Buses, Buses, Buses

Long distance buses are atracting a lot of attention lately. The Bolt buses stop that was to be moved to CB4 on Eighth Avenue and 26th Street is staying put to the dismay of retailers and residents in that area. At a minimum there will be a reprieve as a quarter of the busses on Bolt fleet to stop in Port Authority instead of clogging streets. These buses will use gates already dedicated to their parent company, Greyhound.

On Wednesday, October 5th,  Community Board 4 passed a resolution requesting that DOT move the Megabus stop currently located on 9th Avenue between 33rd and 32nd streets to another location. It appears that the construction on the adjacent lot will cause the stop to be moved anyway in January 2012.

At a city council hearing on long distance buses safety, Transportation Committee Chair , James Vacca got an earful of complaints from Chinatown and Midtown about the lack of a proper terminal  for theses buses. . We reminded the Committee of the crisis on our streets: “In midtown on the west side, there are over 1,000 daily departures and arrivals of long distance buses in or around the 34^th Street corridor, There are 360 charter and tour buses parked in the 40’s with 1,080 trips through our residential neighborhood at peak periods (seven months of the years twice a week). And indeed there are 6,000 bus trips to and from New Jersey every day, with many of these buses using residential streets for parking and idling.” Read the full testimony. Assembly Member Squadron testified that he has introduced a bill in Albany to regulated bus stops , but the senate has yet to adopt it.

Finally we were dismayed to read in the press that the Port Authority has again cancelled the building of a bus garage, because the toll increase approved by the two governors is insufficient to fund all the projects. This is a subject on which New Jersey commuters and New York residents agree: Delaying bus garage expansion is senseless – NorthJersey.com. Fortunately State Senator Tome Duane indicated on October 4th, at a public meeting that high level negotiations are underway and all is not lost…