N E W S AUGUST 14 L E H A V R E SHAFRAN: LIRR cuts will wreak havoc BY ANGY ALTAMIRANO The upcoming cuts to peak weekday Long Island Rail Road service in Bayside have left commuters outraged, yet the MTA said the brief inconvenience will result in long-term improvements. From July 22 to August 16, the LIRR will cancel fi ve rush-hour trains including the westbound 7:55 a.m. train from Little Neck and 8 a.m. train from Bayside to Penn Station. The cancellations are due to construction on the East Side Access mega-project in Sunnyside. The cuts have left Austin Shafran, candidate for the City Council District 19, calling on the MTA to provide alternatives during the construction period that would leave commuters with a 46-minute gap between trains. “The MTA’s unnecessary and irresponsible decision to cancel service will force even more people onto overcrowded trains, turning a diffi cult situation into a dangerous ride for commuters,” said Shafran, who began gathering signatures on Wednesday, July 17 THE COURIER/ Photo by Angy Altamirano Austin Shafran, candidate for City Council District 19, gathered signatures from commuters calling on the MTA to provide alternatives to LIRR cuts. ‘Accident waiting to happen’ Residents rally against bus route BY MELISSA CHAN Buses are still going down a narrow residential street in Whitestone and often getting stuck, residents say, despite two years the community has spent pushing for another route. “It is incomprehensible that the MTA would consider such a narrow street for the routing of a city bus,” said State Senator Tony Avella. “This is an accident waiting to happen and is ruining the quality of life for the residents on this block and jeopardizing their safety.” The Q15A bus route has run through 10th Avenue, between Clintonville and 152nd Streets, since 2010, when the MTA axed Q14 service. Offi cials said the line was created to serve former Q14 riders and continues on the old route along 150th Street to 7th Avenue. But since then, residents say they have been squeezed in as buses rumble down the tight two-way street. “Residents living on this block are very fearful when driving out of the driveway due to the dangerous traffi c pattern created by this bus route,” said Whitestone resident Kevin Leibowitz. “Due to the buses speeding down this narrow street, many drivers are fearful of getting hit and damaging their cars.” Karen Babizh, whose family owns Clinton Restaurant, said the eatery lost four parking spots and is constantly interrupted by traffi c jams. “Buses often get stuck as they go down on the street, and whenever it happens, the bus driver would come into our restaurant, asking customers to move their cars,” she said. An MTA spokesperson said the agency looked into having the alternate route join the Q15, but the changes were not effective. 14 LEHAVRE COURIER | AUGUST 2013 | WWW.QUEENSCOURIER.COM “At the community’s request, the MTA did look at having the Q15A travel on 7th Avenue, Clintonville Street, and 14th Avenue to rejoin the Q15,” said MTA spokesperson Deirdre Parker. “However, this would take many of the riders along a long, circuitous, U-shaped routing and greatly slow their commute.” The MTA believes 10th Avenue is “a wide enough street” for both buses and cars, Parker said. The authority does not have plans to reroute either lines. to send to the MTA. “Northeast Queens is already a transit desert, yet facing the hottest month of the year, the MTA is further taking away vital access to mass transit that commuters rely on.” In a letter to the MTA, Shafran suggested temporarily converting the 7:47 a.m. express train from Great Neck to a semi-express train stopping at Little Neck at 7:50 a.m. and Bayside at 8:01 a.m. However, according to Aaron Donovan, MTA deputy director for external communications, the LIRR will provide a train 33 minutes earlier and 12 minutes later from the peak hour trains. He also said in the long run, the construction will help bring less congestion and delays. “In the end, this will make things easier by providing a new destination in Manhattan on the east side under Grand Central,” said Donovan. “It will help decongest a very critical part of our railroad. The work associated with this track outage will help provide a new route so that Amtrak and the LIRR will no longer interfere with each other in Sunnyside.” Photo Courtesy of State Senator Tony Avella State Senator Tony Avella joined Whitestone residents in a rally protesting two years of problems with the Q15A route.
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