Our Town, May 20, 2004
More Bus Riders; Service Lags
On M15, City’s Busiest Route, 65,000 Passengers a Day
Lauren A. Elkies

Bus service in Manhattan has decreased, and there is a whole new set of numbers to show it.

The statistics were part of a newly released survey conducted by the New York Public Interest Research Group Straphangers Campaign. It shows that weekday bus service, measured in revenue seat miles – the number of passenger seats on a bus multiplied by the number of miles traveled- has not kept up with ridership.

On the M31 bus route, on 57th Street and York Avenue, there was a 20 percent increase in ridership from 1997 to 2003 and a 6 percent decrease in service in that period. On the M96 bus, the 96th Street crosstown, there was a 55 percent increase in ridership and only a 21 percent increase in service.

“It confirms what we have known about ridership on the East Side of Manhattan,” said State Sen. Liz Krueger. She is among the public officials who have complained about the longer waiting times faced by Manhattan bus passengers because the Metropolitan Transportation Authority introduced articulated buses and decreased the frequency of buses and the number of stops.

Analyzing MTA data for 184 local bus routes from September 1997 – that was the first year articulated buses went into operation, according to Marisa Baldeo, a spokeswoman for the MTA New York City Transit – to September 2003, the survey, released May 10, indicated Manhattan had the greatest service gap. Ridership increased here by 17 percent from 1997 to 2003.

Currently there are 296 articulated buses in Manhattan, said Baldeo. Their seating capacity is 62 and their overall capacity is 85, compared to 40 seats and a capacity of 60 for standard buses. Without the reduction in bus frequency, introducing articulated buses would effect steep increases in service as measured in revenue seat miles.

While service lagged behind ridership on 25 Manhattan bus routes, it did outspace ridership on 11 routes. For example, the M1, on Fifth and Madison avenues, saw a 3 percent increase in ridership from 1997 to 2003 but a 6 percent increase in service, the report indicates. The M5 – which makes stops on Fifth and Sixth avenues and Riverside Drive – saw ridership drop 10 percent but service decreased only 4 percent.

Of all five boroughs, Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens had declining bus service, according to the study. Citywide, average weekday ridership increased 20 percent to 2.4 million in 2003 from 2 million in 1997, but service rose only 13 percent to 11.8 million revenue seat miles versus 10.4 million in 1997, the report indicates.

“MTA New York City Transit disagree strongly with the Straphangers’ fundamental argument that bus service must increase at the same rate as bus ridership,” the agency said in a statement. “In point of fact, most bus ridership growth has occurred during off-peak periods where excess capacity exists to accommodate more riders. Bus service levels have increased throughout the city based upon regular reviews of each NYC Transit’s 243 bus routs and are at their highest levels in nearly 30 years.”

But a Transport Workers Union spokesman insisted, “Bus service has not kept up with ridership.”

First and foremost, the union is concerned that if the city takes over the management of seven privately franchised buses, as it has proposed to do, less money will be spent on the existing bus system.

Bus ridership was on the rise from 1996 until the fare increase in May 2003, when ridership dropped, the Straphangers Campaign said in its news release.

“Although ridership went down after the far hike, it remains way above 1997 levels and service has yet to catch up,” said Gene Russianoff, senior attorney for Straphangers, said in the release. Service went up to 13 percent to 11.8 million revenue seat miles in September 2003 from 10.4 million in September 1997.

What does that mean? “That buses are going to be more crowded,” said Neysa Pranger, a spokeswoman for Straphangers. “There needs to be a leveling off between service and ridership.”

To improve bus travel, Senator Krueger is sponsoring legislation to implement what is called “the bus rapid-transit demonstration project” on First and Second avenues. The M15, which runs on those avenues, has the highest ridership of any New York City bus route, with 65,000 passengers a day, according to a study by Schaller Consulting, a transportation research company.

The BRT project, in the bill’s language, would create the following:

a. dedicated running ways;
b. stations and bus stops;
c. distinctive easy-to-board vehicles;
d. expedited fare collection, including but not limited to off-vehicle fare collection;
e. frequent all-day service.

“It would be an overall revamping of service,” said Bruce Shaller, of Shaller Consulting.

The bill was referred to the Legislature’s Transportation Committee. >Meanwhile, the MTA and the State Department of Transportation have submitted a request for proposals to have a study conducted of the feasibility of BRT.