Mona Prokopin is trying to stay warm while waiting for a bus near City Hall, but it's a lost cause. 

“In this weather you’ll freeze – freeze!” she said.

Prokopin had been waiting for the M22 or M9 bus, but she’ll take whichever arrives first. She might have waited longer than she’d like. Both lines receive failing grades in the latest ratings by a transit advocacy group, the Bus Turnaround Coalition. The rankings are based on speed and reliability, using the MTA data. 

“We need to have an overhaul,” she said. 

According to the report, average bus speeds dropped to 6.6 miles an hour last year from 6.8 the year before. Half of the bus lines in the city only earn a D and nearly a quarter receive a failing grade. In Manhattan, 33 out of 41 bus routes are failing.

“Yeah, I believe it,” said Sharonda Singleterry while waiting for the M9. “Real crowded, the buses,” she said.

Gerald Anderson, who just missed the M9, was preparing to wait for the next one. “The next one ain’t coming for 20 minutes,” he said.

In a statement, Max Young, the Chief External Affairs Officer for the MTA, explains “enormous” work is needed to improve speed and reliability, and adding, “In order to achieve this goal we need congestion pricing to pass, in order to reduce traffic on the streets and provide additional technological and infrastructure improvements.” 

The de Blasio administration has pledged to increase bus speeds by 25 percent by next year through increased ticketing of unauthorized vehicles in bus lanes and changing the timing of some traffic signals so some buses do not wait as long at red lights. 

And according to the Bus Turnaround Campaign, some routes actually have turned around. There are 30 fewer routes with failing grades this year than last. But only one route earned an A – the Q52 Select Bus Service in Queens, which runs along Cross Bay and Woodhaven Boulevards . Advocates credit additional bus lanes, all-door boarding and consolidation of stops for the improvement,

“It always comes on time, it’s convenient because they’ve got the bus lanes so you don’t have to fight with the traffic, so I like it,” said Eugene Stephens, a Q52 Select Bus Service Passenger.

But for many bus riders like Prokopin, whose routes aren't making the grade, improvements cannot come soon enough. 

Bus grades are available at BusTurnAround.nyc. The grades are organized by bus line and also by city council district.