What to Know
- Study concludes Staten Island express bus system is slow, complex and outdated
- Proposals include dividing two routes going to lower Manhattan or midtown
- The MTA is entering its next phase of receiving feedback from riders to fine-tune their plans
Staten Island commuters will be relieved to know that their express buses will no longer be making an average of 27 stops before leaving the borough.
Express buses will undergo a major overhaul in an effort to simplify and streamline its hard-to-navigate route system on Staten Island, an MTA spokesman tells NBC 4 New York.
The MTA surveyed more than 2,000 riders across the express bus lines and found that long waits, overcrowding and inconsistent travel times are the results of an outdated route system.
Passengers complained that their morning commute “takes them on a tour of Staten Island,” according to the MTA.
The study also found the destination for nearly all express bus riders is either lower Manhattan or midtown, but half of the time is spent waiting while buses travel through congested streets and underused stops
The MTA aims to reduce end-to-end route running time by 20 minutes and has come up with the following proposals:
Local
• Divide the network into two routes going to either lower Manhattan or midtown
• Eliminate underused stops on Staten Island
• Boost frequency of buses on a smaller number of routes
• Using highways instead of local roads on routes
Staten Islanders can find out more on the redesign here and provide feedback as the agency is collecting data to fine-tune plans in the next coming months.
