C RY D E R
P O I N T
FEBRUARY 15
NYC Transit President Andy Byford was converged upon by a crowd in Jackson Heights from all sides regarding bus redesign draft plan. Photo by Mark Hallum
MTA exec tries calming residents
at bus route workshop in Jax Hgts
WWW.QNS.COM | FEBRUARY 2020 | CRYDER POINT COURIER 15
BY MARK HALLUM
mhallum@schnepsmedia.com
New York City Transit President Andy Byford took
questions and comments from all sides Wednesday night
in Jackson Heights as residents barely gave transportation
officials room to breathe during a workshop on the controversial
Queens bus redesign project.
Rather than sending representatives to take the heat,
Byford showed up in person and was greeted with an
array of gripes from bus riders, and pleas that several
busy bus routes on the chopping block in the draft bus
redesign plan.
The workshop space contained within the “Rumpus
Room” of the Southridge Senior Center was so packed, one
attendee likened it to riding a Queens bus at rush hour.
The complaints voiced ranged from stops being set farther
apart, to lines that may be completely wiped from
the Queens slate — such as the Q49, the Q32, the Q33 and
the Q66. But Byford and the MTA stressed that “nothing is
set in stone” with the bus redesign plan.
“What we’re offering the opportunity for you to do
— and you don’t have to take this up — is we’re saying,
tell us what you like about the existing network. Tell
us what you don’t like and what we should be aiming
to do is leave in place what you like and improve what
you don’t like,” Byford said over shouts of protest. “But
if we don’t have conversations like this, I’m not a mindreader,
I don’t know. So it may well be there’s some stuff
that’s sacrosanct, that may not want to change.”
An MTA spokesman further explained that the perception
of important lines being eliminated was the result of
an incorrect oversimplification. Routes will be redrawn and
renamed, but service will remain where there is demand.
Of all the routes concerning Jackson Heights, residents
made appeals to Byford over the fate of the Q49 and the
Q53. The Q49 goes to the main hub at 82nd Street — Jackson
Heights, an essential connection to subway lines and
other buses; the Q53 is a Select Bus Service route running
between Woodside and Rockaway Beach.
“They want to send the Q49 to all the local stops with
no elevator, no express train, no escalator,” Jim Burke said.
“At the main hub we have the E, the F, the R, the M, Little
India, Little Colombia, the gay bars, everything. So that’s
what we’re fighting for.”
Assemblyman Michael DenDekker claimed the new bus
plan would cut seniors in Southridge off from the rest of
the community and direct them to a subway station that is
not ADA-accessible. Although only a draft plan and one of
10 workshops where the MTA will be accepting feedback
for the final plan, DenDekker complained the agency was
not listening to the community’s needs.
“Seniors can’t go to the train anymore because all
of the replacement bus routes that they have will take
the buses to the 90th Street – Roosevelt Avenue station,
which has no elevator. So it’s not a good plan for this
community,” DenDekker said. “We’re trying. I’m glad
Byford came, I’m glad my community turned out in
force to tell the MTA how bad this plan is for each and
every one of them.”
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