Update On Roosevelt Island Red Bus Service And Other Issues Answered By RIOC At Last Night's Community Board 8 Roosevelt Island Committee Virtual Meeting - 4 Red Buses Now Operational

As reported previously, due to longstanding maintenance problems, only 1 or 2 of the 5 Roosevelt Island Red Buses have been in service since last June. Even the NY Post reported on the isssue.

Red bus chaos on Roosevelt Island: Locals decry service’s summer struggles, say it ‘sucks’ https://t.co/cn6Jx6G0cX pic.twitter.com/WW0E2mS77h

— New York Post (@nypost) September 9, 2024

Roosevelt Island Operating Corp (RIOC) Communications Department Director Bryant Daniels reported during the September 8 Community Board 8 Roosevelt Island committee virtual meeting that there are now 4 Red Buses

plus the newly purchased 14 seat shuttle bus in service.

According to Mr Daniels:

... We're in better shape today than we were a few weeks ago. There's been a lot of behind the scenes maneuvering within RIOC to try to get us into a better position. 

We've been very upfront about this. This was a problem that is many years in the making. It just took a long time. Eventually the bill comes due and it did recently with the Red Bus fleet. 

Unfortunately we don't have enough buses and that sort of leads into a cascading array of problems with doing enough preventive maintenance and making sure you're still getting service out on the roads. 

But in the last couple weeks, and I want to point out a special thank you to our government officials particularly State Senator Liz Krueger who reached out to MTA chair Janno Lieber on our behalf, who then got the New York City Transit guys involved and they have been a tremendous asset to us in getting our Fleet back up and running the last few weeks. 

So right now we are back up to a healthy four red buses on the island and we've also added a new bird bus shorter 14 seater with room for two wheelchairs that's also going to be around the island these days....

Here's Mr Daniels discussing the Red Bus  as well as other Roosevelt Island issues during lasts night's CB 8 Roosevelt Island committee meeting.

There was also a discussion about motorbike confiscations, traffic and bike safety, upcoming events at the Roosevelt Island Public Library and  The Citizens Project presentation of a new Roosevelt Island app 

for residents and visitors currently in development. 

Watch the whole video to see these issues discussed.