By Philip Newman
City Public Advocate Mark Green has demanded that transit officials hold public hearings to give the nearly 600,000 straphangers destined to be inconvenienced by rerouting of subway lines a chance to comment and make suggestions before the changes go into effect.
Green also appealed to Gov. George Pataki, asking him to take action on the “cattle car-like crush” on city subways and adopt a “Subway Riders Bill of Rights.”
City Council Speaker Peter Vallone (D-Astoria) also asked for public hearings on overcrowding in subway trains. Both Vallone and Green are seeking the Democratic nomination for mayor.
“The Metropolitan Transportation Authority won’t give riders a voice before making serious service changes, so we’re doing the job instead,” said Green. “We’re taking the message to commuters in the streets — the only way they are going to be heard is if they speak up by calling the MTA themselves.”
Green along with the Straphangers Campaign and City Council members Stephen DiBrienza and Kathryn Freed released a letter from 59 elected officials and several organizations urging the MTA to hold hearings in Brooklyn, the Bronx and Manhattan.
Green said his office had begun distribution of tens of thousands of “Want to Wake Up Earlier?” fliers urging riders to speak out for public hearings on the subway changes.
Due to the rehabilitation of the Manhattan Bridge, the B,D and Q lines will no longer travel along the Sixth Avenue tracks, adding time to the commutes of thousands of riders.
“I write to urge you to take steps today to ease the cattle car-like crush that New York City subway riders endure daily by adopting a Subway Riders Bill of Rights that guarantee less crowding, more service and gives straphangers the right to be heard,” Green wrote Pataki.
“For too many riders, the daily commute is an assault of elbow-in-the-ribs crowding, heightened tempers and worse. Riders miss trains because they are too crowded to board. Others lose precious time daily because of unreliable service. And some commuters may lose service altogether because of flawed plans that NYC Transit has tried to peddle without listening to riders suggestions.”
Perhaps the most controversial part of the MTA’s changes in the subway system is the announced shutdown of the Grand Street station on the Lower East of Manhattan set for this summer. Since it is a temporary change, it legally requires no public hearings but critics of the plan say it will last up to four years.
