During Current Roosevelt Island Red Bus Crisis, Residents Pleasantly Surprised Last Night To Find The MTA Running A Subway Shuttle Bus On The Red Bus Route - But RIOC Does Not Expect The MTA Shuttle Bus To Continue

As previously reported, due to maintenance issues only 1 of 5 Roosevelt Island Red Buses are currently working. Roosevelt Island residents are experiencing long waiting times and overcrowding when the only working Red Bus does arrive at their stop.

Last night, there was some hope that help was on the way for Roosevelt Island bus riders.

About 6 PM last night,  I started receiving reports that the MTA was running a Roosevelt Island subway shuttle on the Red Bus route. A Tipster shared this photo of the MTA Bus Subway shuttle in front of the Octagon building.

Another resident reported last night:

I am on an MTA bus that is operating as a Red Bus. The sign says Subway Shuttle.

Other residents commented:

We can confirm this. Last night waiting for the Red Bus, the MTA Subway shuttle bus came along.

and:

MTA trying to redeem themselves for what they put us through when the F was out lol

and:

That would be awesome, if they can make that happen until this crisis passes.

A spokesperson for Roosevelt Island's NY State Senator Liz Krueger added:

Senator Krueger has spoken directly to MTA Chair Janno Lieber about the Red Bus situation. She hopes the MTA can assist in expediting the Red Bus order since the MTA orders buses from the same company —and as Liz reports the MTA is its number one customer. 

 That’s great IF MTA is supplying buses until the new ones arrive. Again—she’s definitely had more than one conversation with Mr. Lieber. He said he’d try to get MTA buses here on loan—and he did ; much faster than she thought would be possible!

But, Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) Communications Department Director Bryant Daniels reported today:

We’ve had some very productive conversations with the MTA this week, and last evening they were able to send an extra bus over to the island to help with supplemental service for a brief period. It was a nice favor that was contingent on the bus being available, and though it’s not something we anticipate will continue, we are incredibly grateful for their assistance, which has also extended to helping with our fleet’s maintenance needs.

As of now, hopes are dashed for more buses to supplement 

the one working Roosevelt Island Red Bus.

Perhaps better news coming next week.

UPDATE 8/24  - RIOC sent out this Red Bus advisory on Friday August 23:

Dear Roosevelt Island Community:

We are still only running 1 Red Bus on the island due to ongoing maintenance issue. We anticipate this will remain the case well into next week. We understand this has been deeply frustrating, but our team is working as hard as we can to restore more service soon.

This is a reminder that we have made the following temporary changes to service given our fleet limitations:

1. Shorten the Red Bus Route: Rather than go around the Cornell Tech lawn down to Southpoint Park, the Bus now turns right at North Loop Road before heading back north.

2. The bus will however run down to Southpoint Park from 6-11PM this Saturday (8/24) for our final Summer Movies in the park.

3. We are ending late-night service daily at 1am, when ridership is low, to help reduce stress on the bus.

4. The weekly Shoppers Red Bus will be suspended until further notice.

Again, these changes have been made on a temporary basis to help keep our bus service running. PSD has increased patrols in mass transit areas and Southpoint Park while these changes are in effect, and we are encouraging Red Bus users to please prioritize elderly and disabled riders first when boarding the bus.

We would also like to continue encouraging island residents to download the Transit app, which now has tracking for our Red Buses, to help inform decision making prior to travel. Please note that this system remains in its beta testing phase, so we apologize if you encounter any glitches.

We sincerely apologize for these issues and will continue to work as quickly as we can to restore full service.

-The RIOC Executive Team