NEW YORK CITY — The city has opened up its 311 hotline to accept complaints about intercity buses, officials said.
The move comes after feedback from residents, who have complained that the system was unable to address concerns about the long-distance carriers, including noise, idling and illegal parking — even as local officials urged them to file their grievances with 311.
At community meetings in the past year, residents said call center representatives were unfamiliar with the issue and did not know which agencies to contact about the complaints. Often, their calls and online submissions did not resolve their issues, they said.
Previously, 311 was only able to provide callers with general and permitting information about the buses, which transport passengers between New York and several cities in the region, said communications director Shaleem Thompson.
“After learning about New York residents’ need for additional solutions, we added the option of making intercity bus complaints about illegal parking and noise specifically,” she said.
Calls about intercity buses are now routed to the Department of Transportation, which regulates the buses and issues their permits to operate in the city, as well as the NYPD, which enforces the law.
The city began accepting complaints on June 22 and has received 71 since, Thompson said earlier this week.
State Sen. Daniel Squadron — who co-sponsored the bill that lead to the current intercity bus permitting system — called the move “an important step in implementing our bus permit system on the Lower East Side, in Chinatown and citywide.”
"I hope this will facilitate effective enforcement against bad actors, which should increase safety and quality of life for community members," he said in a statement.
