The Consumerist reported last month that on the story of Miriam. Miriam bought a Greyhound ticket, but the bus skipped her stop without notifying her. They refused to provide her money, as she’d purchased a nonrefundable ticket. She was advised the stop was skipped as the bus was running late. That is disappointing enough, but no announcement was made. According to someone Miriam spoke to at the bus station, it happens all the time. Schedules are more like suggestions, we suppose, than anything else.

Elsewhere, courtesy of the same site, Richard, who is in a wheelchair, tried to take Greyhound, using the service Greyhound provides, which requires he make reservations so they can schedule a lift-equipped bus. but, he felt as if, every step of the way, he was ignored, forgotten, and treated as a burden to Greyhound personnel.

Now, both of these stories are examples of horrible customer service. Now, in all fairness, Greyhound is trying to improve its image. They have started deploying new buses to compete with smaller companies. These buses offer free wi-fi, seatbelts, and outlets. But, as Gadling said, in their recent article, Greyhound Travel: The Imperfect Lover, “Bus people have a certain air of resignation and quiet about them. Their expectations are low.”

Other companies, such as Megabus, have come in because they recognize there is a call for inexpensive, clean, and well-run bus service on various routes. They are looking for a higher quality of bus service. It isn’t just about the wi-fi…every form of transport is jumping on that bandwagon. It is about making people want to ride the bus again.

What could Greyhound have done? Well, for Miriam, revise their stopping procedures. It is all right to miss a stop if you know no one is there. But if you require reservations for passengers boarding in less popular places, then you know someone is waiting. It is time for Greyhound to live up to its promise to clean up its act.

For those of you who do not know, intermodal transportation is transportation that covers multiple modes of transport…bus, train, plane.

It is a significantly overlooked part of the bigger transportation picture. Why can’t plane connect to train or connect to bus? Most cities don’t look at these things as connected.

Los Angeles World Airports announced earlier this month a three-year license agreement with the City of Irvine permitting the FlyAway bus service to operate nonstop from Irvine Station in Orange County to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). The Irvine Station is the fourth location in the FlyAway network, the others being Van Nuys, Westwood and Union Station. Together, the three handled more than 1.5 million travelers combined for the year ending in June.

Both Irvine Station and Union Station provide links to Amtrak, commuter rail, and other bus service. The FlyAway service began in 1975 at Van Nuys, with service added at Union Station in 2006 and Westwood in 2007. The routes are all Express. The ticket price is $7 for the Union Station and Van Nuys routes, and $5 cash for the Westwood route. Children 5 and under ride free. The proposed price for the Irvine service would be $25, but has not yet been set.

This is one of many good transportation programs. It brings people from the airport nonstop to central transit hubs and locations. As we mentioned in our previous post, about our hometown, New York City, direct and regular service from city center to the airport is critical. But things become unfortunately spread out. The main intercity bus terminal for New York City is on 42nd street, 0.6 miles away from Penn Station, where one commuter rail and the Amtrak station is. The rest of the commuter rail is 1 mile in another direction, at Grand Central. One mile isn’t much in a rural area, but in a densely populated and congested city, it is.

Cities need to improve these links. More direct links to the airport. More links between train and bus. Airlines reoriented around the hub and spoke system. Buses use the same system, often terminating at a common terminal. Why do we not think of it in a progression and see how that changes our thinking? Local buses as subway and commuter rail delivery systems. Intercity buses as airport and long-distance train delivery systems…short route buses to medium-haul-trains to long-haul planes.

Now, this isn’t the model that works for everything. Some people are not trying to go from their door to Wisconsin, they just want to get to the local market and back, which is a totally different set of assumptions. When doing planning, people have to envision both scenarios, both short and long. For the long-haul, creating points of easy connection between different modes of transportation is key to the future of our transportation infrastructure.

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MTA Luggage Rack

The MTA rolled out the first buses with luggage racks this week. The racks, which replace several seats toward the back of the bus, will be on the M60 route between Broadway and 125th St. and LaGuardia Airport. Eventually, the MTA will have racks on 10 buses on seven routes that include stops at LaGuardia or Kennedy Airport. The routes include B15, Q3, Q10, Q33, Q48, and Q72.

Many other cities offer luggage racks on select routes. It is an interesting balance. The M60 bus is goes from Broadway and 125th street to LaGuardia, with stops in Astoria, and is local, and runs roughly every 10 minutes. The Q48 runs from the terminus of the 7 Subway to LaGuardia, also local, and operates roughly every half hour.

The subway also offers a connection to the JFK AirTrain at the Howard Beach station(A Train), and the E,J,Z and the Jamaica LIRR station, but the connection costs $5 to take the AirTrain into JFK on top of the transit fare.

The city hasn’t redrawn the airport connections in years and he only Express Bus Service from the heart of Manhattan to the airport is privately operated New York Airport Service, which charges $12 to LaGuardia and $15 to JFK.

These shuttles should be more efficient. Why is there no shuttle that just runs from Astoria and Willets Point, the two closest subway stations to LaGuardia, to that airport? Why does the Port Authority charge $5 to ride its short shuttle train to JFK? Does that really encourage people to take the public transit option? Why is there no city-operated express bus service to the airports?

The MTA should be looking at new options, and while the luggage racks are nice, they don’t change much.

From 2004 to 2009, New York 1 offered a weekly 15 minute Transit News show, “In Transit“. This week, Bobby Cuza, who started the program, which aired on Friday and repeated on Saturday and Sunday, announced that he was leaving the transit beat to become a political reporter for the station, and thus In Transit is canceled, perhaps forever.

The format of the show was simple. Cuza, or sometimes a guest host, would recap the top transit stories of the week, update us on weekend subway diversions, show us a clip of NYC Transit in the Movies, and then fill the rest of the time with a discussion with a guest, 99% of the time Pete Donohue from the New York Daily News.

The only other regular transit show in New York is the MTA’s own show, Transit Transit. It is a 30 minute show produced once monthly, which promotes destinations for the MTA and its partner organization, features programs and services offered, etc. It isn’t a timely or as news focused.

In Transit was a valuable tool for keeping us informed about transit developments in New York City, our hometown. We think New York 1 should have found someone else to take it over, and committed to the program before Cuza announced it was leaving, but there is always hope.

There are other resources for New York City and other transit news. We’ll be adding some to the sites link section, and covering them in the future. Until then, stay tuned.

The Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority, which operates Boston metro area commuter rail, is set to vote on extending commuter service to T.F. Green Airport. Tentative schedules show a travel time from Boston’s South Station to the airport of one hour and fifteen minutes, which is dependent on skipping some local stops on the route. The Providence/Stoughton line has consistently ranked as the MBTA’s busiest commuter line, with 2000 people boarding daily in Providence alone.

The new T.F. Station would be, according to officials, the closest a rail line comes to an airport in the country. A 1500-foot moving sidewalk would take passengers from the station to the ticket counters, which is currently under construction and will be completed next year.

The proposed extension would go beyond the airport to a total of 20 miles of additional service, terminating in North Kingston, Rhode Island. Rhode Island is investing millions to upgrade the Amtrak-owned tracks, construct two new stations, parking garages, a rental car facility, and the moving sidewalk. The state will also pay Amtrak for the use of the tracks.

Massachusetts won’t pay any of the costs, but will pay operating expenses on the line. They keep all ticket revenue on service into Rhode Island, while Rhode Island picks up the bill for construction and rail cars.

A Green Line train derailed in a switching area near Government Center Wednesday evening. The train, which was carrying no passengers, went off the rails as it was moving at low speed to an outbound platform from a turnaround loop.

Service operated in two parts, inbound stopping at Park Street, and North Station to Lechmere on the other side of the accident. Passengers were redirected to the Orange Line.

More on this as the investigation reveals why such a thing happened. The T, especially the Green Line, has been the subject of several safety issues in the last year. Hopefully, these incidents are not indicative of the general state of affairs on the line.

Megabus is eliminating its stop in Hartford effective September 14th, making its New York to Boston route nonstop. The stop was added only last December.

While this is good news, at it will speed up service on the route, it is hardly good news for the people in Hartford. One blog has an analysis of Hartford to Boston pricing. Not only is Greyhound, the remaining carrier, more expensive, but it may raise its prices now that lacks competition.

We mourn whenever a transit option is lost. But Megabus and its ilk are bringing bus travel back as a viable option, with clean, moderately reliable service up and down the East Coast and elsewhere.

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The Washington Post reported yesterday on followups to the issues raised by the DC Metro Accident in June. Specifically, government oversight.

While the federal government regulate the safe operation of buses, Amtrak, airplanes, and ferries, it cedes subway oversight to local panels. In the case of the DC Metro, it is the Tri-State Oversight Committee.

Haven’t heard of it? That isn’t surprising. It has no direct authority over safety and cannot order changes. It has no employees, offices, and lacks a phone or website. It borrows space for its monthly meetings, which have never been attended by a member of the public. A Metro train in March, for example, came dangerously close to another. The Committee asked Metro to report back after investigating in a letter in April. To date, there has been no such report.

There has been a call for federal regulation of subway systems. A lack of federal regulation is not automatically a lack of decent regulation. Many state regulatory authorities are equally dedicated and capable. But in the case of the Tri-State Oversight Committee, it has insufficient authority to enact any significant change.

Like any federal regulatory authority, we believe it should be limited in scope, but when it comes to safety, we cannot afford to be too careful.

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Mayor Mike Bloomberg, despite having no significant influence over the MTA, which runs city trains and buses, and is a state agency, has called for a variety of different improvements.

• F Line Express Service in Brooklyn
• Reopening closed LIRR stations in Queens
• Expanding the CityTicket program, which offers discounted tickets on weekends to riders of the LIRR and Metro-North from stations within city limits to all times.
• Reopen the Staten Island North Shore Rail Line to passenger service
• Install countdown clocks on subway routes to provide time until next train
• Pilot light rail or streetcar service in North Brooklyn and Western Queens waterfront neighborhoods
• Fix stations more effectively and efficiently.
• Free Crosstown bus service on select Manhattan lines.
• Create commuter van service to provide cost-effective mass transit service in underserved neighborhoods.
• Provide City bus routes with location tracking technology.
• Use smaller buses during less crowded periods to reduce costs in order to boost nighttime service.
• Create an integrated smart card
• Expand pre-tax commuter benefit programs.

A lot of these ideas have been batted around for years, and are good ones. To address a few:

1. Location tracking and countdown clocks are good to increase efficiency and educate the public about how buses are running…but is it really the best use of our resources? It won’t make them run any faster.
2. Smart Card – The Metrocard system requires a great deal of swiping and reswiping when the card readers are difficult. A smart card could be held close to a reader and could be read at short distances. Fare collection can be a big bottleneck. London’s Oyster Card, a popular example, offers a great deal of options we’d love to see in New York. For example, you can fill the card online, although you will have to go to a station/reader to have the information applied to your card. It can be swiped entering and leaving, which would work will for the commuter rails to calculate fares. It can be programmed for daily/weekly/monthly passes or pay per use.
3. Reopening Closed LIRR stations in Queens – The stations in question, Elmhurst, Richmond Hill, and Glendale would have to be seriously renovated to be rebuilt. Of Elmhurst, which closed 1985 and was on the Port Washington Branch, only platform supports remain and a new platform would have to be built. There never was a platform at Glendale. Richmond Hill, Glendale, as well as Fresh Pond, Haberman, and Penny Bridge on the Long Island City branch were closed in 1998 and had little use at the time. The branch does not see frequent service. In our opinion, with the exception of Elmhurst, this plan needs more meat to it.
4. Free Crosstown Buses – Most people going across town are likely changing over to the subway or uptown/downtown buses in Manhattan, ensuring the fare would ultimately be paid.
5. Expanding Ferry Service – Why Not? We’d like to see the return of ferry service to LaGuardia Airport, for one. Mayor Bloomberg in May unveiled a plan to bring ferry service to all five boroughs.

In regards to Light Rail/Streetcar Service, New York City is significantly behind in this regard. While cities are planning and expanding transit, New York City hasn’t produced more than a few small additions to its network in years. The last big subway improvement was the 63rd street connection, which took a stub line that ran to 21st-Queensbridge and connected it to the Queens Blvd. Line, allowing trains off that line an additional route into Manhattan. Before that was the 1989 Archer Avenue Extension, which replaced the turn-down Jamaica Avenue El and tied together two lines.

We did have a new South Ferry Terminal station earlier this year. The Fulton Street Transit Center creates additional connections between close-together lines. Very nice and it will improve efficiency, but also no significant improvement there.

Projects under construction include the 7 Line Extension. The current 7 terminus at 42nd Street- Times Square would be extended down to 11th Avenue, turning and running down to 34th Street and a new Javits Center Station. A second station as 42nd and 10th avenue was dropped, but there is periodic talk of reinstatement. The layup tracks for the extension would extend down to 23rd street, creating the possibility of a future station extension to Chelsea. But the project is still merely a single station addition.

That brings us to the Second Avenue Subway(Map available here). Phase One, which is delayed again, will be an extension of the existing Q line from 63rd street and 2nd avenue to 96th street. That will add three new stations at 72nd, 86th, and 96th. The second phase will extend that to 125th, with stops at 106th and 116th. Phase 3 will extend the line down from 72nd to the existing 2nd Avenue station at Houston Street, with new stops at 55th, 42nd, 34th, 23rd, and 14th. Phase 4 will extend to Hanover Square, with new stops at Grand-Chrystie St, Chatham Square, and Seaport.  A new train, the T train, as well as the existing Q will operate on these lines.  The first phase will not be ready for at least another seven years.

The last project of note is the Long Island Railroad’s East Side Access, not a possibility for another five years It will connect the Long Island Railroad, through the existing lower level of the 63rd street tunnel and through a new tunnel into a constructed lower level at Grand Central Station, adding midtown capacity to the railroad as well as funneling many passengers wishing to go to the East Side directly to their destination.

Tunneling and construction in New York takes years. Revamping bus schedules, adjusting equipment, policy changes, and ferries can be put into place with less time, and can, with proper planning, help the city immensely. New York has the largest subway system in the country. But we are falling behind on transit innovation.

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Over at Flight Wisdom, our sister blog, we’re well familiar with Jonathan Kamens, who is very active in the greater community in a way we envy. Over at Flight Wisdom, we wrote about how Continental Airlines sent his daughter to the wrong city. It amused us to see him pop up again in regards to another story.

On Thursday, Google Maps announced the MBTA, the Boston Transit system, would now appear on Google Maps. This includes commuter rail, subway, bus and ferry schedules. We think this is wonderful. Anything that adds to the ability of riders to take public transportation is a good thing.

However, that brings Jonathan Kamens, who is a software engineer, onto the scene. The data supplied to Google by the MBTA contains route errors he’s been complaining to them about for six years now. So, he showed up at the announcement at Boston’s South Station, brandishing a flyer(click here), indicating his example. Kamens was told by Transit Police he couldn’t hand out flyers. One would think the MBTA would be interested in correcting mistakes pointed out to them, but we’ve discovered most organizations aren’t when they are pointed out by the public.

Google Transit has already added over 400 transit systems to its data. For a complete list, click here.

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