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| Re: MTA Bus Ridership Dwindles As Subway Gains (234416) | |||
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Re: MTA Bus Ridership Dwindles As Subway Gains |
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Posted by JAzumah on Mon May 30 06:02:57 2011, in response to Re: MTA Bus Ridership Dwindles As Subway Gains, posted by Osmosis Jones on Mon May 30 04:14:25 2011. I don't get you. You're against extending the S40 and S48 because of reliability, but you want the X17J and X22 (which already both deal with traffic on I-95, the Lincoln Tunnel, and Midtown Manhattan) through them. It's a silly reason anyway, if reliability would be such an issue past South Avenue, then simply put a dispatcher at that location and short-turn certain trips there. The S48 is already the highest-ridership route to St. George without Newark Airport, so utilization of the short-turn trips also shouldn't be an issue.Yes! Right now, the X17J and the X22 go right past the airport. At once an hour, it doesn't really matter which run goes through the airport. So, if bus 3 is scheduled to go through the airport and gets hammered, you can send bus 4 or 5 through to make the stop instead. The point is simply that for the price of 1-2 extra buses, EWR can be linked directly to Staten Island. The airport X17J buses could start at 42 Street & 5 Avenue instead of 57 Street. You are proposing a 30 minute headway on a new extension to Newark Airport which would have a running time of 20 minutes in each direction. You need a minimum of three additional buses to do this off-peak and four during rush hours. It cost the MTA around $120/hour to run a local bus. This is $240 per hour for that extension and they would recover 33% of that, reducing the cost to $160 per hour. That is $160 per hour x 20 hours, or $3,200 per day. The total cost of extending either the S40 or S48 would be $1,168,000 and yield ~60 pax/hour in ridership. I am proposing an initial trial using the X17J with a shortened Manhattan segment at one bus per hour. The cost of operating an express bus is around $200/hour. The new service will attract around 10 passengers/trip in the beginning, so the cost is reduced to $150/hour @ $5.00/pax. The service would cost $1,095,000 to operate before adding in overflow revenue from other X17J runs. The drawback is you would only generate 20 pax/hour in ridership initially, but the other X17J passengers can offset some of these costs if the airport buses are used to fill gaps. I didn't say that, I said that your idea doesn't cater to low-income workers. Who from Mariners Harbor is going to take the S48, then S59 to the Expressway just to backtrack on the X17J? As opposed to not making the trip like they do now? Is a three legged transfer easier or harder than no service? Is a $5.50 fare cheaper or more expensive than no bus at all? Should I throw out the connections made to the S44, S55, S56, S59, S61, S62, S74, and S79 because the service would not connect with it? Right now, they have a three leg transfer. They will yell and scream for an easier trip and that is when the S89 would be reconfigured for the purpose. You have to remember the organization you are dealing with and act accordingly. The MTA does read this board. You have seen that the MTA is actually doing budget neutral things. On the April 24 schedule, a whole bunch of X17Js start at the Eltingville Transit Center. They are part of the way to splitting off the southern portion during rush hours. The airport extension can be paid for by increasing peak headways from 5 to 7.5 minutes, saving 4 buses in the peak hour. The three airport X17Js could start at 42 Street & 5 Avenue for overflow protection and one bus would be a gap filler to maintain regular service. The airport buses could also serve Secaucus Junction. Your suggestion isn't paid for yet. Figure out a way to pay for it and it could happen. |
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