls on a weekend, the schedule is whatever day it physically is)

It being a Sunday schedule on a regular Saturday (the observed holiday was yesterday) has been a first in a while. 

[Cait Sith]

On 12/24/2021 at 6:29 PM, trainfan22 said:

Those Nova hybrids sound quite nice when they can open them up a little bit, as a buff the NF Hybrids are a little disappointing as they are very quiet, hardly make any noise. Maybe it's because they new and they will sound better as they get "broken in".

 

 

9500-9509 are great from a buff prospective but these new XDE40s don't hit the same so far.

You gotta ride the XDEs in Manhattan, very comparable to the Novas. The new ones in Brooklyn have a different hybrid system.

[paulrivera]

3 hours ago, SevenEleven said:

I think the error is stemming from the GTFS data saying that today is a Sunday schedule and the apps themselves not being able to override the Saturday schedules. (Since it IS Saturday and normally when a holiday falls on a weekend, the schedule is whatever day it physically is)

It being a Sunday schedule on a regular Saturday (the observed holiday was yesterday) has been a first in a while. 

I wonder how Google and Apple Maps are going to portray 12/27 to 12/31, which are going to practically be a holiday schedule for the buses as well.

[trainfan22]

Saw in a COVID thread on Reddit that at one point last week there was a depot out there down 60 Bus Operators due to COVID.

 

 

I thought depots were short like 10-15 operators at most... not SIXTY! The driver in the reddit thread didn't say which depot it was.

Edited December 28, 2021 by trainfan22

[Railfanner Mario]

1 hour ago, trainfan22 said:

Saw in a COVID thread on Reddit that at one point last week there was a depot out there down 60 Bus Operators due to COVID.

 

 

I thought depots were short like 10-15 operators at most... not SIXTY! The driver in the reddit thread didn't say which depot it was.

Oh Boy not again….. This situation reminds me of last year when Kingsbridge Bus Operators Getting sick to a point they were severely short on drivers that other depots had to assist. Hope it doesn’t end up in that bad situation again.

[NBTA]

2 hours ago, Railfanner Mario said:

Oh Boy not again….. This situation reminds me of last year when Kingsbridge Bus Operators Getting sick to a point they were severely short on drivers that other depots had to assist. Hope it doesn’t end up in that bad situation again.

I remember that. That was a Bronx wide thing. 

[NewFlyer 230]

12 hours ago, trainfan22 said:

Saw in a COVID thread on Reddit that at one point last week there was a depot out there down 60 Bus Operators due to COVID.

 

 

I thought depots were short like 10-15 operators at most... not SIXTY! The driver in the reddit thread didn't say which depot it was.

I hope those operators are alright, because 60 drivers being out means that there must have been tons of missing runs.

This is one of the reasons why I can’t wait to drive soon. I know driving comes with its own headaches but I’m tired of waiting double or sometimes triple the time for a bus to show up. This doesn’t happen all the time but when it does it can be quite an inconvenience. I can recall several instances where I had to wait 12 to 15 minutes for the Q64 to show up around 7:30/8 in the morning. Mind you this route is scheduled to show up every 3 minutes during the AM rush. I remember one time BP threw a XD60 on the Q64 one morning and it was already crushloaded at Kissena Blvd. Hopefully in 2022 things start to look better overall. 

[Via Garibaldi 8]

20 minutes ago, NewFlyer 230 said:

I hope those operators are alright, because 60 drivers being out means that there must have been tons of missing runs.

This is one of the reasons why I can’t wait to drive soon. I know driving comes with its own headaches but I’m tired of waiting double or sometimes triple the time for a bus to show up. This doesn’t happen all the time but when it does it can be quite an inconvenience. I can recall several instances where I had to wait 12 to 15 minutes for the Q64 to show up around 7:30/8 in the morning. Mind you this route is scheduled to show up every 3 minutes during the AM rush. I remember one time BP threw a XD60 on the Q64 one morning and it was already crushloaded at Kissena Blvd. Hopefully in 2022 things start to look better overall. 

60 drivers is almost half the amount of drivers that have been out on some days. There have been days were 100 or more drivers were out in one borough alone. Some of it is COVID related, but not all of it. 15 minutes compared to two hour gaps on some lines is actually not too bad. Some folks wait for the subway that long or longer. I have definitely had my share of 40 minute to an hour waits with several buses due. I don't think the is announcing most of the local bus cancellations though, which makes it hard to plan.

  

10 hours ago, Railfanner Mario said:

Oh Boy not again….. This situation reminds me of last year when Kingsbridge Bus Operators Getting sick to a point they were severely short on drivers that other depots had to assist. Hope it doesn’t end up in that bad situation again.

And that depot (Kingsbridge Depot) still has a lot of maskless bus operators in service.  I've seen packed local buses and the driver is just there like everything is normal. Doesn't shock me that they have had such outbreaks.

 

Edited December 28, 2021 by Via Garibaldi 8

[JAzumah]

13 minutes ago, Via Garibaldi 8 said:

And that depot (Kingsbridge Depot) still has a lot of maskless bus operators in service.  I've seen packed local buses and the driver is just there like everything is normal. Doesn't shock me that they have had such outbreaks.

They would be getting sick in the depot because as long as his/her shield is in place, most of the airflow is not going into the operator's compartment.

When they introduced the shields, I used to tease the drivers about being train drivers now. Some of them noted that drivers were catching many fewer colds with the shield in place.

[Via Garibaldi 8]

2 minutes ago, JAzumah said:

They would be getting sick in the depot because as long as his/her shield is in place, most of the airflow is not going into the operator's compartment.

When they introduced the shields, I used to tease the drivers about being train drivers now. Some of them noted that drivers were catching many fewer colds with the shield in place.

Either way, if they aren't wearing them on the buses with a busload of people, I don't see why they would be wearing them inside of the depot.  All it points to is a higher risk of catching COVID. Express or local, a lot of passengers complain about maskless drivers. On the buses I have been on, very few are without masks, but I have definitely noticed a lot more local bus operators without them.

[Cait Sith]

Well, 1307 is OOS.

For those that know the area by Linden Place and the Whitestone Expressway, the op tried to fit the bus on that u-turn lane underneath the expressway(which is incredibly narrow for buses to begin with) and well....let's just say that didn't end well.

[Lawrence St]

13 minutes ago, Cait Sith said:

Well, 1307 is OOS.

For those that know the area by Linden Place and the Whitestone Expressway, the op tried to fit the bus on that u-turn lane underneath the expressway(which is incredibly narrow for buses to begin with) and well....let's just say that didn't end well.

How bad…

[Cait Sith]

10 minutes ago, Lawrence St said:

How bad…

There's damage.

That's all you need to know.

[lornaevo]

4 minutes ago, Cait Sith said:

There's damage.

That's all you need to know.

And there’s a sign posted not to go there.