MTA New York City Transit and the New York Transit Museum are celebrating the 10^th anniversary of Select Bus Service with a special discount at the Museum for SBS customers across the city.

The Bronx’s Bx12 was launched as the first Select Bus Service route on June 29, 2008, as the debut of the MTA’s and the New York City Department of Transportation’s vision of a bus rapid transit system to speed up commutes and bring world-class surface transit features to New York City.  Since its launch, Bx12 SBS customers have made more than 100 million speedier trips across the central Bronx and Upper Manhattan thanks to rapid bus features that have decreased commute times by up to 20 percent.

To celebrate this milestone in local transit history, the New York Transit Museum in Downtown Brooklyn is offering a special 2-for-1 admission discount for museum-goers with an SBS receipt dated June 29, 2018. Museum goers paying regular admission who have a paper receipt from any SBS route dated June 29 will receive free museum admission for one guest. SBS customers receive paper receipts as proof of payment at fare machines at SBS stops. The special admission discount is valid through July 2018.

“Bus rapid transit systems like Select Bus Service have proven to move customers quickly, efficiently and safely around the world, including in the cities where I’ve worked,” said NYC Transit President Andy Byford. “I congratulate my bus chief Darryl Irick and his team on laying a solid foundation for SBS as we look to expand it.  I also thank the NYC Department of Transportation and the communities our routes travel in for their cooperation and partnership in making SBS a success.”

“With a decade of Select Bus Service under our belts, we are happy to join this celebration with our partners at the MTA,” said New York City DOT Commissioner and MTA Board Member Polly Trottenberg.  “Tens of thousands of riders every day now enjoy the real benefits of SBS along 15 different routes, where off-board fare collection, all-door boarding, dedicated bus lanes, and Real Time Passenger Information (RTPI) wayfinding totems together make buses faster, more convenient, and more reliable.”

“Ten years of operating Select Bus Service have proven that when you dedicate the resources, the effort and the energy to improving service, customers will respond,” said Darryl Irick, MTA Bus Company President and Senior Vice President of NYC Transit Department of Buses. “The lessons learned from these past 10 years are now being put to use in our ‘Fast Forward’ plan to improve service and, among many other goals, attract customers back to our buses.”

On the Bx12 SBS, ridership has increased from 30,500 average weekday customers in 2009 to nearly 35,000 average weekday customers in 2017. Total rides have increased from 9.8 million in 2009 to 11.2 million in 2017, proving that Select Bus Service can attract customers in the face of declining bus ridership in transit systems nationwide. SBS ridership across all routes in 2017 was 259,000 average weekday customers.  A total of 76 million rides were taken by all SBS customers in 2017.

MTA operates 17 Select Bus Service lines on 15 distinct corridors throughout the city. As MTA and NYCDOT continue to launch more SBS routes, local bus customers will also benefit from Select Bus Service features. Select Bus Service features include all-door boarding, off-board fare collection, dedicated bus lanes, efficient stop spacing, specially branded and articulated (extra-length, three-door) vehicles, traffic signal priority and reconfigured street designs. These features are being implemented into the MTA’s entire bus network as part of MTA NYC Transit’s Fast Forward Plan to improve service on subways and buses. These elements include:

• Collaboration with NYCDOT, NYPD and local communities:NYC Transit and NYCDOT work extensively with local communities and elected officials when planning future SBS routes, and that partnership and robust community outreach will continue as NYC Transit redesigns the entire bus network as outlined in the Fast Forward Plan. These collaborations include the expanded use of bus priority technology on traffic signals and buses known as “traffic signal priority” and the implementation of bus lanes and street redesign to enhance travel time and safety. NYC Transit will advocate for strengthened NYPD enforcement of bus lanes, dedicated transit-priority traffic teams, and legislative approval to expand enforcement cameras beyond the 17 SBS routes to help keep bus lanes clear in more locations.
• All-door boarding: NYC Transit is pursuing new approaches to speed up bus boarding, particularly using upcoming electronic tap-to-pay readers to facilitate all-door boarding.
• New bus fleet: The Fast Forward Plan focuses on enhancing the bus fleet with new buses (including electric buses), and customer amenities that are used on the Select Bus Service fleet, such as digital displays to show route and stop information and service updates; traffic signal priority technology; and USB charging ports and Wi-Fi . The bus fleet is also being outfitted with new safety features pioneered by SBS buses such as turn warnings for pedestrians and security cameras.

ABOUT THE NEW YORK TRANSIT MUSEUM:
The New York Transit Museum is the largest museum in the United States devoted to urban public transportation history and one of the premier institutions of its kind in the world. The Museum explores the development of the greater New York metropolitan region through the presentation of exhibitions, tours, educational programs and workshops dealing with the cultural, social and technological history of public transportation. Since its inception over forty years ago, the Museum – which is housed in a historic 1936 IND subway station in Downtown Brooklyn – has grown in scope and popularity. As custodian and interpreter of the region’s extensive public transportation networks, the Museum strives to share through its public programs this rich and vibrant history with local, regional, and international audiences. To learn more, visit www.nytransitmuseum.org.