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Jan. 24-30, 2020
‘NOTHING IS SET IN STONE’
MTA exec tries calming residents’ nerves at bus route design workshop in Jackson Heights
BY MARK HALLUM
New York City Transit
President Andy Byford took
questions and comments from
all sides in Jackson Heights
last week 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
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
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
mind-reader, 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.”
Reach reporter Mark Hallum
by e-mail at mhallum@
schnepsmedia.com or by phone
at (718) 260–4564.
Vol. 8, No. 4 52 total pages
SAT FEBRUARY 1ST, 2020
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