79th Street Crosstown Bus To Receive Select Bus Service: MTA

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — In an effort to combat decreasing ridership on the M79 crosstown bus, the MTA will institute select bus service on the line starting this spring, the agency announced this week.

In recent years service on the M79 bus, one of the few methods of public transportation connecting the Upper East Side to the Upper West Side, has slowed to a crawl due to increased route traffic and poor road conditions, the MTA said in a press release. 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 the MTA.

"The implementation of Select Bus Service on 79th Street will improve every aspect of crosstown travel in that area of Upper Manhattan. Customers, particularly elderly or mobility impaired residents, will be able to get to work, school and the museums quicker and more easily," MTA New York City Transit Acting President Darryl Irick said in a statement.

The MTA and the city Department of Transit received feedback from the Upper West Side and Upper East Side communities on how to best implement select bus service on the route and will be working with local community boards to discuss improving traffic flow on 79th street.

Unlike other select bus service routes, the M79 select bus will make all the same stops as the current local bus.

"Making the M79 a Select Bus Service route is a great win for the Upper West and Upper East Sides, which will soon benefit from faster, more reliable buses and a stronger crosstown connection," said John Raskin, Executive Director of the Riders Alliance, in a statement. "SBS has an excellent track record of improving bus service, which is why the community has pushed successfully to upgrade the M79."

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.

Photo by MTA via Flickr/Creative Commons.