Bus Route Cutbacks Called
Hardships for Business, Riders
By Harold Egeln
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
BAY RIDGE — Riders boarding the Third Avenue B37 bus — due to be axed soon by the MTA — near the end of the morning rush hour include not only late-traveling commuters with jobs in Bay Ridge, Sunset Park, Gowanus, Boerum Hill and Downtown Brooklyn, but an array of riders.
They include elderly and disabled people with wheelchairs, walkers and canes, and mothers with children in carriages. They are clients of the Guild for Exceptional Children, who make the daily commute to and from Guild services on 68th Street. They are employees and people visiting patients at Lutheran Medical Center on Second Avenue at 55th Street.
The packed B25 bus coming into Fulton Mall from East New York include many commuters and shoppers, along with several elderly and disabled people on each ride.
If the MTA puts into effect its “doomsday” schedule of service elimination and cutbacks, announced last Wednesday, along with large fare hikes, these riders would lose their travel lifeline, protesting officials say.
In Southwest Brooklyn, not only would the B37 be discontinued, but also X27 and X28 express bus routes, along with nighttime and weekend service on routes such as the B16, B64 and B70. Among other Brooklyn routes planned for elimination are the B23, B25, B39, B51 and B75.
Single rides would increase to $2.50, seven-day MetroCards from $25 to $31, Access-A-Ride fares from $2 to $5, and Verrazano Bridge tolls from $10 to $13, and for EZ-Pass users $8.30 to $10.52. All would be effective May 31.
Leaders Express Outrage
Congressman Michael McMahon (D-SW Brooklyn/Staten Island) registered his protest. “I am extremely disappointed that the leadership in Albany could not come together to find a better solution for New York City commuters than to increase the amount they need to pay merely travel throughout our city while limiting the means by which they are able to do so.”
He added, “This plan entirely eliminates the B37 bus route. Many small businesses and seniors depend on that bus.” As Albany reacts to the MTA announcement, McMahon reminded the MTA that he supported the $1 billion in the federal stimulus package that “would go directly to the MTA.”
With his office on Third Avenue and B37 bus stops one block north, Democrat Councilman Vincent Gentile, who got hundreds of petition signatures, as did other Bay Ridge legislators, protesting cuts, made his view clear. He noted that the March 25 MTA date for changes was “an artificial deadline” to press Albany for an alternative plan.
“Any plan adopted by the state must protect commuters from a dramatic fare increase or a dramatic reduction in services,” said Gentile, joining Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz on the City Hall steps. “This needs to be achieved without any tolling on East River bridges. Now it’s time for some real compromise and creativity in Albany.”
Among Albany legislators working in Albany with the increasingly unpopular Governor David Paterson and the Democrat-led Assembly and Senate is a powerful Republican, state Sen. Marty Golden, who represents Southwest Brooklyn.
“Does the governor, speaker and majority leader understand what a 25 percent increase and what the service reductions proposed by the MTA mean to the average New Yorker?” Golden asked, blasting the Democratic leadership. “Although there were actually no good choices, the vote by the MTA was clearly the worst option.”
Outrage was also the reaction on the MTA decision from Democratic Assemblywoman Janele Hyer-Spencer, saying it was taken while the Assembly was still at work on a solution. She called “$13 to cross a bridge absurd.”
“I am advocating for the adoption of the Assembly’s MTA resolution,” she said. “I hope that in the near future, we will be able to reach an agreement that will allow us to avoid these massive rate hikes and devastating service cuts.”
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