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S.I. officials, community members call on MTA to restore S54 Weekend bus service

Posted by Gold_12th on Sun Aug 17 17:39:45 2014

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Growing up in Castleton Corners, Rob Ricci remembers his mother taking the S54 to her job at Waldbaum's every day. In 2010, the Metropolitan Transit Authority, citing low ridership, shrunk the line's weekday service and cut weekend service altogether.

Ricci's mother, Lillian, no longer had a reliable way to get to work and retired from her Waldbaum's job of 40 years.

"It definitely played a role in her retirement," Ricci said. "That line was essential to all the people who lived here.

"There are a lot of older people here, like my mother, who don't drive and need to a way to get to the nursing homes, hospitals and grocery stores in the area," he continued. "This is about giving people something that's long overdue."

Ricci was one of several dozen community members who attended Councilman Steven Matteo's rally Saturday morning calling on the MTA to restore full service to the S54 bus line, which connects local residents near Manor Road in Castleton Corners to Victory Boulevard. The full line stretches from West Brighton to Eltingville.

With the Clove Lakes Rehabilitation Center and nursing home and the Todt Hill Projects nearby, many attendees were older non-drivers who, without weekend S54 bus service, cannot conveniently leave their houses to run errands and attend doctor's appointments or church ceremonies.

"Since I took office earlier this year I've fielded many complaints from residents here saying 'I can't get to Victory Boulevard, I can't get to work," Matteo (R-Mid Island) said. "When I drive on Manor Road in the winter, I see elderly people carrying groceries in the freezing cold up Manor Road. And that's just not right."

Castleton Corners resident Diane Taylor, 67, just wants a way to get the approximately 1.5 miles from her home to Victory Boulevard. Taylor has had two surgeries on her knees and can't walk up the hill of Manor Road from Victory Boulevard.

"There are so many things I can't do now. I can't go to church—everything gets put off until Monday and it affects my whole life," Ms. Taylor said. "It's just not right. Walking errands in the winter months are just terrible."

Senator Andrew Lanza and Assemblyman Michael Cusick joined Matteo, alongside the Amalgamated Transit Union at Saturday's press conference, held at the corner of Manor Road and Croak Street.

In the only borough without a subway system, Cusick (D-Mid Island) stressed the importance of bus availability, saying, "We need safe, reliable bus service here on Staten Island."

Lanza (R-Staten Island) slammed the MTA for continuously "forgetting" about Staten Island and thanked Matteo for taking up the S54 issue.

"When it comes to transportation on the Island, we've been forgotten by the MTA," Lanza said. "No where has the MTA failed more miserably to provide adequate public transportation than here on Staten Island. The message today is very simple: MTA, do your job."

After fielding complaint after complaint, Matteo sent a letter to the MTA requesting that the agency return weekend service to the S54 line, which was scaled back in June 2010 during the MTA budget crisis.

MTA President Carmen Bianco responded quickly, denying his request. According to Bianco in her response letter, the S54 carried around 700 riders on Saturdays and 400 riders on Sundays--the lowest ridership of any Staten Island weekend routes.

"We have had to make a number of very difficult decisions that required many of our customers to adjust their travel patterns," Bianco's response reads. "While we regret any inconvenience that our customers experience as a result, we believe that the actions we are taking are prudent and essential, given the financial constraints that we face."

At the press conference on Saturday, Matteo said that the MTA should look past the statistics and do "the right thing."

"This isn't about numbers, this is about doing what's right," he said. "There are people here that depend on this line to get around the Island."

http://www.silive.com/northshore/index.ssf/2014/08/staten_island_officials_and_co.html

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Re: S.I. officials, community members call on MTA to restore S54 Weekend bus service

Posted by checkmatechamp13 on Sun Aug 17 21:23:56 2014, in response to S.I. officials, community members call on MTA to restore S54 Weekend bus service, posted by Gold_12th on Sun Aug 17 17:39:45 2014.

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The weekend service should come back, but not with the route running in its current form. Extend the route to the ferry on the northern end (ideally, covering the western part of the S42 route), and have a branch of the S79 cover Giffords Lane. Otherwise, ridership is too low to justify bringing it back.

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Re: S.I. officials, community members call on MTA to restore S54 Weekend bus service

Posted by dkupf on Thu Aug 21 23:34:09 2014, in response to Re: S.I. officials, community members call on MTA to restore S54 Weekend bus service, posted by checkmatechamp13 on Sun Aug 17 21:23:56 2014.

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Maybe if the S54 would operate via the SI Mall, instead of duplicating the S57, it would receive more riders and, in a few years, weekend service.

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Re: S.I. officials, community members call on MTA to restore S54 Weekend bus service

Posted by Checkmatechamp13 on Fri Aug 22 03:24:59 2014, in response to Re: S.I. officials, community members call on MTA to restore S54 Weekend bus service, posted by dkupf on Thu Aug 21 23:34:09 2014.

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Sending the route to the ferry would instantly guarantee enough riders to justify weekend service, regardless of whether it goes to the mall or not.

The only reason I don't like the idea of sending it to the mall is because of traffic on Rockland (the whole stretch east of Forest Hill Rd), which would delay the core ridership north of Seaview. Maybe a few trippers coming out of Yukon to help the Wagner kids (since they'd have to deadhead anyway), but that's about it.

Weekends, traffic usually isn't too bad, though. The only problem is the confusion of having weekend trips start from the mall while weekday trips start from Seaview. Unless a token amount of trips covered. The mall during the week, but the S54 would still run on coverage-level headways anyway, so it's almost all-or-nothing.

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Re: S.I. officials, community members call on MTA to restore S54 Weekend bus service

Posted by Hank Eisenstein on Fri Aug 22 10:21:35 2014, in response to Re: S.I. officials, community members call on MTA to restore S54 Weekend bus service, posted by dkupf on Thu Aug 21 23:34:09 2014.

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It only duplicates the 57 where it needs to go across the mid-island; there is only the one realistic routing for it. I agree extending it to the ferry on Weekends would help the ridership numbers, but it would also increase the cost, since you would need to add buses to cover the schedule.

A few years ago they were paving Rockland Ave between Brielle Ave and Manor Rd, they detoured the 54 and 57 several miles around it.

http://www.subchat.com/buschat/readflat.asp?Id=240898&p=1

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Re: S.I. officials, community members call on MTA to restore S54 Weekend bus service

Posted by checkmatechamp13 on Fri Aug 22 17:20:43 2014, in response to Re: S.I. officials, community members call on MTA to restore S54 Weekend bus service, posted by Hank Eisenstein on Fri Aug 22 10:21:35 2014.

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According to my calculations, it would only require 3 buses to run from Seaview to St. George. (Roughly 35-40 minutes of travel time each way, plus the layovers). The old S54 required 4 buses to operate on weekends. (And remember that you're also covering part of the old S42, which required 2 buses, though one of them was required to reroute the S52 through St. Marks Place)

Now, covering Giffords Lane with the S79A is going to result in more buses being required. If you generously estimate a 3 hour cycle time, it would take 6 buses to provide 30 minute service (though you could almost certainly get rid of one bus by interlining with the regular S79, assuming you don't care about the SBS wraps). But on the bright side, you're providing additional capacity along Hylan, and between Brooklyn & SI. (In a worse-case scenario, you could always reduce the S79 from 10 minute headways to 12, since the S79A is taking a good chunk of S79 riders).

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