At an express bus stop in Bay Ridge, just next to the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway on-ramp, at a little past 7 a.m. on Wednesday, there’s only one person waiting. It’s Joe Parker, a doorman who works in Tribeca. He checks an app to see how far away the bus is and notes the last bus he just missed was carrying only one person. The next bus is only a few minutes away.
“It’s a blessing they’re still working, even [though] it’s empty,” Parker said. “I feel selfish,” he said, grabbing a seat on a bus with four other passengers on board.
More than one year into the pandemic, Metro-North, Long Island Railroad and the express buses continue to see ridership at about 30% of the pre-pandemic levels. But while Metro-North and Long Island Railroad have reduced service to adjust to the reduced number of riders, express buses continue to run full service, often resulting in near-empty buses still being driven along their regular routes.
“I’m blown away by that,” MTA board member Andrew Albert told Gothamist/WNYC.
Joe Parker waits in Bay Ridge for a bus to take him to Manhattan
Express bus service receives the most public subsidies of any form of public transit in the city at $11.79 per person, according to a recent report from the Citizens Budget Commission. By comparison, Metro-North receives $5.62, and LIRR $6.07. The cost of a single express bus ticket is also the most expensive bus ticket the MTA offers, at $6.75 per trip.
Albert argues that if the MTA is running full express service, it should also restore full service on the C and F lines, something the union is suing the MTA over, saying its workers want those assignments back.
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“What’s fair is fair. If you’re running full express bus service, you can certainly run full C and F train service considering the ridership on those lines beats the pants off of any express bus route,” Albert said.
In February 2020 the average number of weekday express bus riders was 42,000 passengers. Last month, there were 12,000 average daily riders. By comparison, the subway hit a pandemic high one day this month, with 3 million riders, still far from the pre-pandemic levels of more than 5 million subway riders a day.
Passengers board an express bus.
“New York City Transit and the MTA Bus Company are operating at full service – as COVID-19 guidelines like social distancing on mass transportation remain in place to protect employees and passengers,” MTA Spokesperson Amanda Valdes wrote in a statement. “The Authority’s top priority is to provide a safe and secure transportation system for our customers and our heroic employees who have kept the city moving during these challenging times. The MTA continuously monitors ridership on buses and as more New Yorkers return, the Authority will continue to provide sufficient service.”
Another express bus rider named Sam, who declined to give his last name, lives in Bay Ridge and has been using the service to commute to his finance job in midtown for the past six months. He said the bus has been getting a little more crowded in recent weeks, but he’ll keep riding the bus, for now.
“I’ll try to adjust the hours, not take it when it’s over-crowded,” he told Gothamist/WNYC, as he and one other person boarded an empty bus Wednesday morning, just before 8 a.m.
A bus rider and their express bus ticket
Metro-North is now running train service at 63% pre-pandemic levels, and the LIRR is running at 75%, but will increase to 80% Monday, after an outcry from passengers about overcrowding earlier this month.
“New Yorkers need frequent, reliable, round-the-clock public transit for the city to recover,” Danny Pearlstein, Policy and Communications Director with Riders Alliance wrote in a statement. “Governor Cuomo should extend his concern for express bus riders in Riverdale, Douglaston, and Todt Hill to the tens of thousands of people who commute overnight and to New Yorkers who ride the F and C from Jamaica, Coney Island, East New York, and Washington Heights.”
The MTA has pledged overnight subway service will return soon, but hasn’t set a time frame for exactly when. At a recent MTA board meeting, Interim Transit President Sarah Feinberg said the MTA will continue to monitor the C and F lines for overcrowding, but believes it hasn’t been a major problem.
Jeremy, a 30-year-old Bay Ridge resident who also declined to give his last name, has been using the express bus service this month as he returned to work in the Financial District. He said with only 7 or 8 people ever on his bus at once and plans to stick with it -- but if ridership increases, “I’ll probably switch back to the subways,” he said.
