12 JANUARY 23, 2020 RIDGEWOOD TIMES WWW.QNS.COM
MTA deserves criticism for Queens bus plan
The Train Daddy showed some
respect for Queens bus riders
when he went into the belly of
the beast to answer questions from
angry Jackson Heights residents
last week.
Yes, that was New York City
Transit President Andy Byford
who stood right in the center of
the crowd as complaints about the
MTA’s draft plan of the Queens Bus
Network Redesign ranged from bus
lines being completely wiped off the
map to bus stops being set farther
apart, creating new difficulties for
seniors.
Byford explained that it was a
draft plan and his team would listen
to the public comments during
10 public workshops in the coming
weeks before finalizing anything
on the redesign plan.
It seems as though Byford and his
MTA planners could be in for some
very long confrontations over this
plan. Perhaps one of them should
have placed a phone call to the bus
driver’s union boss to solicit his
opinion of the plan.
“It ignores the transit needs of
EDITORIAL
NYCT President Andy Byford speaks at a workshop in Jackson Heights. Photo by Mark Hallum
many parts of the borough, especially
transit deserts with its emphasis
on greater access to revitalized or
gentrified neighborhoods,” Amalgamated
Transit Local 1056 President
Mark Henry said in a statement
from his Oakland Gardens headquarters.
“Most commuters within
the borough will be challenging for
the average Queens rider. It appears
that consultants who view Queens
as a car borough, not a necessary
transit borough, orchestrated this
proposed bus redesign.”
Henry went on to say the redesign
“attempts to mask a money savings
pitch” and that the routes mean
longer commutes as well as two- or
three-step transfers to connect to
other bus lines, rail or subways.
Byford and his team will be in
for some very challenging trips
across the East River as they come
to Queens to hear the concerns of
Queens commuters over this draft
plan. An MTA spokeswoman called
the redesign “a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity
to completely reimagine
the borough’s bus network, which
hasn’t changed in a century.”
You know what else has not
changed in a century? That Queens
commuters have felt the city was
giving them the shaft when it
came to mass transit options for
generations.
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