MTA announces bus service enhancements, including use of longer articulated buses to add capacity

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) plans to enhance service on five bus routes, benefitting a total of 65,000 customers to ensure ridership demand is met and to operate citywide bus service more cost-efficiently and effectively while netting annual savings of $2.1 million.

“We are more nimble and responsive with the way we manage our bus operations and use new fleet technology, which results in better and cost-efficient service for our customers,” said Craig Cipriano, acting president of MTA Bus Company and senior vice president of New York City Transit’s Department of Buses. “We will be looking to use more of these new state-of-the-art articulated buses as they are delivered, putting them on popular bus routes so that more of our customers can benefit from our modern new fleet.” 

As NYC Transit continues to modernize its bus fleet, it is increasingly adding vehicles with longer buses equipped with better technology and customer-facing amenities on high-ridership routes that travel on streets that accommodate larger vehicles. By implementing these 60-foot articulated buses, more customers can be accommodated in one vehicle thereby significantly increasing service without adding more vehicles to already crowded city streets. This conversion follows a similar conversion on the B38 route where NYC Transit successfully added more seat capacity with the longer articulated buses, benefiting more Brooklyn customers.

For schedules to be implemented in January 2020, NYC Transit plans to adjust service on five routes, including:

·       Longer 60-foot articulated buses will replace 40-foot standard buses on the B46 Select Bus Service route, increasing capacity from 85 customers per bus to as many as 115 customers per articulated bus. Operating these longer buses reduces the number of vehicles on the street, helping to reduce congestion while increasing the efficiency of each articulated bus. Due to the longer length, some stops will be extended to ensure that the buses can fit within the stop space without interfering with traffic, intersections and driveways or create a safety hazard for customers, pedestrians and motorists. No stops will be removed.

·        S53 service will be added during weekday evening peak hours and on the S93 during weekday morning peak hours, reducing wait times for both by a minute during those intervals. These two routes run between Staten Island and Brooklyn over the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge, providing a key link for customers traveling between Staten Island to Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, for access to the subway system or southern Brooklyn.

·        Wait times on the Q55 will also be reduced by three minutes on Saturday mornings.

·        Service will be added to the Q28 route on Sunday mornings, reducing wait times by three minutes.

NYC Transit typically makes these adjustments three to four times a year to account for changing bus usage and traffic speeds, as well as seasonal changes influenced by factors such as lighter demand during summer months when many students and customers are on vacation. Service is monitored before and after each adjustment to determine whether additional changes are needed.

These seasonal service adjustments will provide a net total of $2.1 million in annual recurring savings, allowing NYC Transit to reallocate those savings and reinvest resources elsewhere in the system. The fleet conversion to articulated buses on the B46 SBS route will provide annual recurring savings of $2.4 million, while the additional service on the four routes will cost approximately $300,000 annually. NYC Transit will closely monitor all routes with adjustments after new schedules are implemented in January 2020.