Want more Bx10, Bx20 service? Write Cuomo

It’s the early morning rush hour and Deborah Wallace stands at a bus stop near Kappock Street and Knolls Crescent.

“Excuse me,” Wallace says, walking up to one woman waiting with her at the stop. “Do you ride the Bx10 bus?”

When the woman nodded yes, Wallace handed her a flyer and asked her to write to Gov. Andrew Cuomo to improve bus service in the area.

Wallace is a member of the Ad Hoc Committee, a group of Riverdale and Spuyten Duyvil residents advocating for more buses on the Bx10 and Bx20 routes. They cited overcrowding, extended wait times and bus bunching — when two or more buses arrive at the location at the same time — wreaking havoc on a system where leaders are more focused on trains than buses.

The campaign is a follow-up to last year’s petition drive by the group demanding additional service. That effort garnered more than 1,000 signatures and did win riders an additional bus during the morning rush hour.
But that simply isn’t enough.

Travel pains

“I give up,” said Rena Orman as she waited on the southbound side of the Henry Hudson Parkway at West 236th Street. “I don’t want to run and fight for a spot to get in.”

Orman travels to Canal Street in Manhattan. She takes the express bus, paying $6.50 each way, because she’s frustrated with the long wait times and overcrowding. In the past, she would take the Bx10 bus to the subway at West 231st Street and Broadway.

When the Bx20 does arrive, Orman calls it “a surprise.”

“When it comes, everybody’s happy because nobody expects it,” she said.

For Alicia Benjamin, reaching the A train would be much easier if she could take the Bx20 bus instead of having to walk 15 minutes for the Bx7. But if she wants to get to the 1 train, Benjamin — whose freelance work takes her throughout Brooklyn and Manhattan — requires her to catch the Bx10 to West 231st and Broadway.

Overcrowding is no surprise to Jim Gannon. He’s a spokesman for Transit Workers Union Local 100, which represents workers on the subway and bus lines.

“The drivers complain about the situation, and our Manhattan and Bronx bus officials have met with management to relay the concerns,” Gannon said. Instead, they “are mostly told that the rolling stock and/or budget is not there for additional service at this time.”

Daily ridership figures on the Bx10 rose by 2 percent last year to 11,266, according to MTA data. In the same year, ridership on the Bx20 fell by 4 percent to 772.

Wallace attributes the Bx20 dip to the infrequency of the line. The bus only runs during morning and evening rush hours. The MTA, she added, should promote the line more, especially since many riders are not even aware it’s still around.
Government leaders say they’re addressing transit concerns in what has become a “Summer of Hell” for commuters, but that focus has stayed firmly planted on trains, not buses, Wallace said. Cuomo declared a state of emergency for the transit system in June after the derailment of the A train in Harlem.

“The buses need attention, too,” Wallace said. “We have to keep on encouraging riders to express their opinions to their elected officials and MTA.”

The committee plans to collect 100 letters, and already is at its halfway mark, Wallace said. “It is enough to let the MTA and the elected officials know that people are still riled (up) about the service,” she said.

Neither the MTA nor Cuomo’s office responded to requests for comments about Wallace’s campaign.

Wallace has changed her strategy a bit from early June, now carrying form letters for concerned riders to sign. Those letters also are forwarded to MTA chair Joe Lhota, Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz and Councilman Andrew Cohen.

Not enough?

Dinowitz, in the meantime, has pushed for technological improvements on MTA buses he said could shorten delays. He questioned the transit authority’s slow rollout of transit signal priority, that would extend green traffic lights for buses, allowing them to reduce time at intersections.

The MTA said it would put such signals in place at 550 intersections on 10 bus routes by 2020 — none on the Riverdale-area lines — but the Assemblyman believes more can be done now.

“It’s good to see the beginnings of change happening in our bus system, which is so important in outer boroughs like the Bronx,” Dinowitz said in a release. “Many people rely on buses to get around because they have difficulty using the subway system due to accessibility concerns.”

Even with a smaller rollout, MTA estimates travel times on those buses could drop as much as 18 percent.