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Shoddy bus service makes students late for class
By Letters to the Editor/Staten Island Adva...
May 03, 2010, 10:02AM
By SEAN CROWE, THE BRONX
I, like many others, rely on the “service” provided by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority for my
transportation needs. Living in the Bronx, I have a long commute to my school, the College of Staten Island,
and as such I afford myself a decent amount of time to travel. Usually, I’ll leave around 5 o’clock for my 8
class. Three hours should be more than enough time to reach the college on time, but I’ve been having
problems. Normally, I would take the shuttle bus provided by the college, but many other commuters also
take that bus and it can’t always fit us all. Also, this bus does not run on weekends. As the only alternative, I
take the MTA’s S-62 bus. This has almost never worked out well for me.
I recall one particular Saturday morning. I left my home before 6 o’clock to head for a 9 o’clock class. I
made decent times on the subway and ferry but spent over an hour and a half waiting for a bus. The ferry
arrived just as the previous bus had left and I was stranded with at least 15 other students. The weather
this day was brutal, by the way. It was extremely cold; I had lost all feeling in my fingertips by the time the
next bus came.
I got to my class 45 minutes late. I suffered a similar waiting time on the return trip. I had a fellow
commuter complain to me that she failed a class because of lateness caused by shoddy bus service.
I’m not trying to tell the MTA how to run their buses, but if the bus is going to come every 90 minutes,
the schedule shouldn’t be telling commuters that it’ll come every half hour.
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