Faster trips between Manhattan and Staten Island. That’s New York City Transit’s goal as it explores ways to restructure express bus routes. Commuters got a chance to see the plans at an open house Wednesday near the Eltingville Transit Center. 

“A lot of busses are getting jammed up in traffic especially in manhattan and we're looking at getting them more direct to their location, less stopping,” said Jonathan Hawkins, a Transportation Planner with New York City Transit.

Over the summer, transit officials surveyed more than 1000 commuters in the Borough, and analyzed their travel patterns using GPS data. They found that the average express bus route makes 27 stops before it even leaves Staten Island. One of the proposals is to space stops out a little farther apart. What we're doing is moving from 0.2 miles between bus stops to 0.4. miles. Most of the bus stops we are getting rid of are used to by very few people. Overwhelming majority of people will still be able to use their same bus stop or be within a five minute walk of the next one,” said Sarah Wyss, acting deputy chief bus planning. The existing routes look like this, looping in and out of neighborhoods with several stops. The proposed routes look like this, more direct routes with fewer stops. But riders like Leah Gebhardt, who has been commuting to Manhattan for over 20 years, don't think this new plan will help. 

“So the time we would have saved is now going to be spent taking another form of transportation or walking, so I don't see the time saving here?”

“My biggest concern is they are proposing to have the last stop downtown, and then nothing else is available until 23rd street, so you're talking about a 50 block radius in manhattan without any bus service at all?” said Margarite Genovese, another commuter.

Officials say they'll continue to listen to riders and study the data, before they officially release the new express network in the summer of 2018.