The red bus crisis hit a critical low on Friday with services down to just two buses. Some relief is on the way but not until next year when two new buses arrive, but that still leaves the needed inventory short.
by David Stone
The Roosevelt Island Daily News
Don’t blame the drivers. They’re the one resource keeping the services in motion, rushing between stops, keeping residents moving. It’s worse for some. Since we first published this article, we also learned that there’s a driver shortage just as severe. This weekend, drivers were doing double shifts because there weren’t enough of them either.
There was quite some traffic on Main Street. There was a long line of shoppers and shopping carts waiting for the Shoppers Bus they rely on… They never got anywhere.
So it is a horrible task to print a “No shopping red bus today” and glue it by the stop? On Monday a notice should have been emailed.
Roosevelt Island Resident
And…
There will be no Octagon Express Red Bus service this coming Monday (6/24) due to unforeseen maintenance issues with one of our buses. We apologize for the inconvenience and for having to cut Octagon Express service short this morning.
RIOC Advisory, June 21st
Let’s be clear. The “maintenance issues” are far from unforeseen. RIOC understands that it’s fleet is barely functional at best. Cy Opperman’s crews have been keeping red buses rolling with baling wire and duct tape for a couple of years while executives failed to update the fleet for roughly a decade.
About the Red Bus Crisis
At a RIOC board meeting so long ago that Margie Smith was still a member and Susan Rosenthal was CEO, she questioned the costs for new buses. Satisfied with the answers finally, she voted in favor and, months later, the service was augmented.
But there has been nothing since. Maybe first Vice President for Operations, then – following an internal coup – CEO, Shelton J. Haynes was too busy boosting his salary. He now pulls down a lousy $243K per year, just $15K more than Governor Hochul who serves 19.68 million New Yorks compared to Haynes’s 12,000. Maybe he’s trying to catch up with New York City (Population 8 million) Mayor Eric Adams who is forced to get along on a measly $258K.
The Red Bus Crisis
Deteriorating for years, the fleet has shed buses routinely once they grew too old to fix. When Transportation Director Opperman finally persuaded the board and executive team to invest in two new buses, he was already unable to field enough equipment for rush hours.
Opperman’s attitude was can-do. “We’ll make it work,” he asserted, but even Cy Opperman can’t breath life into dead buses. Nor can his successor Eddie Perez.
With Opperman in the wings as a consultant, Perez has his team of drivers pushing hard. On most days, they meet their schedules, but not always. Buses breakdown. They always did, but aged now, it seems more frequent.
On Friday, with only two red buses usable when five are needed in rush hours, riders waited longer than usual for buses more crowded than usual. That will continue on Monday.
“Our remaining buses will operate under their normal schedule while Octagon Express service is offline,” RIOC gamely promised. But that’s only if neither of the two working vehicles go down.
If more buses fail, it means more than trouble getting to and from work on weekdays. It also undermines confidence in RIOC’s ability to deliver vital services, and it adds to the challenges many Roosevelt Islanders already have in getting around the Island.
On the horizon…
By the time new buses arrive early in 2025, the current crisis will likely worsen. Baling wire and duct tape only go so far on vehicles bumping and rattling along a Main Street that shares the critical need for repairs. A “speed hump” recently installed by PSD actually smooths out the roadway.
Pushed to find alternatives because of the risks, RIOC came up with monthly leased replacements so costly that they virtually screamed, “You can do better than this!”
The Octagon, for example runs small, agile leased driver and bus services that can be a model for RIOC while Upper East Side medical facilities run rush hour shuttles to and from Roosevelt Island, Monday through Friday.
These examples and a sprinkling of imagination should lead to a better way of coping with a red bus crisis certain to worsen this year. RIOC’s continuing turmoil under Team Hochul is the enemy. The governor’s office neglected Roosevelt Island for years as a kind of inconsequential patronage dump. Now, we’re getting the rewards.
I Take the Tram Because I Have To
There are people on this Island you learn to recognize long before you ever learn their names. Like the real estate man with the blue goatee, the one whose name I keep forgetting, though I could pick him out of a lineup any time of day.
