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BROOKLYN WEEKLY, JULY 28, 2019
MTA announces bus service cuts
B38, B54, and B15 among 23 citywide routes to be slashed by transit agency
and from noon to
evening on Sundays.
The nearby B54, which
runs a similar route along
Myrtle Avenue, will have
less buses weekdays during
all hours except peak
hours in the evening,
while the B15, which goes
from Bedford-Stuyvesant
to John F. Kennedy Airport,
will suffer longer
waits at midday on weekdays.
The Authority chose
to strip busses off the
Bed-Stuy lines due to
relatively low ridership
figures, according to
agency documents, which
claimed that the affect on
riders would be minimal
during morning and evening
rush hours.
And transit honchos
will monitor those routes
to ensure riders aren’t
completely screwed, according
to the memo.
LESS BUT LONGER: The Metropolitan Transportation Authority will cut service of the B38 this fall, but
plans to replace its buses with longer coaches that will hold some 20 more people. Photo by Kevin Duggan
that the new schedules
provide sufficient service
CATERERS
to meet customer
demand,” the MTA document
reads.
But one straphanger
said the route is already
poorly managed, and
complained of busses that
arrive in groups of two or
three, only to be followed
by long waits afterwards.
“They have enough at
rush hour but they all
pull out at the same time
— it makes no sense,”
said Dyckman Welcome,
who boarded his homeward
bound bus from
America’s Downtown
Monday evening. “More
space will be helpful but
they need to be more
spaced out.”
To mitigate the affect
of a smaller service
f leet, the Transit Authority
is adding longer,
articulated buses — capable
of holding an additional
20 passengers over
standard busses — to
the B38 route, according
to agency spokeswoman
Amanda Kwan. The B54
and B15 routes, however,
will not benefit from the
bigger busses, documents
show.
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BY KEVIN DUGGAN
The Metropolitan
Transportation Authority
plans to cut service
to three Brooklyn bus
routes starting this fall.
The scheme to take
busses off the road and
lengthen waits along a
whopping 23 bus lines
citywide will allow the
MTA to shave $7 million
off its operating costs, according
to internal documents
first reported on
by the New York Daily
News .
Following the service
cuts, commuters relying
on the B38 — which runs
through Bushwick, Bedford
Stuyvesant, Clinton
Hill, Fort Greene, and
Downtown — will wait
up to three minutes longer
for busses on weekdays
during the morning
and evening rush, as well
as during most times Saturdays,
“We will closely monitor
the service to ensure
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