Day 5 Of Roosevelt Island Tram Less Commute To Manhattan - Are You Willing To Take The Temporary TramBus?
You Tube Video Of Jackson Hole Tram Cabin Taken Down
Today is Day 5 of the Roosevelt Island Tram-less F Train Subway commute. It was just last Monday that Roosevelt Island Operating Corp. (RIOC) President Steve Shane officially shut down the Tram with a handshake
and work began on the six month Modernization Project.
The first morning of commuting went smoothly but how about the rest of the week? Here's two different opinions from Monday's subway report:
Commuting via Train has not been a problem all week. Let's hope the MTA keeps it that wayAnd:
Last night, 3/3 the subway stranded Roosevelt island commuters at around 6:30 from the city and from queens. My boyfriend got announcements when he got on the train at bryant park saying they would be taking the V line bc the F line signals were down and they would have to take the F back from Queensbridge. The problem is once they got there the F was not working at all and he was left to walk or wait for a bus for a half hour and on top of that ran into a little girl who was sick and her mother who couldn't speak english and couldn't find their way back to the island.Another reader suggested:
This is only week one, how much more are we going to have to take before MTA realizes that the subway and a few buses aren't going to do the trick.
KEEP CALLING THE MTA ! THE MORE CALLS & LETTERS THEY RECEIVE, THE MORE THEY'LL DO.If you want to take the reader's advice and contact the MTA's General Manager, here is his email address.
But wait. The MTA may have come up with a temporary solution to Roosevelt Island's tram-less commuters - The BUSTRAM.
What do you think - willing to take a ride on the new Roosevelt Island TramBus or BusTram?
7 comments :
I do miss the tram. Especially in the evenings when I take it the most (from Manhattan to R.I.). I'm finding the Q102 to be more reliable than the Red Bus when it comes to getting off the island. I don't know what it is about the Red Bus I dislike so much. Oh, I know, they're not reliable. The other night. I, and tons of others arrived at R.I. via the F train. We get to street level only to notice that the Red Bus wasn't there. We look over to the back street (the new location where the bus lets passengers off for the subway), and noticed that the the bus was sitting (nothing new, they're always sitting, right). Were like o.k he sees all the people coming off the subway, so he should be coming soon. Well 5 - 10 minutes later he decides to come around, or so we thought. 20-30 minutes later the bus arrives. Riddle me this. Why did it take 20-30 minutes for the bus to go from the "drop off spot" to the "pick up spot"?
Here's another sign of how inefficient the Red Bus is. On any given morning it will take 45 minutes to an hour for me to get to work (from the Octagon - to Lincoln Center). On the first day the tram was down. I decided to use the Q102 just to see what the difference would be. Boy was I in for a surprise. I needed to be at work at 12:15pm, however, I was running late, so I ended up catching the 11:37am Q102. I thought to myself, there is no way that I'm going to make to work on time. Well, to my surprise, I made it work with 5 minutes to spare. This is after getting on the Q102 at the Octagon, taking that bus to Queensboro Plz station to the N train, taking the N to the 1, then taking the 1 to Lincoln Center.
If RIOC thinks they're doing us a favor by having the Red Bus, they're not. Even with a fare of .25 I do not save money, I loose. I would save $10 a month if I stopped taking the Red Bus. In this economy that's no small amount.
I hope that when they Tram is done, the RIOC does an overhaul of the Red Bus system.
Why don't more people walk instead of cramming into the bus? You don't depend on any schedule if you just walked home.
I agree with the observations about the red bus, though. The schedule it's using is puzzling. With the tram running you had some kind of idea when to be at the stop. Now? I have no idea. The GPS system, though, works quite well, though. When in doubt use your smart phone and check out the current locations of the buses.
You're right! This is a great opportunity to get back on the exercise routine (walking).
I think the Red Bus should have posted time of arrival at each stop (like the MTA), and their supervisors should randomly check to make sure they're being consistently on time. If the driver is consistently late, then that drivers pay should be docked. This is harsh, but most mass transit companies do this as a way to encourage the driver not to do what they want to do. The driver needs to understand that people have places to go, and things to do. We don't have time for the random stopping to talk to people on the street, or stopping to talk to the other bus driver going in the other direction (I hate when they do that). I work odd hours, so I don't always take the bus during rush hour. It seems to be fine during this time, and has the most coverage. However, during off-peak hours is when they struggle. It's not hard. They only have to drive down one street.
I wonder sometimes if they even have supervisors. Ones that actually come out of the office and take to the streets to hear, and see what the people that use the bus have to go through. RIOC needs to understand that what worked back in the day isn't going to work today. If Roosevelt Island wants to compete with the Main City (Manhattan) we need to step up.
I will give the GPS a try for a while to see if that works.
On a red bus related note. Does anyone know if public safety is doing anything to catch who is writing graffiti on the buses? Even one of the new buses has now been tagged. All with the same two or three tags meaning it is most likely a Roosevelt Island resident. It looks horrible and given RIOC's operating budget it will no doubt mar the bus for the next decade.
If anyone sees anyone else doing something wrong, make the call. Don't wait until days, weeks & months later to complain about it on a blog.
Hey, nothing wrong with complaining on a blog - is there?
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