A whole new fleet of buses is coming soon to the Upper East Side.
City Councilman Ben Kallos announced that the city of New York will be incorporating 79 brand-new buses to replace some of the oldest buses in the city’s entire fleet. The buses will be used on five routes in Harlem and the Upper East side — the M14, M15, M101, M102, and M103.
Officials estimate that these buses service thousands of people every single day. Considering that motorcoaches account for 751,000,000 passenger trips taken annually, the city views these new buses as an investment in improving travel citywide. For perspective, according to NY Press, the M15 alone carries 45,000 passengers every single day.
Currently, the buses throughout the Upper East side are not reliable, frequently break down, and sometimes don’t show up at all. Both city officials and bus riders have been petitioning the city for new buses for quite some time now. In response, Kallos launched a data tracking service in 2014 to monitor every bus in the city and collected data to come up with better solutions to the frustrating bus service.
The new buses will be different than any other in the city and boast WiFi and USB charging ports in every seat. All the buses will be deployed from the Tuskegee Bus Depot at a rate of three new buses a week. The idea is to stagger these new buses into production as a way to prevent confusion as the bus drivers get used to new routes.
Upper East side residents are extremely excited to get these buses after decades of campaigning for change. New York State Senator Liz Kruger explained in a statement, as reported to the Upper East Side Patch,
“So many people in our communities, especially seniors, rely on buses every day. Long wait times, missing buses, and a general lack of dependability have a significant impact on the lives of riders,” Krueger said in a statement. “I thank the MTA for making this important investment, and community advocates and my elected colleagues for their continuing efforts.”