New Roosevelt Island Red Bus Route and Tram Bus Stops Coming January 18 - Preliminary 15 Minute Bus Schedule Route From Octagon To Tram Station Being Tested

 Image Of New RIOC Bus Stop By Tram Station Where Cars & Trailers Currently Parked

As previously reported, according to the Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) :

 effective January 18th, RIOC will implement two Red Bus stops near the Tram station: one on the East side of the Tram, opposite Firefighter’s Field, the other across the street from the Roosevelt Island Historical Society kiosk. The bus stops will also be serviced by the Q102 and will have bus shelters.

 New Red Bus Stop By Visitors Center Kiosk

The Red Bus will also operate under this new route pictured below.

 Image From RIOC - Click On Image To Enlarge

During a January 13 meeting, RIOC Vice President of Operations Fernando Martinez

 Mr. Martinez Presenting Tram & Bus Schedule At Meeting With RIRA Members

presented the new Red Bus Route, Stops and preliminary schedule as well as the Tram Schedule to Roosevelt Island Residents Association (RIRA) President Matt Katz, Planning Committee Chair Frank Farance and Island Services Committee Chair Aaron Hamburger (UPDATE 8 PM - RIOC Director Jonathan Kalkin also attended via phone). Mr. Hamburger reports on the meeting:

Here's a summary of our meeting on 1/13/11 about the new bus stops at the Tram, the Tram schedule, and the Red Bus schedule.

º Red bus stops at the Tram, one on the east side of the Tram entrance and one at the Kiosk, will be implemented on 1/18/11. Route of the Red Bus leaving the east Tram stop will be east and south, going around Sportspark to  reach the Kiosk stop before preceding to the subway stop. The existing bus stop near 405 Main St. will be eliminated.

º A 15 minute Tram schedule has been implemented. During rush hours, when both Tram cars are in operation, there will be a Tram leaving RI & Manhattan every 7 - 8 minutes. 

º Around 1/25/11, RIOC will implement  a Red Bus schedule for non-rush hour periods that is based on a bus starting its run every 15 minutes. During rush hours, with 4-5 buses operating, there will be a bus departing about every 5 - 8 minutes.

(Note: The 15 minute Red Bus schedule is a change from what was discussed at the 12/22/10 meeting when it was agreed to base the Red Bus on a 20 minute schedule.). The new Red Bus schedule will be tried on an experimental basis for at least a month or two. If problems develop, suitable adjustments to the schedule will be made.

º For both the Tram and especially the Red Bus, our goal remains -- to have reliable and predictable schedules for both operations.

Here is the Roosevelt Island Tram operating schedule.

 

 Image From RIOC - Click On Image To Enlarge

and new Red Bus schedule.

Mr. Martinez emphasized that the Red Bus Schedule is preliminary and will be tested for a few weeks beginning on Tuesday, January 18 (not 1/25 as indicated in Mr. Hamburger's summary of the meeting). From these tests, RIOC will be able to determine whether any changes or adjustments are required.

As an example of the new preliminary 15 minute Red Bus schedule, the Octagon Red Bus local leaves the Octagon at 11 AM,  makes it's regular Main Street stops and arrives at the Tram Station bus stop at 11:10 AM to drop off and pick up passengers. It then follows it's new route around the Sportspark in one or two minutes to the Visitors Kiosk, picks ups or drops off any additional riders, waits until 11:15 and then heads back north to the Octagon where it should arrive at 11:27. The process then repeats with the Octagon Local heading back south at 11:30 AM.

This preliminary 15 minute Red Bus Schedule is planned for both rush hour and non- rush hour service for both the Octagon and Firehouse Local service. During the morning rush hour, there will be 4 Red Buses plus the Octagon Express in service, during non-rush hours there will be 2 Red Buses in service, during the evening rush hours there will be 4 Red Buses in service (no Octagon Express) and one Red Bus during late night service ( I am not sure what time late night service begins - 11 PM? but will check). The Octagon Red Bus Express service is scheduled to begin at 7 AM, run every 20 minutes until 10 AM and take 6 minutes to travel from the Octagon to the Tram Station Bus Stop.

During the January 12 meeting, RIRA Planning Committee Chair Frank Farance disagreed with the planned 15 minute bus schedule and would prefer that the 20 minute bus schedule previously agreed to between RIOC and RIRA be tried. Mr. Farance writes:

RIOC and RIRA met on December 22 to work out a plan for the new red bus schedule and route. The meeting included Fernando Martinez (RIOC), Matt Katz (RIRA President), Aaron Hamburger (RIRA Island Services Committee Chair), and myself (RIRA Planning Committee Chair). Today, January 13, just days before it is being implemented, we RIRA representatives just learned that the plan has changed substantially, and it is not what RIRA agreed to. Our original plan had a fixed schedule of buses leaving the Octagon and the Tram at 20-minute intervals of :00, :20, and :40 past the hour. The reasoning for the 20-minute schedule was to give enough time so the schedule would be predictable and reliable. We agreed that the tram stop would be right outside the tram, not across the street and not at the kiosk. We agree that the bus schedule was of primary importance and the tram scheduling and synchronization would be solved later. We agreed that we would only address the non-rush hour schedule.

All of them have changed. The RIOC bus schedule is now based upon a 15-minute schedule, which has never worked reliably since the introduction of the Octagon stop because the route is longer than 30 minutes many times. When the buses take too long, they get behind and bus bunching occurs and the schedule becomes unreliable. The tram stop (for departing passengers) is now at the kiosk with the possibility of buses lining up and clogging the west service road. In Martinez' presentation today, he started with the tram schedule as the priority (wrong way to solve the problem) and he is changing the rush hour schedule too, not just the non-rush schedule. And the tram schedule will change, too.

I certainly wish RIOC and Mr. Martinez well, however this plan is likely to fail and it was not what RIRA agreed to and RIRA had no chance to review this before implementation. It is very unfortunate that these changes were communicated so late to RIRA and the community.

Mr. Martinez replies to the comments of Mr. Farance:

I disagree with your summary of tonight's meeting. I have been told on numerous occasions, including at the last ops meeting, that the RI community wants predictable and reliability for both the Tram and Red bus. Both are equally important. The 15 minute schedule is a plan, which my managers feel is doable. I mentioned several times tonight that schedule is a plan and that it might be subject to adjustments, if necessary.

During the meeting both Mr. Katz and Mr. Hamburger agreed with Mr. Farance that the 15 minute bus schedule was probably too short a period of time but also agreed with Mr. Martinez to give it a try for the reasons set forth by Mr. Martinez.

Let's see what happens. Again, the new Red Bus Route and preliminary schedule begin on Tuesday, January 18. Mr. Martinez emphasizes that if after a test period changes or adjustments are needed, they will be implemented.