The X17 was an express bus linking Staten Island to Midtown Manhattan. It made 85 stops, 66 of them before even leaving Staten Island.

Total distance? Nearly 40 miles. Total drive time? The schedule said 2 hours 33 minutes, but closer to three hours was often more like it.

“When people’s eyebrows go up, we tell them you could fly to Florida in less time,” said Tony Ventimiglia, a bus dispatcher. “And you certainly can.”

The X17’s leisurely path across Staten Island underscored the inefficient and outdated bus network that crisscrosses New York City, the largest municipal bus system in the nation. Mounting frustrations over crawling service, endless delays and routes that simply do not get commuters where they need to go have led to a bus crisis, sending riders fleeing to the equally failing subway and onto crowded roads — worsening the city’s gridlock. Bus ridership declined to 725 million rides in 2017, down from 843 million in 2006.