Major Queens Transportation Changes Scheduled

The citys growing shortage of funds is forecasting a series of dramatic changes of how Queens residents will travel. Plans call for a major overhaul of the citys current dual bus line operation in Queens. Non-peak hour fares on the LIRRs Queens train lines via the "City Ticket" program will be slashed. Trucks will be permitted on the citys formerly restricted parkways, and implementation of the multi-million dollar East River toll program will boost the citys faltering annual budget.
Its no longer a question of "if," just a question of "how" the boroughs two million residents face a series of four changes that will drastically alter travel from Point A to Point B.
Bus Line Takeover
The mayor, City Council and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) are currently in final negotiations over the projected takeover of five borough private bus lines that carry about a quarter of a million riders per day.
A major bone of contention is final disposition of the $100 million annual subsidy that the cash-strapped city regularly parcels out to the private bus lines.
More important to local riders will be the location of the bus stops, once the MTA takes over. Fear has been expressed that the MTA will eliminate "duplicate" bus stops whenever an MTA and former private bus line travel along similar routes. They also worry that some of the private bus companies 20 express lines that go to Manhattan will be eliminated by similarly routed MTA buses.
A concerned Councilmember John Liu, chairman of the Councils Transportation Committee, warned negotiators against shortchanging Queens riders with service cutbacks. "We cannot tolerate service cutbacks such as the elimination of bus routes or the wholesale layoffs of bus drivers whom commuters in our neighborhoods have known and depended on for so many years," he said.
Roger Toussaint, president of the Transit Workers Union Local 100, which represents 2,000 private bus drivers, maintainers and cleaners, said, "We do not want to see service sacrificed for the sake of monetary budgetary gain." He also asserted that federal law guarantees the seniority and pension rights of workers presently employed on those lines, in the event of a takeover.
Keys to the bus line takeover:
The MTA wont take over the bus lines unless they get $100 million.
Local activists are preparing to fight curtailment of services.
City Ticket
The MTAs new lower cost "City Ticket" program will effectively add 19 train stations from the underutilized LIRR to the citys mass transit system, starting after this May.
Under this pilot program, a commuter can ride on the LIRR trains to and from Manhattan, during off-peak hours, for a flat $2.50 per trip from any Queens station. Bayside residents, for example, heading for Midtown Manhattan will no longer have to grab a bus at Bell Boulevard to Main Street, and then a subway from Main Street to Manhattan. The twin icings on the cake will be a savings of a half hour of travel time, plus 33% cash savings of $1.25 per trip. Only 30,000 Queens and Brooklyn commuters per day currently use the LIRR.
"City Tickets" will also be valid in Manhattan, as long as they are used during off-peak hours.
Key to the "City Ticket" program: Since the program is approved, it will go into effect when subway fares are hiked to $2.
Trucks On
Grand Central Parkway
City transportation (DOT) engineers are fine-tuning plans that will permit trucks up to 12-foot high to use the Grand Central Parkway, between the Triborough Bridge and the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. This marks the first time that commercial vehicles have been permitted to use the citys parkway system.
The safety plan will funnel about 4,500 commercial vehicles per day from crowded and accident-prone Astoria Boulevard, onto the one-mile stretch of the wider parkway.
The move was ordered by the DOT, after studies showed that heavy truck volumes promote congestion, trigger an excessively high accident rate, as well as negatively affect local air quality.
Key to the program: Will be implemented in summer of this year.
 
 
East River Tolls
Facing a severe financial crisis, Mayor Bloomberg has issued periodic calls for tolls on the four East River bridges. Using E-Z Pass electronics, he plans to collect an estimated $800 million from motorists by 2006, and spend this revenue mostly on bridge and highway maintenance.
Although the mayor has tried to sweeten the pot by proposing lower tolls during off-peak hours, and a lower toll rate for city residents, Queens elected officials opposing the tolls have predicted the following problems:
Traffic jams at the foot of the Queensboro Bridge in Long Island City caused by drivers without E-Z Pass.
A 10% spike of riders on Queens already overcrowded subway lines.
Hazardous crossing conditions in the toll plaza for pedestrians.
Heavier-than-normal levels of carbon monoxide in Long Island City.
William Egan, spokesman for the Queens Chamber of Commerce, said that the Chamber opposed the toll plan because of the financial hardship would it impose on Queens small businesses.
Toll opponents are also fearful that the East River bridge fees are the grim forerunners of a mayoral plan to launch a boroughwide system of "congestion-priced" toll roads along the 11 parkways and expressways that run through Queens.
Keys to the program:
Location of toll plazas (there is little room in Manhattan, so it will have to be in Queens).
If there is an anticipated spike in subway ridership, where do you find room for additional passengers on the overcrowded trains and buses?
The due date for these "money raisers" is april 15, when Mayor Bloomberg must submit his budget for City Council approval . . . then the wheeling-dealing really begins.