So there's been a lot of confusion regarding what the MTA plans for their express bus changes on Staten Island. It doesn't help that they haven't posted their updates on the Civic Connect website. In any case, here's the updated list of changes as per the most recent PDF released (which for some reason, they haven't posted on the website)
NOTES:
All Downtown buses will run to Worth Street via Church Street/Broadway
All Midtown via FDR buses will run via 23rd Street & 5th/Madison Avenue to 57th Street
All Midtown via NJ buses will run via 34th Street & 5th/Madison Avenue to 57th Street
They are unsure about what they will do off-peak or reverse-peak. These changes only refer to rush hour, peak direction service. Also, they haven't actually assigned numbers to these routes, but I'm using the current numbers to give you an idea of the changes.
X1/X3 combined: ETC - Downtown via Hylan Blvd
X2 extended to Hylan & Richmond to provide southern Eltingville with Midtown via FDR service
X4/X8 combined: ETC - Downtown via Giffords Lane and Father Capodanno Blvd (no serving Armstrong & Leverett)
X5/7 combined: ETC - Midtown via Giffords Lane, Father Capodanno Blvd, and FDR Drive (similar to the X4/8 combo, the route will run straight up Giffords Lane). For service from Hylan & Richmond or Hylan & Armstrong to to Midtown via the FDR, take the extended X2. For Richmond Avenue passengers, make your way to/from the X21.
X9: Eliminated. Use X2, or X1/X3 combo
X10B: Eliminated. Use X11, X12, or X42
X11: Remains as-is.
X12: Cut to Downtown
X14: Cut to Downtown, and also bypasses all stops on Narrows Road. For Midtown service, use the X2, X30, or X42 depending on where you are. For Downtown service along Narrows Road, use the X15.
X15: Staten Island service remains as-is. Manhattan service runs to Worth Street via Church/Broadway instead of via the Downtown Loop.
X17A: Remains as-is.
X17J: Rerouted to Annadale Road with the X17A. For Arden Heights/Huguenot service, use the X23 or X24.
X19: Rerouted to run straight down Huguenot Avenue to Hylan Blvd, then straight down Hylan to Craig Avenue in Tottenville. So basically, Tottenville gains Downtown service, but Arden Avenue riders have to either walk to Huguenot Avenue or take the X24 to Huguenot Avenue and transfer to the X19.
X21: Remains the same on the Staten Island end, but should see a boost in service. In Manhattan, rerouted via 34th & 5th/Madison to 57th Street.
X22: Combined with the X23. Buses will run via Rossville Avenue, but then down Seguine/Foster (to cover the X23), then down Hylan to terminate at Craig Avenue.
X22A: That loop around Maguire to get onto the Richmond Parkway to reach the Outerbridge Park & Ride ate into a lot of the time savings, so buses will run straight down Bloomingdale Road, and then enter the West Shore Expressway at Bloomingdale Road, and then enter the West Shore Expressway. Buses will bypass Arthur Kill Road, but I'm not sure if they will stop in Travis. There would also be a lot more than 4 trips each way.
X23: Runs straight down Huguenot Avenue to Hylan Blvd. For Seguine Avenue/Foster Road service, use the X22. For Woodrow between Arden & Foster, walk to Foster, Huguenot, or Arden for Midtown service. For Woodrow east of Arden, walk to either the X17J, X21, or X24 on Annadale Road, Arthur Kill Road, or Arden Avenue respectively.
X24: Run straight down Arden Avenue to Hylan Blvd, then terminates at Hylan & Barclay.
X30: Cut back to Forest & Victory.
X31: Runs via NJ in both directions.
X42: Runs to Port Richmond instead of Mariners Harbor with the X12. If you're in Mariners Harbor, use the X30 for Midtown service (you might have to take the S40/48/98 if you're along South Avenue, especially in Arlington north of the train tracks). For those heading around 23rd Street, stay on the S48/98 until Richmond Avenue for the X42. There should be a lot more than 6 trips each way, though.
My thoughts:
They should definitely keep some service to West Street. They said they're definitely going to revisit that. All the West Street riders would have to walk to Church/Broadway (which adds time even if it's through an underground passageway. It's a passageway, not a teleportation device!). If they're going to be piling onto the Church/Broadway buses, you might as well run those buses to West Street if that's more convenient to where those riders need to go.
Not sure if there should be some service between Worth & 23rd. I'm leaning towards keeping some sort of service, but I can see their logic. The (1), (W), and (E) train all start in Lower Manhattan, so they have plenty of seats for riders coming off the express bus. The (R) generally isn't that crowded since a lot of riders get off in Brooklyn for the (D) and (N) trains to get to Midtown. For those who want to completely avoid the subway, the M55 runs up 6th Avenue, and down 5th Avenue/Broadway (the only thing is that it doesn't serve Union Square, since it takes 5th Avenue to 8th Street). Come to think about it, no local buses run north-south to Union Square. The M6/M7 used to back in the day, but long-story short between the 2010 service cuts, and making certain parts of Broadway narrower or pedestrian-only, north-south buses have been routed away from that part of Broadway.
The only thing is that you don't have the direct connection to the 6th Avenue subway line (the B/D/F/M). I'll get into my solution later on.
Water Street is losing the X8/14/15. From what I've seen on the X8, buses are fairly empty until around Wall Street. Can't really speak for X14/15 ridership in that area. Alternatives include the Downtown Connect shuttle bus (which apparently doesn't start until 10AM. Perhaps the MTA should put a little bit of funding in to have it run earlier), which starts at the South Street Seaport, as well as the M22 bus, which loops around City Hall and then goes across Frankfort Street (personally, when I needed to use this bus, I got off at Church & Vesey and walked up to Park Row & Beekman Street to catch it. But I was going to the Lower East Side. For places on Water Street, I would honestly just walk from Battery Place to South Ferry and catch the M15 from there. And yes, I know what you're thinking....if you have to walk to South Ferry, you might as well just take the ferry! There's also the BM "Downtown Loop" buses which I'll talk more about below.
For those of you who are worried about subway issues prolonging your commute, there is a website called SubwayTime that is similar to BusTime, but works for the subways. You just go to subwaytime.mta.info. You can see how far the next train is, and also if there's any delays (Delays are also posted under the "Service Status" section of the MTA.info website). So for example, I go to school at The City College of New York. I can either take the (1) to 137th Street or the (A) to 145th Street. I've done various options (get off at Bowling Green and take the 4/5 to Fulton for the A/C, get off at Bowling Green and walk up to the 1 and hop on the express between Chambers & 96th to save time, get off at Park Place where I have the option of the A/C or 2/3 and then continue my trip accordingly). So using SubwayTime, and the MTA website, I make my decision accordingly (i.e. If I see that the C train is coming, and the next A isn't for 15 minutes, I'll hop on until at least 59th Street for the D, if not all the way up to 145th Street).
Obviously, if there's a power outage in a major area like Downtown Brooklyn or Midtown Manhattan, then you have the issue of delays affecting a whole bunch of lines, but usually, there's at least one line that is running relatively normally. (I often see delays that affect the A/B/C/D/E/F/M but not the N/Q/R/W or vice versa, or just the 1/2/3, but usually not all at the same time, though there can be some spillover, as the more saavy riders switch over to the lines that are still running, and overcrowd those lines. In any case, as I mentioned, there's buses like the M55, or worse comes to worse, you get off and take a taxi/Uber. At least if you know of the delays, you know what options are available to you).
For those of you traveling outside of rush hour, I'll let you in on a little-known secret. Outside of rush hour, the BM1/2/3/4 run down 5th/Madison and 23rd, and then run down the FDR and serve Water Street in Lower Manhattan (similar to the present-day X14, but they end in East Midtown at 1st Avenue instead of West Midtown at 11th Avenue). So there was a period of time when I needed to travel home after a tutoring assignment around 23rd & 2nd. Since I finished around 7-8pm, I would take a BM bus (I think it was usually the BM3 that came first) from 23rd & 2nd over to Battery Place, and then walk over to the X17 and take that home. The key was that I would ask if they were stopping Downtown, or just running straight to Brooklyn (some of them bypass Downtown....during rush hour they're supposed to, but outside of rush hour, they're probably breaking the rules and doing what they want. If you want to take down the bus number and file a complaint, feel free). Anyway, the BM buses run infrequently and aren't too reliable, so I would use BusTime first to see if any bus is heading your way. You want to avoid the "Super Express" buses, since those run straight to Brooklyn. If it's not a "Super Express", it's supposed to stop Downtown, but like I said, some of those drivers go rogue and bypass it anyway.
Actually, during rush hour, if you want to go to the Downtown Loop along Water Street, you can actually transfer to a BM Downtown Loop bus at Battery Place. Something to consider...
How I Would Do Things Differently
So I would definitely at least keep the X10B and at least some combination of the X7/9 to cover the WFC. My logic is that the X10B is relatively easily accessible from most of the North Shore (if it doesn't stop in your immediate area, it's a quick drive or local bus ride to reach it). The X7/9 combo could be a route that runs the same as the X1 on Staten Island (so via Hylan & Richmond to the ETC, or maybe Giffords since that's where the X7 currently runs, though the old X6 used to run down Richmond). I would extend that route up Spring/6th northbound and Broadway/Houston westbound, but terminate it at 23rd Street. North of there, people have the Midtown buses (and if they want the 6th Avenue Line, they can get off at Waverly Place and take it).
Now, an interesting idea I heard from a bus operator is to run down 5th, but then take 23rd Street to the West Side Highway (an old pattern of the X10B had it do something similar, except it took 5th-23rd-7th-Houston-West). I have a 1993 map at home that shows that pattern. I forget what they did northbound. I think they took Spring to get from West to 6th, I have to double check). The advantage of that is that since it still bypasses most of Downtown, you can use that as the Midtown-Port Richmond route, and keep the X42 serving Mariners Harbor & Arlington. The disadvantage is that there would still be no service south of 23rd, so maybe if you add a stop at say, 7th & 14th, and another one at 7th & Houston it would work. The good thing is that you're on West Street north of Canal Street and the Holland Tunnel traffic (as opposed to 6th Avenue/Broadway).
In any case, I would also add another two Downtown routes from the South Shore. One which would be the Downtown version of the X24. Perhaps it could run to the World Financial Center, to give people on the South Shore service to another part of Downtown besides the Church/Broadway corridor. Or just run it up Church/Broadway, but there definitely needs to be some more Downtown service from the South Shore. I would also run a Downtown branch of the X22 (this would definitely run via Church/Broadway).
The thing is that geographically, Staten Island is physically closer to Downtown, so it makes no sense for a South Shore rider to take the subway uptown to catch their express bus (also, shorter distance = lower costs for the MTA to operate). Also, anecdotally, now that the HOV lane runs directly to the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel I've permanently switched my morning commute to the X17A to the subway, rather than the X17J to the subway. I do not trust that Lincoln Tunnel bus lane one bit. You have buses from the entire state of New Jersey all trying to get into one little lane, and then on the Manhattan end, buses and cars all have to merge onto Dyer Avenue for the 2 blocks to 34th (Port Authority buses have their own ramps to/from the tunnel). I would honestly have buses just take Dyer Avenue to 33rd Street, and then take that to 10th Avenue to reach 34th Street (or at least give bus operators the flexibility to do so. Right now it's considered going off-route, and if they get into an accident, they're screwed). I think the X30 route across 42nd might even be a little better for those "via NJ" buses.
In any case, for that reason, I would have the X31 continue its AM route to Manhattan via Brooklyn (it can even go via the FDR Drive if that's better than going up West Street).
Now off-peak, here's what I would do: I would run the following routes off-peak (as described above): The X1, X7, X11, X12, X17 (Downtown-only), and X22 Downtown branch, since that would be the main Downtown corridor during rush hour). I would have the X11 stop along Narrows Road off-peak so people around Targee Street/Richmond Road have some off-peak service. I would have the X22 Downtown branch run down South Avenue (so buses would get off the SIE at South Avenue, take South Avenue to the West Shore Expressway, and get off to serve Travis, then get back on and get off at Arthur Kill Road to serve the "Checkpoint", then take the service road to Bloomingdale Road. Off-peak and reverse-peak, you should be able to get some riders working at the business parks and hotels along South Avenue, which combined with riders in Travis, Arthur Kill Road and the South Shore should fill up the bus nicely.
Notice the X7 is the only route running to Midtown. As I mentioned before, Staten Island is physically closer to Downtown, so the service should be structured accordingly. The X5/7 have around 3500 riders as-is, so that's a busy route and can hold its own with Midtown riders.
The only Staten Island area that would lose off-peak service would be Port Richmond. Honestly, most riders in Port Richmond use the local buses, and the main reason the area sees as much express service as it does is because it's right by the Castleton Depot. Mariners Harbor being further out and having fewer options (the S44/94 doesn't go to Mariners Harbor for instance) should generate more ridership than Port Richmond.
If you noticed, in some of my other proposals, I had an S53 limited-stop branch (running via Narrows Road instead of Clove & McClean in Grasmere/South Beach). That would be able to be used as an alternate route for X14 riders looking to go to Midtown (to get to Hylan & Narrows to transfer to the X2). Or for that matter, save themselves $3.75 and stay on until Brooklyn and catch the (R) train to Manhattan. Also, I had a proposal to restructure the S55/56 on the South Shore (which would have the S55 run via Arthur Kill-Arden-Annadale and have the S56 run straight down Woodrow from Arthur Kill), so perhaps that should be implemented to allow X23 riders easier access to the other routes. In any case, the span should definitely be extended past 7PM!
Also, in the AM rush, I would have the X17A/X17J alternate between starting at Annadale Road and bypassing Marsh Avenue, and separate buses starting at Marsh Avenue & Windham Loop and continuing from there. Also, I would have the X31 start at Marsh & Windham regardless, as the X17J & X21 provide a quicker ride to Midtown from the Eltingville Transit Center. The Marsh Avenue bypass allows people from Annadale and the ETC to reach Manhattan a few minutes quicker. In the afternoon, all buses should run the combination route via Marsh Avenue and the ETC for simplicity's sake (this is similar to the BxM7 service pattern in Co-Op City where there's buses separate buses in the AM for all the sections, but just one route in the PM running throughout the neighborhood).
I hope you guys found this very helpful. Feel free to put questions and comment below (just remember, I don't work for the MTA, so I can't do anything about it directly).
