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By Cathy Gonzalez

Special to the Advance

The commute between Staten Island and midtown Manhattan (in both directions) has been a complete nightmare in the past few weeks, but now it has reached beyond anything we've experienced before.



I get the X5 at Hylan Boulevard and Nelson Avenue to 41st Street and Madison Avenue in Manhattan at about 7:15 a.m. every weekday, and every day while I wait for one X5, I routinely see three X7s within 5 minutes (sometimes less) and at least two X8s in that same time period.

According to the MTA's X5 schedule, there should be a bus approximately every 6 minutes. However, I regularly wait anywhere from 15-to-25 minutes.

Often times the bus that comes is pretty much the bottom of the barrel as far as equipment goes. The other day there was no air conditioning on the bus and the temperature was hotter on the bus than outside. The driver actually put the bus out of service by the time he reached Hylan Boulevard and Tysens Lane.



However, the evening commute is much worse. I wait at the Lexington Avenue and 46th Street stop at approximately 5:30 p.m. every weekday evening. There are buses missing from the schedule regularly. There may be two or three X2s in the time span that I wait for just one X5. When that X5 does arrive, it is too crowded and we still have to wait for at least one, maybe two more X5s before we can board a bus and get a seat. Bus drivers are frustrated, commuters are frustrated, it's a terrible situation.



The other night, however, was probably the worst I've ever seen. Although I often arrive at this bus stop (which is also shared with X2, X22 and X31 riders) and the line reaches close to 47th Street, a few nights ago the line not only reached 47th Street, but had then wrapped around 47th Street toward Park Avenue. I arrived at 5:30. A friend had arrived at 5:15. The first X5 that arrived after 5:15 at this stop was at 6 p.m., no seats, hardly any standing room. By the time I just gave up and boarded an X2 at 6:05, there was one woman waiting for a bus for over 1 hour - during rush hour.



This is completely unacceptable. I don't know what the answers are, but someone must have some ideas. We are paying exorbitant fares to ride buses that are in terrible condition (while there are brand new buses out there), and hardly bother to show up within reasonable amounts of time. Commuters are beyond frustrated and we seriously can't take much more of it.



We live less than 15 miles from Manhattan and to have a commute that lasts upwards of 2 hours each way daily is completely insane. I desperately am looking for help with this.

I've contacted Borough President Oddo's office and his staff does respond, and forwards my complaints on to the MTA, but we all know that truly does no good.

I've complained to the MTA directly so much I'm sure they could wall paper an office with my emails and letters, but nothing changes.



I would love to hear any suggestions anybody may have.



(The writer is a resident of Great Kills).