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| Re: Staten Island Railway (489762) | |||
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Re: Staten Island Railway |
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Posted by Michael549 on Thu Sep 13 13:04:57 2007, in response to Re: Staten Island Railway, posted by Andrew Kirschner on Wed Sep 12 13:17:19 2007. From a previous message:"Really only very few (and very specific) trips involve ONLY the SIR train. The density along most of the line doesn't really support it. Shame about that North Shore line, though! That would get more use." Here is the situation - the SIR (except for the rush hours) runs trains on a schedule of 30 and 60 minutes, normally. Meaning for most riders that is a long wait between trains, and it helps to know the schedule of trains. Such a schedule may be tolerable when you happen to not frequently visit a place, but can be intolerable if it is your only means of transportation. About 75% of the households on Staten Island have cars - meaning those folks have some choices about their transportation methods. Many folks use the buses on Staten Island to get where they need to be. Many of the buses on Staten Island regularly run on a 20 minute, 30 minute or 60 minute schedule - meaning that one is often left waiting for the bus. And this is if you happen to be staying on the island - getting off the island is a whole other argument. The basic point is that those who have cars and can use them will use them for trips that are soley Staten Island based, over the use of the bus or SIR - all things being equal. Some folks (especially transit fans) know that the only way to get better transportation options or facilities - is to show that the transit facilities are being used. Since all public transit is subsidized - those who pay for it prefer to know that the systems are used by riders. If no riders use the systems - why bother running them, which means that if there no trains - no riders. Yes, it becomes a vicious cycle leading to no service, and removed transit. Its an old story but a true one. So on Staten Island we have a situation where some folks who can confine their trips to only the SIR stations except St. George - get a free ride to their destination. If the destination happens to be close to the SIR, as well as close to their home. Gee - you would think that situation was the greatest crime of the century - with the frequent calls for POP payment systems, MVM's to be installed, etc. - that just have to be installed "now" according to the writers. Every few months this issue comes up again, and again it has to be explained. It is simple - the MTA is going for the least maintenance situation possible. Considering the frequency of service - 30 and 60 minute trains (except rush hours of course), the fact that there are people in the seats is a GOOD thing. We should support such activities, because if the trains were empty - eventually they would stop running the trains! During the city's fiscal crisis in 1975, Mayor Koch stopped running the ferries (then on a 30 minute midnight schedule) from midnight to 6am in the mornings - due to all of the blaring headlines in the newspapers and television news-shows that screamed that the ferries were "empty" at those hours. The television cameras would pan around the boats showing rows of empty seats and much fewer riders (than the rush hours). Even though there were plenty of Staten Islanders were taking the ferry, the amounts did not "fill" the large boats. Of course this act brought many hardships for late night ferry users, but the leadership said - "well there's one bus to/from Brooklyn". This stoppage lasted for six months, and when the ferries resumed, the boats ran hourly during the midnight hours and major parts of the weekends. So on Staten Island, we have a situation where the buses, SIR and ferries run every 30 and 60 minutes (except of course rush hours), and yes some buses run every 20 minutes. In the real world - this means that if one misses a bus, SIR train or Ferry - that person is LATE by 30 minutes or more to their destination. Of course this does not take into account bus, SIR and ferry delays and problems. About 20% to 25% of the households on Staten Island do not have cars (for whatever reasons) - the public transit that exists however intolerable schedule wise - is all they have to work with. It took the city 35 years to make a schedule adjustment so that those who work on weekend mornings have a boat every 30 minutes, and during the weekday night the hourly schedule begins at 1am. Butts in the seats show that the systems are being used, therefore it gets funding, if no butts - no funding - the riders suffer. Mike |
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