By Michael Morton
Under a Metropolitan Transit Authority plan that would take effect next year, the residents' neighborhood bus line, the Q42, would be eliminated, leaving Simmons and the others thumbing for a lift.”I would be lost without the Q42,” said the senior citizen, who uses a cane and wears a brace on her knee, making walking difficult. Simmons, a former employee of the city's Health and Hospitals Corporation said she cannot afford taxis on her fixed income and needs the bus to go shopping, get to doctors' appointments and visit friends and family. While the MTA has told her state Assemblyman William Scarborough (D-St. Albans) that the cut is a response to declining ridership on the line, Simmons said the city had a responsibility to the community, particularly its senior citizens.”It's about providing services to the tax paying residents of this city,” she said.Scarborough and City Councilman Leroy Comrie (D-St. Albans) also questioned the numbers used to justify the cut. They noted that the community had seen an influx of newcomers, including many from the Caribbean, who would need transportation.”The senior population and the work force both need seven-day-a-week, 24-hour service,” Comrie said. “The MTA must be responsible for the senior and working class community.”The MTA's New York City Transit division did not return a call by press time seeking comment.The Q42 currently runs from downtown Jamaica east along Liberty Avenue before turning south to follow 173rd Street and then 174th Street. At Sayres Avenue it turns east again and heads to 180th Street, its terminus. The Q83 and Q64 do run along St. Albans' northern – Liberty Avenue – and eastern – Farmers Boulevard – edges, while the Q4 runs down Merrick Boulevard and across Linden Boulevard, the area's western and southern periphery. But only the Q42 pierces the neighborhood's heart.The MTA already cut weekend service on the line in 2003, with Simmons and other residents left begging for rides to church, she said. Although the full elimination is still a year away, a coalition of five civic groups – the Brinkerhoff Action Association, the Addisleigh Civic Organization, the Watson Fern Polemus Block Association, the Liberty Park Homeowners Association and the Koss Organization – have begun a campaign to stop the move. So far, they have written 300 letters to the MTA and collected 2,000 signatures, with a goal of 5,000 by the fall.”Not only will eliminating the Q42 bus line create undue hardships for hundreds of senior citizens, it will devalue their property values,” Scarborough said.Reach reporter Michael Morton by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 154.
