As we debate ways to fund mass transit to keep fares low and service expansions on the table, Cap’n Transit focuses on another aspect of MTA fares. The Cap’n mused over the weekend on how much more would riders pay for a faster and more comfortable ride. I know plenty of Queens residents who pay for LIRR service or Express Bus options while the subway covers the same ground simply because those are more comfortable and quicker routes home. The MTA, he says, should figure out ways to integrate these various modes of intra-city transit more than they already do.
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I once asked some friends if they would pay more for a more comfortable “business class” subway ride. Theoretically they were interested, but we could never come up with a price/feature list that they would pay for that would make up the lost revenue/capacity to the MTA.
The main problem is that most of the subway ROWs are saturated at rush hours. There is no room to add a premium level of service, without reducing the level of service that is offered to everyone else. And any measure that makes transit less desirable for the average rider is probably a bad policy, even if it were politically saleable—which of course it isn’t.
I tried to commute with the express bus for awhile but it just wasn’t worth it. I had to stand more often than on the train, and the lack of an unlimited fare card was a big turn off. My only subway option is a long, slow trip on the R where I usually get a seat and time to read a little and take a nap–I’m happy enough with that.
Sorry, but this is a very bad idea.
Despite the higher fare, express buses are a huge drain on the NYCT operating budget. Ridership is very strongly peaked (i.e., a large majority of the riders are traveling to Manhattan in the AM rush and away from Manhattan in the PM rush; there’s very little reverse-direction or off-peak ridership on most routes), there is no turnover at all on each trip (unlike on a local bus or the subway, where I may get off mid-route and you may get on, filling the seat that I had occupied), and the average trip length is much longer than on a local bus (probably not longer than on the subway, but the subway is much less labor-intensive than a bus). That all drives up the cost of providing the service.
Compared to the subway, total express bus ridership is tiny – and once an express route is started, it’s very difficult to eliminate it, since it tends to attract the politically well-connected. (You may recall that, back in the early days of the “doomsday” fare proposal, Bloomberg squashed the proposed express bus fare of, I think, $7.50, specifying a maximum of $6.25. He didn’t squash any of the other proposed fares.) Express routes serving neighborhoods that are otherwise inconvenient to transit are arguably justified (and, I emphasize, arguably – a counterargument would be that people who want easy transit access should consider that when they’re looking at places to live). Express buses as a mere alternative to the subway are completely unjustifiable at current fare levels.
If NYCT has money to spend on express routes, rather than heavily subsidizing the rides of a few at the expense of the many on the subway, I would suggest that it would be much more effective (and much more equitable) to improve service on the subway and on local buses, both in quantity and in quality. (Even ignoring the quantity issue – which in many cases requires expensive replacement of the signal system – wouldn’t you find your subway ride more pleasant if your station didn’t smell like a sewer and feel like an oven?)
The subway is basically efficient – a crew of two for an entire train. For people not in walking distance of the subway who are traveling long distances, buses should take them as far as the subway – and that’s it. Let the efficient subway take over as soon as possible. And spend money making it more comfortable rather than burning that money where few will benefit from it.
If a cab can get me from Wall Street to Bay Ridge for under $15, why can’t a bus get me there for, oh, 1/20th of that (allowing for the larger size of the bus)? Heck, why can’t the subway get me there for 1/200th of that…?
Silly questions–maybe… but it’s almost impossible to compare the real prices of these systems because none of them are priced by the market.
After dropping you off, a cabby can pick up another fare right away. And if he doesn’t pick up a fare, he doesn’t get paid.
After making a trip into Manhattan in the morning, your bus driver might return to Bay Ridge in service, but he’ll only pick up a few passengers (if that many) in the reverse-peak direction. Or he might return out of service (not picking up any fares at all) to make another peak direction trip. Or he might sit around until the afernoon rush, because demand for midday express bus service is very low. But whatever he does, he’s getting paid.