MTA New York City Transit and the New York City Department of Transportation will implement Select Bus Service on the B82 route in Brooklyn starting Monday, Oct. 1, as part of an ongoing collaboration to improve bus speeds, attract customers and improve bus service reliability on popular bus routes across New York. Transit also will increase service on two local Brooklyn bus routes during off-peak travel times beginning September 30.

“Brooklyn is a huge area where a lot of people live, work, shop and travel at all hours, and we’re very excited about this slew of bus improvements coming to our customers in the borough,” said MTA NYC Transit President Andy Byford. “The Select Bus Service will speed up trips on the B82 route and we’re working closely with elected officials and other community stakeholders to deliver the best service possible to our customers and neighbors.”

“I am excited to announce the launch of the B82 SBS with our partners at MTA”, said NYC DOT Commissioner Polly Trottenberg. “For the last three years, our agencies have conducted extensive outreach with the community and stakeholders, and we believe that SBS will bring shorter travel times and more reliable service for 28,000 daily riders along one of Brooklyn’s busiest bus routes from Starrett City to Coney Island.”

Select Bus Service (SBS) is New York City’s version of Bus Rapid Transit, a successful and proven concept used around the world to prioritize bus service and improve speeds and service reliability. NYC Transit and NYC DOT identified the B82 route as a candidate for upgrading to SBS based on its high ridership, long route through dense residential neighborhoods and commercial centers, links to subway lines, and customer feedback.

Transit and NYC DOT personnel met extensively with local elected officials and other community representatives during the planning for the B82 SBS route in an effort to balance neighborhood concerns with the critical need to deliver better service for bus customers along the entire route.

The B82 SBS will be the MTA’s 18th Select Bus Service across 16 distinct high-volume corridors in all five boroughs. SBS features, such as all-door boarding, off-board fare payment, bus lanes, traffic signal priority, and street redesigns like bus bulbs or bus stop islands, have helped attract new ridership and speed commutes on SBS routes by up to 30 percent.

NYC Transit is committed to improving bus service throughout New York City.  In April President Byford launched the comprehensive NYC Transit Bus Plan that outlined several strategies to make buses more attractive to customers, including a complete redrawing of the bus maps for every borough.  The Plan was incorporated into the multi-faceted Fast Forward Plan announced May.

As part of the commitment in these plans to move forward with immediate improvements while long-term initiatives are pursued, NYC Transit will increase off-peak service on the B17 and B65 local routes. These routes will see increases in midday service during weekdays this fall, cutting wait times by half. Customers will also benefit from significant reductions in wait times on Saturdays and Sundays; B65 wait times will decrease from 20 minutes to 12 minutes, and B17 wait times will decrease from 20 or 10 minutes to 8-1/2 minutes.

The B17 and B65 routes, which provide links to several subway lines, have potential for higher ridership during off-peak hours due to the neighborhoods and destinations they serve. The B17, which connects Crown Heights to Canarsie, may also attract  train customers seeking alternate service during the  train tunnel reconstruction project in 2019. It currently serves approximately 10,000 weekday customers. The B65 connects Crown Heights with the Fulton Mall shopping area in downtown Brooklyn, which is a major residential, commercial and cultural center that has potential to attract weekend customers traveling to the area for shopping, dining or events at the nearby Barclays Center. Approximately 3,000 weekday customers currently use the B65.