Select Bus Service Launches On 79th Street Crosstown Route

NEW YORK, NY — City officials hailed this weekend's launch of select bus service on the 79th Street crosstown bus as a win for the Upper East and West side neighborhoods. The new bus route, which launched Sunday, is expected to improve one of the slowest bus lines in Manhattan and provide easy crosstown transport on a key transportation corridor.

The M79 select bus line will feature off-board payment to facilitate efficient boarding and improvements to stations such as better shelters and bus arrival countdown clocks, officials said in a press release. The city Department of Transportation also implemented bus-only lanes at highly-congested segments of the route and turn bays at key intersections so the bus won't slow to a crawl.

"The arrival of Select Bus Service on 79th Street will improve every aspect of crosstown travel for customers , who will be able to get to work, school and the museums quicker and more easily, with this new service," Darryl Irick, acting president of the MTA, said in a statement.

More than 14,000 people use the M79 line daily to travel crosstown and connect to other forms of public transportation such as the 1, B, C and 6 trains, officials said in a press release. The M79 select bus route will entirely replace the local bus line, but will make all the same stops with the exception of an eastbound stop on West 81st Street at Amsterdam Avenue, officials said.

Here's the M79 SBS bus route:

Before the switch to select bus service, the M79 bus route was one of the worst in Manhattan, according to the Bus Turnaround Coalition. The coalition's report card on the route shows an average travel speed of 4.3 miles-per-hour and that more than one in 12 buses are bunched. The M79 has a daily ridership of 14,660 — a 19.5 percent ridership decrease since 2010, according to the coalition's report card. (For more New York City news delivered straight to your inbox sign up for Patch's free newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

The implementation of select bus service is expected to increase bus speed on the route by 20 percent and increase the route's ridership up from its current 14,500 daily customers, according to an MTA announcement from February.

Crosstown bus travelers have already the improvements that select bus service can bring to the neighborhoods. In the two years since select bus service on the 86th street crosstown bus was implemented, ridership has grown 7 percent and travel times have decrease 11 percent.

"As riders on the East and West Sides have already learned with the M86 SBS a few blocks north, Select Bus Service is simply a faster and more reliable way to get across town," Department of Transportation Commissioner Polly Trottenberg said in a statement. "We are proud to once again partner with the MTA on another great Select Bus Service route on the M79 – and as with other SBS routes, we expect daily ridership to rise."

The new select bus service is expected to cost $1.7 million per year, and the funds for the project were approved in the MTA's operating budget.

Photos courtesy of the Department of Transportation