Issue 331 August 27, 2001
A Plan to Rescue Staten Island Transit

On Tuesday, the Tri-State Campaign and Straphangers Campaign released a five-point plan - "An End to Commuter Chaos" - to alleviate the problems caused by Academy Corp.'s withdrawal of express bus service from Staten Island's north and south shores, and by NYC Transit's failure to keep up with express bus rider demand.

The plan urges NYC Transit to: 

  • Increase S.I. express bus service by 20%. 

  • Provide additional south shore service to make up for the loss of Academy service there. 

  • Add service on lines like the X10, X12 and X14, and split them into dedicated Lower Manhattan and Midtown services. 

  • Speed bus service along the Gowanus Expressway by implementing a three-per-car or bus-only rule for the HOV lane. 

  • Increase Staten Islanders' travel options to by providing direct bus service to the Hudson-Bergen light rail terminal in Bayonne. 
In "Chaos," the groups point out that even before the collapse of Academy service, Staten Island NYC Transit express bus use was the fastest growing segment of bus ridership in New York City. A big part of the Academy crisis was that NYC Transit rush hour service was already over-crowded.

The paper recommends that NYC Transit make a stronger effort to keep up with growing ridership, and provide enough service to meet most express bus demand on Staten Island. The Academy disaster starkly illustrated the pitfalls of trying to maintain a hybrid public/private system with public funds. The plan to provide more Staten Island bus service resulted instead in less service overall. 

In January, an agreement worked out between legislators, the city and Governor Pataki provided four new south shore bus routes, due to start at the end of August. However, with Academy's pull-out the south shore's net gain is only two new routes. 

One benefit of a larger NYC Transit fleet would be the potential to offer more dedicated Midtown and Lower Manhattan services. NYC Transit's surprise announcement last week that it would begin a new X30 route from the north shore to midtown via the NJ Turnpike is a step in the right direction, but many of NYC Transit's Midtown-destined riders will still have to make the torturous trip along the Gowanus and up from the tip of Manhattan along car-clogged city streets. 

The plan's final recommendations are common-sense measures that many public officials endorsed some time ago: speed buses along the Gowanus by tightening the access rules to the Gowanus HOV lane and provide a bus link to the light rail terminal in Bayonne. Governor Pataki has the power to cut through the bureaucratic excuses that crop up whenever these measures are raised. The paper calls on him to implement these improvements.
MTR #331 portable document format (PDF) file version
(requires Adobe Acrobat).

Related Articles and Links

Report:  An End to Commuter Chaos

Staten Island South Shore Bus Turmoil Highlights Persistent Problems - June 25, 2001

Officials Call for Common Sense Steps to Alleviate Staten Island Bus Crunch - July 30, 2001 

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