Paul Bass photo
Late, overcrowded as usual: Rush hour on bus formerly known as the B, now the 243.
New Haven buses were on time for only 54 percent of their trips last year, according to newly released data that underscore just how inefficient and inconsistent the city’s public transit system remains.
That On-Time Performance (OTP) statistic is included in 12 monthly reports put together by H.N.S. Management and provided to the state Department of Transportation (DOT) regarding how city buses fared over the course of 2018.
H.N.S. (or Hartford, New Haven, and Stamford) Management is the sub-corporation of First Transit that operates the state-owned bus system in its three namesake cities.
The state DOT released the reports to the New Haven Independent in response to a Connecticut Freedom of Information Act request.
The December 2018 report shows that, for the year in total, New Haven buses left their scheduled stops no more than five minutes late only 54.8 percent of the time.
That was more than 10 percent worse than Stamford buses (65.3 percent OTP), more than 12 percent worse than Hartford buses (67.4 percent OTP), and more than 3 percent worse than New Haven buses performed in 2017 (58.0 percent OTP).
The data is in line with what city bus riders have long known and with what a recent state-funded public transit study confirmed: that the New Haven bus system is a bit of a mess, with outdated routes and schedules.
Click here to download HNS’s 2018 monthly reports.
State Public Transit Administrator Dennis Solensky explained that a number of factors contribute to city buses departing from stops more than five minutes behind schedule.
“Buses operate in mixed traffic and are subject to the same delays as other road users,” he told the Independent by email on Friday. “Drivers on routes that are longer often have difficulty staying on time because there are more possible delays.”
Also, he suggested, the blame for buses running more than five minutes late nearly half of the time is due not just to traffic or inefficient routes with too many stops and a hub-and-spoke structure that funnels all riders downtown whether they like it or not.
The blame in part, he said, belongs to passengers.
“Aside from traffic and roadway issues, drivers need to wait for customers to use the farebox. When customers use cash, it slows down the route. Drivers need to wait for slower moving customers to be seated. They also need to assist riders using wheelchairs and leave their seat in order to tie down the wheelchair.”
Solensky said that on-time performance is measured through GPS bus tracking, rather than by the former method of tracking manually when a bus hit a number of predetermined “timepoints” distributed throughout a given route. GPS tracking devices were installed on all New Haven city buses in March 2017.
“Prior to the introduction of GPS bus tracking,” he wrote, “on-time performance was checked manually at timepoints. Now that on-time performance is collected continuously along the route, any time a bus falls behind schedule is noted, even if the bus reaches the final stop on the route on-time.”
The city bus system’s worst-performing month in 2018 in terms of OTP came in September (51.3 percent) while its best-performing month came in March (69.9 percent).
The 2018 HNS reports also reveal that city bus accidents per 100,000 miles increased by nearly 10 percent from the year before, from 6.1 to 6.7. That’s significantly higher than Hartford (4.4) and significantly lower than Stamford (9.8).
The amount of diesel fuel consumed by New Haven buses, meanwhile, decreased by over 8 percent, the number of miles per gallon increased by nearly 10 percent, and the number of quarts of oil added decreased by 37 percent.
CT Transit New Haven provides bus service for nearly 10 million annual passenger trips a year with its 15 fixed bus routes, one intercity express bus, and two shuttle services, according to the 2017 “Move New Haven Move” transit study.
[Note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly used the words “especially the handicapped” in describing Solensky’s explanation of passenger-caused bus delays. DOT spokesperson Kevin Nursick emphasized Thursday that the time required to stow wheelchairs does not have a disproportionate influence on bus delays in comparison to other explanations cited.]
NHI,
I think it's time to get a new photo to use with these CT Transit/bus articles. That poor man in the monster energy hat has had his face splashed across the front page of this publication more than anyone else in New Haven.