Liu: Missed Deadline A Bad Omen For Queens Bus Lines

The city’s takeover of four privately-owned Queens bus lines may be postponed again, warned Councilmember John Liu last week after yet another deadline was missed.
The acquisition of New York Bus Service, which carries passengers in Manhattan and the Bronx, was finalized last week, but the original March 26 deadline was moved back six months, invoking the ire of Liu.
“The ‘agreement in principle’ announced yesterday should have been finalized long ago,” Liu said. “Hopefully, this delay will not spread to the takeover of Triboro, Jamaica, Green, and Command bus companies (all due by April 30) since the service on those lines has fallen apart due to many previously missed deadlines.”
The takeover of the Queens companies will affect more than a quarter-million daily commuters along 33 busy routes.
A total of 110 private and public bus routes provide key links to the borough’s subway mass transit lines.
Until consolidation of services began, an estimated 290,000 riders per day used the private buses and another 350,000 used MTA buses.
In northeastern Queens, for example, 23 bus routes bring thousands of rush hour commuters to and from the Main Street subway station from an area larger than Manhattan.
Calling upon Mayor Bloomberg to meet the city’s schedules, Liu declared, “It is incumbent upon him to meet his self-imposed deadline and get the new buses on the road.”
The delays in taking over the bus companies, he explained, has also disrupted service on these three lines because of the mayor’s failure to purchase new buses to replace the aging equipment.
Jordan Barowitz, spokesperson for the mayor, said that the negotiators were “working diligently on an extremely complicated project.”
>Borough President Helen Marshall described the constant delays as “the latest chapter in a long and arduous process.”
Liu also emphasized the need for a backup plan: “If for whatever reason the April 30 deadline is going to be missed, the Mayor needs to get new buses on the road immediately.”
Affected bus lines would include: