Expanding The Hours of the S98

Expanding The Hours of the S98

     The S48/98 is the most cost-efficient route on Staten Island, as well as the third-busiest. It makes sense if you think about it: Forest Avenue is a large commercial street, but the businesses are relatively transit-oriented (by Staten Island standards anyway), so a lot of people use transit to reach those businesses. While you do have a lot of people who travel all the way from Mariners' Harbor to the ferry, you also have a lot of turnover, which contributes to the cost-efficiency, because you're selling the same seat multiple times. Buses leave the ferry with a good-sized load (sometimes completely packed. Usually, it's moderately crowded from what I've seen), and then people start getting off as it makes its way through Silver Lake, but then more people get on coming from the S53. Then people start getting off further down, with a large crowd getting off at Richmond Avenue (many of them transferring to other buses there), but then at the same time, you have another large crowd getting on, going towards Mariners' Harbor and Arlington. And while all this is happening, you have all the people traveling to and from the stores along Forest as well.

     As a result of all these people getting on and off at every stop, it can be a pretty slow route at times, and the longer the distance you're traveling, the more you feel the effects. During rush hour, the S48 has a limited-stop variant (the S98), which only stops at major stops east of Richmond Avenue (west of Richmond, it makes every stop). This helps greatly, but the problem is that it only runs for a few hours in the morning, and a few hours in the afternoon, and it only runs in the primary direction of rush hour. (Eastbound in the morning, westbound in the afternoon).

    My proposal entails expanding the hours of the S98 to run as follows. Ferry-bound buses would run from roughly 6AM - 6PM weekdays, and 12PM - 5PM Saturdays. Arlington-bound buses would run from roughly 10AM - 10PM weekdays, and 1PM - 6PM Saturdays. Service would be expanded further under another one of my plans to extend it over the Goethals Bridge, but that's a separate plan.

    I'd probably start off running it every 20 minutes, and reducing the S48's frequencies to every 15 minutes, instead of every 12, in order to make an effort to minimize the funds spent on adding the service. So looking at the current S48/S98 schedule, I would add an 8:15AM departure from Arlington, and then run it every 20 minutes thereafter until the last departure at 6:15PM. With the S48, I would have the next departure after the 8:08 bus be a bus at 8:23, and then every 15 minutes thereafter. The S48 would run this pattern until 6:08, after which the next departure would be at 6:30, before continuing the current schedule from that point on.

   Going back from St. George, buses would run the current schedule until 10AM. Then at 10AM, I would have both an S48 and S98 depart going towards Arlington. The S48 would run every 15 minutes until 4:00PM, when it would resume its current schedule. The S98 would run every 20 minutes until 3PM, then every 15 minutes until 4PM, when it would resume its current schedule.

    Saturdays, S98 buses would leave Arlington starting at 12:10PM, and then run every 20 minutes until the last departure at 5:10PM. The S48 would have its 11:55PM departure, and then a 12:05PM departure, and then run every 15 minutes until 5:05PM, after which the next bus would depart at 5:24PM, and then continue the regular schedule from there.

   Going back from St. George, buses would run the current schedule until 1PM, at which time there would be both an S48 and S98 leaving towards Arlington. The S98 would run every 20 minutes until the last departure at 6PM, while the S48 would run every 15 minutes until 6PM, after which it would resume its current schedule.

   I'll see if I can put together an actual schedule when I get the chance.

   Now, generally, it is better when buses meeting the ferry run at a headway that works well with the ferry's headway. So if the ferry is running every 30 minutes, buses should be running every 10, 15, or 30 minutes, rather than every 20. However, Forest Avenue has a significant amount of people who aren't going towards the ferry, and so it isn't quite as necessary to have those even headways as it is for say, the S40. In addition, the S48 is already running every 15 minutes, so the S98 is more of a supplement, and the idea is that, with Forest Avenue being as busy as it is, hopefully, the additional buses will give people a better chance of connecting with the ferry they intended to.