Roosevelt Island Residents Ask For Southbound Red Bus Stop At Rivercross Building, RIOC Evaluating Request - Additional Red Bus, Less Crowding, Better Tracking Asked For Too

Is an additional Roosevelt Island Southbound Red Bus stop needed between the current Good Shepherd and Riverwalk stops?



A reader suggests:

.... a bus stop between the church and the next stop. I go to The doctors office and it's a long walk from the church to the Drs office. When you're  not feeling good or it is extremely hot you don't feel like walking that far.

I have heard similar requests for a southbound Rivercross Red Bus Stop

Image of Proposed Red Bus Stop In Front Of Rivercross Building

from others

Red Bus Passing Rivercross Building On Way To Riverwalk Stop

as well.

Also, on July 25, Roosevelt Island resident Nathaniel Phillips expressed concerns about the Red Bus service. According to Mr. Phillips:

Once again there was no southbound Red Bus service @ 10am. From 9:45 to 10:15 people were stranded. There was a 10am Octogon Express than went by with 10 people on it at 10:02. I wonder if there is any management of the Red Bus system? The lack of a 10am bus must have been known and that 30 minute gap must have rippled through. There are times that drivers leave early! Making a 2 minute a 17 minute wait! If you call the Red Bus phone line you go to voicemail and I've yet to have a call returned.

As things stand at as general matter the bus is consistently overcrowded during the day time hours. We need an additional bus. Several drivers do not enable the GPS units making the bus tracking apps useless. Lastly the use of SUV size strollers is a safety hazard. I've been on a bus with 3 baby strollers carrying two babies and a dog. This bus service is in desperate need of management.

Why can't we be text notified when bus service is interrupted? Why don't we have countdown clocks at stops on the route? Why can't GPS tracking be reliable? Why doesn't RIOC has an APP to communicate with its customers? We are not asking for the logistical management of the Normandy landing! I am sure the Red Bus has lots of complications, but the MTA is much better at tracking thousands of buses along thousands of city streets. This is a 2 mile long bus route.

I forwarded the request for an additional Red Bus Stop at Rivercross building and Mr. Phillips comment to Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) President Susan Rosenthal, RIOC Directors and RIOC Transportation Manager Cy Opperman.

Mr. Opperman replied

On Monday July 25, 2016 the 10 AM Octagon local bus ( # 5 ) was taken out of service, because of a rear door electrical problem. Also we are evaluating the request for a bus stop at 507 Main Street.

I also asked Mr. Opperman

... is the Next Bus Red Bus Schedule App still working?

Residents have told me that app does not work any longer.

Is there another Red Bus schedule app being used?

Mr. Opperman replied:

The app is still up and running. As you know already, the signal does get lost at times under the Ed Koch bridge, however bus movement can be tracked by the app.

There are a few steps when tracking the Red Bus on the app.

On the NextBus main page hit Menu, select agency, scroll down to New York and click Roosevelt Island, now users should click Red Bus, choose Northbound or Southbound, choose their stop, then click to view map where the buses will appear.

Next Bus Roosevelt Island Red Bus app is here and can be downloaded here.

RIOC Director David Kraut provides some historical background on Roosevelt Island Red Bus stop at Rivercross building:

When there was a stop at 505, the next-previous stop was in front of the Stationary Store, so the spacing was natural. The stop was moved to behind the Chapel when we obtained new, longer busses sometime in the mid- 1990's.

Moving that stop lost the Stationary most of it's newspaper business.