NY State Senator Joe Addabbo Responds to Constituents About MTA Proposed Service Cuts

In response to the MTA board’s mid-December vote approving a budget that calls for massive cuts to mass transit riders, students, and disabled users of Access-a-Ride, NYS Senator Joseph P. Addabbo, Jr., today wished to reassure his constituents. “Nothing is going to happen right away; the legislature is continuing to work on MTA budget issues and when the legislative session resumes in January, we will work diligently to minimize the pain of such proposed MTA service cuts.” The Senator stated that the MTA will hold public hearings on their budget proposals and there are other procedural steps to be taken before such cuts in service would become a reality. Constituents have been telling Addabbo that they are especially afraid to lose free MetroCards for student-commuters, the Q56 bus service along Jamaica Avenue, the Z train running between Jamaica and downtown Manhattan, as well as the convenience of pickups and drop-offs that Access-a-Ride provides the disabled and seniors in the district. “I intend to address all of these issues with the MTA,” Addabbo responded.

The MTA board has proposed the following service cuts to alleviate their budget shortfall: eliminating the Z and W trains (Q extended to Astoria, J makes local stops); cutting the G off at Court Square station at all times instead of 71^st Avenue/Forest Hills; cutting the M off at Broad Street station at all times; increasing wait times on “letter” subways on weekends to 10 minutes; increasing wait times on overnight trains to 30 minutes; cramming about 18 more passengers into every subway car; charging half price for currently free student MetroCards in 2010 and full price in 2011; eliminating a toll rebate for Rockaway residents who use the Cross Bay Bridge; ending door-to-door Access-A-Ride service for disabled and elderly riders, bringing them to the nearest accessible stop instead; service reductions on Metro-North Railroad and LIRR (Babylon, Port Washington and West Hempstead branches); cramming more passengers on Metro-North trains; cutting managers’ pay by 10 percent; cutting service on several Long Island, Staten Island, Manhattan, Brooklyn and Bronx buses in addition to X25, X27, X28 and X32 express buses. In Queens, the MTA proposes eliminating the Q26, Q56, Q74, Q75, Q84 buses; eliminating weekend service on the Q14, Q31, Q76, Q79 buses, and shortening hours on the Q30, Q42, Q48, and Q79 bus routes.

“I will coordinate with other elected officials throughout the district over the coming months to gather information for our constituents that comes out of the public hearings. I believe that before the MTA fixes its budget problems by cutting services and hurting our people, they should do the internal administrative cuts within the MTA to become more efficient and minimize the pain for its ridership,” Addabbo concluded.

MTA Fails Woodhaven with Drastic Cuts by Lisa Fogarty - Queens Chronicle

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Here we go again.

For the second time in a year, the Metropolitan Transit Authority has announced drastic cuts that officials and residents say will cripple residents in Woodhaven and Richmond Hill.

In an effort to fill in a $334 million budget hole, the authority will sever both the W and Z trains, the latter of which runs from Jamaica to Manhattan, making four stops along Jamaica Avenue, and 24 bus routes, including the Q56 bus — which passes through Jamaica, Kew Gardens, Richmond Hill and Woodhaven on its way to East New York, Brooklyn. The bus is known for transporting residents to Jamaica Hospital, the Woodhaven and downtown Jamaica business districts and several area schools.

Other debilitating MTA cuts include slashing MetroCard funding for students, limiting paratransit services that will only transport the elderly and handicapped to and from bus and subway stops and — in another classic case of déjà vu — eliminating the Rockaway rebate program.

“We fought this fight last year,” said Greater Woodhaven Development Corp. Executive Director Maria Thomson at an emergency press conference held Tuesday in the new Woodhaven offices of Assemblyman Mike Miller (D-Glendale) and attended by Councilman Eric Ulrich (R-Ozone Park), Assemblyman Rory Lancman (D-Fresh Meadows) and Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley (D-Middle Village).

Thomson pointed out that the MTA’s plan to cut the Q56 hurts seniors who are unable to take the subway because of the steep, and often unkempt, staircase. “They [MTA] don’t know us and they don’t see it, but we’re going to make them see it — we’re going to fight.”

Ulrich called the decision a “direct slap in the face,” not only to children and seniors, but to the small businesses along Jamaica Avenue that rely on patrons who use public transportation. “When Jamaica Avenue fails, the entire community fails,” Ulrich said. “The MTA is saying to them: We don’t care about small businesses, children or senior citizens.”

Another MTA cutback, the reduction of Access-a-Ride service, which provides approximately 27,000 rides per day, will result in fewer seniors getting out and about to socialize and take advantage of vital programs, says Roseann Rosado, executive director of Queens Multi Service in Glendale, which provides services such as food stamps and Medicaid assistance. “We do not need our seniors and our disabled citizens home, isolated and alone,” Rosado said.

Although few seemed floored that the MTA had decided, yet again, to toy with Rockaway residents’ rebate program, which allows free passage on the Cross Bay Bridge, Lancman reminded conference attendees that, while negotiating its terms for a bailout last April, the rebate was one of the programs the MTA had promised to keep alive.

“MTA has lost credibility with state legislators and obviously with the public,” Lancman said. “All of us feel a great sense of betrayal that the services we fought for are back on the chopping block.”

Adding insult to injury, Ulrich said, families affected by the Department of Education’s phasing out of Broad Channel High School in the Rockaways face a double whammy — those students who may not get a seat at the new facility may have to pay tolls to get to school or full MetroCard fare.

“Public school education is supposed to be free,” he said.

Miller agreed: “An additional $89 a month for families to pay for a MetroCard — at that point they’re going to have to make a decision between sending them to school and putting food on the table.” He added, “We’re not going to take it; we’re going to fight.”

Q56, Q32 Buses Win Dubious Honor as Queens' Slowest by Philip Newman - YourNabe.com

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The Straphangers Campaign is out with its annual Pokey Awards for the city’s slowest buses and the Q56 and Q32 have won the laggard sweepstakes for Queens.

The transit advocacy group presented its eighth annual Pokey worst-in-show recognition to the M42, the transit system’s slowest bus, clocked at an average “speed” of 3.7 mph.

“A 5-year-old on a motorized tricycle would outpace the M42,” the Straphangers’ report said.

The Straphangers also presented a new citation, the Trekkie, in recognition of the bus with the longest running time. It went to the M4, which takes nearly two hours from midtown Manhattan to Upper Manhattan.

As for the Q56, it averages 6.3 mph to run from Jamaica to East New York in Brooklyn.

The Q32 chalks up a running time of one hour and 27 traveling from Jackson Heights and Penn Station.

Elimination of Q56 Bus Has Woodhaven Worried by Lee Landor - Queens Chronicle

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The residents of Woodhaven are deeply concerned as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority prepares to shut down one of their most critical modes of transportation — the Q56 bus, known locally as the Jamaica Avenue bus.

As part of its “doomsday budget,” passed March 25 and due to take effect in June, the MTA will eliminate all service on the Q56, which runs along Jamaica Avenue from 171st Street in Jamaica to Van Sinderen Avenue in Brooklyn.

The line serves the communities of Jamaica, Kew Gardens, Richmond Hill and Woodhaven in Queens and Cypress Hills and East New York in Brooklyn. “They’re crippling us,” said Maria Thomson, executive director of the Greater Woodhaven Development Corp. and Woodhaven Business Improvement District.

People take the Q56 to Jamaica Hospital and into Jamaica, where they can access a number of human resource agencies, such as the Social Security Administration. Students take the bus to different schools located along the route and seniors, who rely most heavily on the line, use it as an alternative to the J train, which many cannot access because it is elevated.

Seniors “cannot take the J line. They have got to take the buses because they’re more convenient for them and they’re more accessible physically,” Thomson said, adding that the MTA’s elimination of the route will cause major problems for Woodhaven’s shopping district.

“Our BID is 25 blocks. A lot of people take that Jamaica Avenue bus from one location on our avenue to the other and they would have nothing available to them if they discontinue that bus,” Thomson said. “There is no substitute for that bus.”

In her testimony to the MTA board during its public hearings, Thomson asked the members, “What are you thinking? How can you discontinue a bus that has no replacement?”

Thomson has reached out to a number of elected officials to make them aware of the situation. “They are lobbying for us,” she said and working on the community’s behalf to get the line reinstated in the budget.

Council Member Crowley Speaks Out Against MTA Cuts to Public Transportation in 30th CD...

NYC Councilmember Elizabeth Crowley Speaks at MTA Hearings at the Sheraton LaGuardia East Hotel in Flushing Jan 21st

January 20, 2009

The 30th Council District is comprised of the Queens neighborhoods of Maspeth, Middle Village, Ridgewood, Glendale, Woodhaven and Richmond Hill.

As a City Councilmember I must address the MTA planned service reductions which unfairly burdens the residents of my district.

• The elimination of the Q56, Q74, QM 23 bus routes, the reduction in service QM 24 and QM12 bus routes, the elimination of the Z train and the reduction in service to the J train.

• Q56; The Q56 which runs down Jamaica Avenue, a vital business district, needs an MTA bus. The J train which runs above Jamaica Avenue should not be the only option for public transportation on Jamaica Avenue, since the elevated train stations are not handicap accessible and in some stations the stairs to the elevated J trains are in need of repairs and present dangers to commuters.

• Q74 Bus for those going to Queens College, Townsend Harris, and John Bowne High Schools, the elimination of the Q 74 between Kew Gardens and Queens College means that the cost for a round-trip will become $10 since only one transfer is allowed. Three buses will be necessary: from Richmond Hill to Kew Gardens from Kew Gardens to Main Street and Union Turnpike and the Q20 or Q44 up Main Street to school or Queens College. In addition to students, there are many Richmond Hill commuters who take their kids to summer programs at Queens College or work at these sites. I recommend that the Q74 is not eliminated, and if elimination happens please extend the Q37 or Q10 to Queens College.

• The elimination of the QM23, and the reduction of service of the QM24 and QM 12 will lengthen an already long commute for many residents. Our district residents that do not have direct access to the subway system need reliable express bus service into Manhattan

• The elimination of the Z train and J-Skip Stop service will increase the length of time to get downtown making it unbearable for many. The E trains and F trains will become the only train option for many Richmond Hill residents making those trains even more overcrowded, and further crowding the Q10 and Q37 to Kew Gardens.

As a representative for the City, I oppose the increase of the monthly MetroCard from $81 to $105 and the proposed increase of Access-A-Ride doubling the current $2 fare to $4. We must do everything possible to encourage the use of mass transit and sustain a high quality of service but not at the cost of such extraordinary increases. We must charge a fair amount that does not overburden working people particularly at a time when many New Yorkers are experiencing employment hardships. Our seniors and the physically challenged who utilize the service of Access-A-Ride often live on the tightest of budgets and are finding it increasingly more difficult to live in this City.

I must also state that I believe that we have a very intelligent transit system and that I support the need to continuously reinvest in our system's infrastructure. I know the importance of rebuilding for current need and to prepare for the growing need of tomorrow.

While I support your plan for the Second Avenue Subway line and the East Side Access, you must hold the LIRR Third Track with an equal importance to fairly give Queens and Brooklyn residents who commute to Nassau and Suffolk Counties an option for rapid transit. These three projects are immense and only the LIRR Third Track will allow for a "reverse commute" and have any benefit for the growing number of people who live in the communities I represent. These three major capital projects mentioned above will take billions over the course of years before measurable real results happen.

Today I also bring to your attention the condition of much of the real estate owned by the MTA. I am speaking of areas abutting the right-of-ways, empty abandoned lots and sections that ring my neighborhoods that are contaminated areas. This real estate needs to be improved. The tracks identified as LIRR and utilized by private corporations for freight distribution run through Richmond Hill, Glendale, Ridgewood, and Middle Village. The property is poorly maintained and in dire need of beautification.

In addition to your financial troubles you must realize the broad deficit of property in my neighborhoods that could be improved. Please remember that our Queens neighborhoods are not just a doormat for commuters to Manhattan.