BusTalk

Mr. Linsky · Posted: Fri Dec 03, 2010 4:18 pm Post subject: 'A QUESTIONABLE OBSERVATION'

This last Tuesday night coming from upstate we got to the Jersey side of the Lincoln Tunnel at about 4:00 PM after experiencing the usual 45 minutes it takes to negotiate the 'horseshoe' ramp which, by the way, was wall to wall D 4500's - you could actually walk over them all the way into the city!

Anyway, as we approached the toll booths I'm sure I saw an MTA New York City Bus emerging from the tunnel going somewhere in Jersey.

I couldn't catch the signage because it was too far away and I don't remember whether it was an Artic or not but I was sure wondering why it was there!

Here's another probably stupid question but I'm going to ask it anyway; during rush hours, why don't they set aside the center tube for buses only going both ways? - it would seem to me that traffic might move a little faster that way and we wouldn't get fumed to death in our cars!

Just food for thought.

Mr. Linsky - Green Bus Lines, Inc., Jamaica, New York

N4 Jamaica · Joined: 16 Apr 2007 Posts: 868 Location: Long Island

Mr. L., Best wishes when you return to California. Yes, the Lincoln Tunnel helix presents quite a sight for a bus fan. I think the MTA bus you saw was one of the four MTA express routes to Staten Island, using the Lincoln Tunnel and the Goethals Bridge: x17, x22, x30, and x31.
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Two other subsidized routes, x23 and x24, are run by Atlantic Express. I am taking this information from the website mta.info , not from my own experience. I have a vague memory of a Bayonne private carrier, Domenico Tours or some such name, introducing expresses via Goethals Bridge and Lincoln Tunnel.

Mr. Linsky · Posted: Fri Dec 03, 2010 10:04 pm Post subject:

N4J,

That's probably what it is - service to Staten Island via New Jersey.

I'm just surprised to see our MTA operating out of state and I wonder what legal ramifications had to be considered in order to do so?

Then again, now they want to run the #7 train (which seems to be becoming as much a part of the New York persona as the 'A' train) all the way to Jersey - things are certainly changing.

I can just see a sign someday in the Flushing Main Street station that's going to say '# 7 Train to Manhattan, Cleveland and Chicago'!

Thanks for your good wishes and my best regards to you.

Mr. 'L'

Jimbo · Posted: Sun Dec 05, 2010 3:11 am Post subject:

Because NYC is exempt from many New Yrok state and federal rules re: driver qualifications and vehicle inspections running buses out-of-state had to change some things. Years ago when NYC Dept. of Sanitation started running the garbage trucks over to New Jersey the trucks had to comply to different rules and drivers on those runs had to be licensed for inter-state driving. I'm sure the same had to be done for MTA-NYC buses.

ripta42 · Posted: Mon Dec 06, 2010 9:49 am Post subject:

In addition to the express routes that use New Jersey to bypass Gowanus traffic, NYCTA has provided service to Bayonne via the S89 since September 2007. The buses and drivers on that route are USDOT-certfied for interstate service.