By Courtney Dentch
Southeast Queens needs more mass transportation options and better service on existing lines, residents told a panel of city and state transit officials at the first town hall meeting of the Southeast Queens Transportation Advisory Committee last week.
About 30 community members voiced concerns over the waiting time on bus lines, the safety of transfer points between subways and buses, and both scheduling and announcements on the Long Island Rail Road at the March 5 meeting.
Area politicians, including City Councilman John Liu (D-Flushing), chairman of the Transportation Committee, also attended to ensure residents got the answers they need.
“Transportation is not just planes, trains and automobiles,” Liu said. “It’s giving people opportunity — an opportunity mainly to get to and from work. Without vital transportation links, people may be locked out of job opportunities.”
Representatives from the Long Island Rail Road and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates commuter trains, subways and buses, were on hand to field complaints and questions. A representative from the city’s Department of Transportation had been invited but did not make the meeting.
Long waits for the overcrowded private buses that serve southeast Queens were of particular concern, said Jamaica resident Lisa Williams, who has often waited more than a half an hour for a Q60 bus on Sutphin Boulevard to take her twin girls to school.
“I’m told their buses break down often because their buses are old,” she said of the Green Line fleet. “If you pass by any time during rush hour, you’ll see people waiting to get on. It shows you need to have more buses along that route.”
Councilman Leroy Comrie (D-St. Albans) answered on behalf of the city, saying Mayor Bloomberg has been negotiating service agreements with the private bus lines in an attempt to place them under city control.
“The mayor is trying to bring them under the MTA umbrella,” Comrie said. “Private buses are under a real cloud right now. There’s a big tug-of-war and the ridership is suffering.”
Clayton Snow, also a Jamaica resident, brought up a safety issue at the Parsons Boulevard and Hillside Avenue subway stop, where riders often have to run a block to 153rd Street to catch the Q83 bus after the auxiliary exits to the subway close at 10:30 p.m.
“It’s not safe,” he said. “Women don’t like to stand out there alone.”
Snow suggested moving the bus stop at night to Parsons Boulevard to make the connection safer. Michael Gallan, who was representing the MTA, said the agency would look into the problem.
Customer service at the Long Island Rail Road stations has also been a consistent problem, said Debbie Lassiter, a member of the advisory committee and a Hollis resident. During the Presidents’ Day blizzard, trains bypassed the Hollis station, but no one told commuters waiting in the snow that shuttle buses were available to take them to the Jamaica station, she said.
“There were no announcements,” she said. “No one came upstairs to let us know there were buses downstairs”
Nathaniel Ham, superintendent of the LIRR, apologized for the communication failure, explaining that the trains did not stop there because the outer rails are lower than the inner rails of the tracks at the Hollis station and the snow would have made moving again a problem, he said.
“If we had to stop the train there, it would have been very difficult to get it started,” Ham said.
Lassiter also pleaded her case to add an 8:20 a.m. train to the schedule in between the 8 a.m. and the 8:40 a.m. runs, but LIRR officials only said they would look at it when the schedule came up for review.
“You have to put yourself in their shoes,” said state Sen. Malcolm Smith (D-St. Albans). “Twenty minutes is the difference between getting the children up and ready for school and getting them breakfast.”
Reach reporter Courtney Dentch by e-mail at TimesLedger@aol.com, or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 138.
