2

Straphangers Campaign 2009 Bus Award Winners

Posted by
on November 5th, 2009 at 5:23 pm

It is once again that time of year when the NYPIRG Straphangers’ Campaign hands out its annual awards for the poorest bus service in New York City. The two awards given out annually are the “Pokey Award” & “Schleppie Award”. However this year is a bit different as the group debuts a third award which is called the “Trekkie Award”. Lets get into the results which come from their press release issued earlier today:

The NYPIRG Straphangers Campaign and Transportation Alternatives today gave out three awards for poor bus service in New York City.

The first is the eighth-annual “Pokey” for slowest local bus route in New York City. The uncoveted Pokey award is a golden snail on a pedestal. It’s based on actual rides taken by Straphangers Campaign staff and volunteers on 23 slow bus routes.

The “winner” of the 2009 Pokey is … the crosstown M42, which had the slowest bus speed at 3.7 miles per hour as clocked at 12 noon on a weekday. The pace is not much faster than an average person walking, about 3 miles per hour. The M42 would lose a race with a five-year-old riding a motorized tricycle with a speed of 5 mph, as advertised by X-Treme Scooters.1

The M42 moves 13,057 riders on an average weekday and ranks 79th in riders out of the 194 local bus routes. According to the groups, the slowest bus routes in each borough are:

B63: 5.1 mph Between Fort Hamilton and Cobble Hill, Brooklyn

Bx19: 4.9 mph Between Botanical Garden in the Bronx and Harlem

M42: 3.7 mph Crosstown on 42nd Street in Manhattan

Q56: 6.3 mph Between Jamaica, Queens, and East New York, Brooklyn

S42: 10.6 mph Between New Brighton and St. George Ferry Terminal, Staten Island

Last year’s “winner” of the Pokey was the M96 crosstown.

The second award is the fourth-annual “Schleppie” for the city’s least reliable buses and is based on official transit statistics. The Schleppie is comprised of golden lumbering elephants on a pedestal.

The “winner” of the 2009 Schleppie is … the B44, which runs on Nostrand Avenue in Brooklyn. The route moves 41,840 riders on an average weekday and has the fifth-highest bus ridership in the city.

More than one in five B44s — 21.7% — arrived bunched together or came with big gaps in service during the first half of 2009. Last year’s “winner,” was the M101/2/3, which runs between Upper and Lower Manhattan.

The groups noted, however, that buses performed significantly better on reliability in the last year. In the first half of 2008, the groups found 13 routes that had more than one in five buses arriving off schedule. Only four routes in the first half of 2009 had greater than 20% of its buses arriving unreliably.

The most unreliable bus routes with over 20% of buses bunched together or big gaps in service are:

B44: 21.7% unreliable Between Sheepshead Bay and Williamsburg on Nostrand Avenue

Bx41: 21.6% unreliable Between Wakefield and the Hub on White Plains Rd/Webster Ave

M15: 20.7% unreliable Between Upper and Lower Manhattan on First and Second Avenues

B41: 20.4% unreliable Between Kings Plaza and Downtown Brooklyn

The third award is a first-ever Trekkie, for the city bus route with the longest scheduled running time, based on official transit statistics. The Trekkie is comprised of a golden camel trekking on a pedestal.

The winner of the 2009 Trekkie is… the M4, which runs between Penn Station and Fort Tryon Park in Upper Manhattan.

A trip on the M4 from Penn Station in Manhattan to Fort Tryon in Upper Manhattan is scheduled to take 1 hour and 50 minutes, according to MTA New York City Transit’s schedules for 194 local bus routes up on www.mta.info. An M4 scheduled to leave Penn Station at 4:30 p.m., for example, is scheduled to arrive at Fort Tryon Park at 6:20 p.m. taking 1 hour and 50 minutes.

In comparison, weekday afternoon runs of New York to Philadelphia Amtrak regular service (non-Acela, non-Metroliner) is scheduled for as little as 1 hour and 18 minutes to 1 hour 27 minutes.

“What a trek!” said Gene Russianoff, staff attorney for the NYPIRG Straphangers Campaign. “Long haul riders on the M4 should be sure to bring along travel monopoly and a pillow.”

The route moves 23,224 riders on an average weekday and ranks 27th out of the 194 local routes.

The groups last looked at weekday scheduled running times for New York City in 2004. At that time, the groups found 14 of 190 local routes were scheduled to run as long or longer than most regularly scheduled Amtrak service between New York to Philadelphia. In 2009, there were 25 such routes. But given changes in methodology and bus routes, both groups thought it was not fair to compare the numbers between 2004 and 2009. (See Table 2.)

The bus routes with the longest running times in each borough include:

B8 1:38 Between Bay Ridge and Brownsville

Bx36: 1:25 Between Soundview, Bronx, and Washington Heights, Manhattan

M4: 1:50 Between Penn Station and Fort Tryon Park

Q32: 1:27 Between Jackson Heights, Queens, and Penn Station, Manhattan

S74: 1:22 Between Tottenville and St. George Ferry Terminal

Paul Steely White, executive director of Transportation Alternatives said: “The only way to stem the tide of falling bus speeds is by giving buses more priority on the street than the rest of traffic. Stars are finally starting to align for a ‘Bus Rapid Transit’ program that will get buses moving.”

BRT has brought better transit to many cities around the world. A more limited version known as “Select Bus Service” (SBS) is being tested here. The first SBS routes have started on Pelham Parkway and Fordham Road in the Bronx (Bx12) and on 34th Street in Manhattan (M34). SBS routes are planned for Nostrand Avenue (B44), First and Second Avenues in Manhattan (M15) and Hylan Boulevard on Staten Island (S79).

White noted that the groups found “Select Bus Service” on the Bx12 had resulted in a 41% increase in speed on the Bx12 local route. The Bx12 local was clocked by surveyors in this survey at 6.8 mph. But the SBS Bx12 traveled at 9.6 mph, some 41% faster than its counterpart the Bx12 local.

Among bus improvement strategies now being reviewed in New York are:

* Tougher enforcement of exclusive bus lanes with barriers to discourage cars from entering

* Pre-boarding fare payment

* Reconfigured bus stops to speed boarding and reduce conflicts with other vehicles

* Bus priority signals to help buses stick to schedule.

Full tables of bus speeds and scheduled running times are attached. Schleppies went to any route with an average unreliability greater than 20%.

In the 2002 Pokey Awards, the groups found that the city’s slowest bus route was the M96. In 2003, the groups awarded the Pokey to the M23, in 2004 and 2005 to the M34, in 2006 to the M14A, in 2007 to the M23 and the M96 in 2008.

Click here for the methodology.

Click here for the complete Pokey Award chart from slowest to fastest.

Click here for the Trekkie Award chart from longest to shortest.

The groups cautioned that comparisons with past findings were difficult due to changes in methodology and bus routes over the years. In addition, changes in bus speeds since 2004 have generally been too minor to demonstrate significant trends.

The Schleppie went to the M1 in both 2006 and 2007 and to the M101/102/103 in 2008. The official methodology for determining this measure was changed in 2008 by transit officials.

Honestly the results produced no surprises as the same routes tend to be at or near the top of these lists. I feel that the Executive Director of Transportation Alternatives Paul Steely White said it best when he said:

The only way to stem the tide of falling bus speeds is by giving buses more priority on the street than the rest of traffic. Stars are finally starting to align for a ‘Bus Rapid Transit’ program that will get buses moving.

Many other transit advocates have been calling for the same priority for ages & it is now only recently when such concepts were seriously looked into. The Select Bus Service running on the Bx12 was a great start to accomplishing the goal of making bus service better. Hopefully in the coming years, more innovations such as SBS & other concepts are implemented so we can see these awards fade away.

xoxo Transit Blogger

You might enjoy reading these related entries:
Straphangers Campaign
1

NYC Transit President Roberts Resigns

Posted by
on November 4th, 2009 at 9:04 pm

I just got back in after a long day of doing business. I was shocked when I opened my inbox & saw a statement sent to me by the MTA talking about the resignation of NYC Transit President Howard Roberts. Lets first take a look at the statement I received:

“Earlier today I accepted the resignation of New York City Transit President Howard Roberts. Howard deserves credit for his hard work leading NYC Transit over the last two and one half years, and I am grateful for his service to the MTA. He will remain in his position through the end of November. I intend to name a replacement in short order.” — Jay H. Walder, MTA Chairman and CEO

I must say I am disappointed that he is resigning. While some of his decisions such as the debut of the Rider Report Cards & Line Manager program have been dissected by many, he genuinely seemed interested in turning the fortunes of NYC Transit around financially & cosmetically. This resignation reeks of someone who clearly saw he did not fit in with the plans of the new leadership in place.

Speaking of new leadership, is it really necessary for a new leader to always bring in his own people? While I understand the natural reaction of feeling more comfortable with those you know, this does not mean it is always the right choice. How can the MTA ever get out from the multiple messes it is in, when they continue to have shakeups within upper management over the last couple of years? They need to get the best people in place, roll up their sleeves, & get the job done!

xoxo Transit Blogger

You might enjoy reading these related entries:
NYC Transit
0

LIRR Penn Station Renovations Completed

Posted by
on November 3rd, 2009 at 7:08 am

Renovated Men's Restroom In Penn StationRenovated Men’s Room inside the LIRR portion of Penn Station.

If you have been in or around the main waiting area in the LIRR’s part of Penn Station, you would have noticed some renovations going on. The renovations which started last summer were to the station’s restrooms & waiting room area. Yesterday afternoon, the agency announced the completion of the renovations via a press release. Here are the complete details from the press release I received:

MTA Long Island Rail Road customers now have new state-of-the-art rest room facilities at Penn Station. A major $5.5 million renovation project, begun during the summer of 2008, has been completed.

“We completely modernized and improved one of the busiest restrooms in the city, including doubling the size of the women’s room,” said LIRR President Helena Williams. “This much needed renovation will greatly benefit thousands of LIRR customers and out of town visitors and it’s open in time for the busy holiday travel season.”

Highlights of the reconstruction include expanding the size of the ladies room, with the number of toilets increasing from 17 to 25 and the number of sinks from 8 to 19.

Both the women’s and men’s rooms were designed to be more easily maintained and have a cleaner look. The improvements include illuminated glass/mosaic tile walls, non-porous terrazzo floors, smooth, non-porous surfaces, enhanced lighting, and a new fresh air intake system with continuous air flow from outside and enhanced heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems, all helping to create a brighter and more open atmosphere.

Ms. Williams added, “The Daily News highlighted the poor ventilation issue in the Men’s Room shortly after I took over as LIRR President and I want to thank them. Their reporting got my attention and our customers are now benefiting.”

The new facilities also include touch-free sensor-operated toilets, faucets, soap dispensers and hand dryers along with graffiti and scratch resistant partitions and concealed plumbing to reduce clutter.

Penn Station rest rooms are among the very busiest in the City. Approximately 12,000 to 15,000 LIRR customers use the two Penn Station rest rooms daily. More than 230,000 LIRR customers use Penn Station each weekday.

In addition to the major rest room renovations, improvements will be completed to the adjacent customer waiting area. New 46-inch monitors will display track and departure times as well as service-related text messages, giving customers up to date, real time information. Seventy-six new cushioned seats also have been installed as well as new light bulbs.

The construction challenges faced during the work included maintaining operation of the rest rooms along with the nearby waiting room as the job continued. The renovations were completed within an almost 100-year old facility that rests above active train tracks.

I am glad that these renovations are complete as they were long overdue. If any of you have been inside the bathrooms in question, you will know how true that statement is. I happened to be in the station, the morning after Halloween but I did not go inside to see how things looked. Next time I am in Penn Station, I will take a look.

xoxo Transit Blogger

You might enjoy reading these related entries:
LIRR
0

LIRR To Provide Extra Trains For Halloween

Posted by
on October 30th, 2009 at 12:59 pm

Just a short time ago, the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) announced via press release that it would run 2 extra trains Sunday morning for those out & about Halloween night. Here are the details from the release I received:

“Time waits for no one” is of particular significance this coming weekend for the Long Island Rail Road. “Falling back” one hour at 2 AM, Sunday, November 1, affects some LIRR trains and this year, due to the proximity of Halloween, the LIRR also is ready for late partying “trick or treaters.” There will be two additional eastbound early morning trains on the Babylon and Ronkonkoma Branches.

The time change, when 2:00 AM Daylight Saving Time, Sunday becomes 1:00 AM Eastern Standard Time (EST), Sunday will be recognized by LIRR crews of those trains enroute. For example, the 1:19 AM train from New York to Port Washington that normally arrives at Plandome at 2:00 AM will instead have a 1:00 AM Plandome arrival time this Sunday. No, it’s not the “Twilight Zone,” it’s Eastern Standard Time. Nine additional eastbound and eight westbound trains will face a similar time change at 2:00 AM, Sunday.

The treat for Halloween celebrants is additional service on the Babylon and Ronkonkoma Branches from Penn Station. The extra trains are:

Babylon Branch:

Eastbound: Leave Penn Station at 1:37 AM EST, stopping at Forest Hills, Kew Gardens, Jamaica, Rockville Centre and all local stops to Babylon (arrive at 2:55 AM EST).

Ronkonkoma Branch:

Eastbound: Leave Penn Station at 1:53 AM EST, stopping at Jamaica, Mineola, Carle Place, Westbury, Hicksville and all local stops to Ronkonkoma (arrive at 3:14 AM EST).

xoxo Transit Blogger

You might enjoy reading these related entries:
LIRR
0

Service Diversions 10-29

Posted by
on October 29th, 2009 at 11:34 pm

I updated the service diversions page with the latest information for what will be another chaotic weekend & upcoming week (beyond in some cases) on the rails. I also suggest printing out a copy of the page to use while riding the system. Have a safe & wonderful time as you enjoy this Halloween weekend!

xoxo Trick or Treating Transit Blogger

You might enjoy reading these related entries:
Service Diversions