In his first campaign policy announcement, Mayor Michael Bloomberg proposed a series of measures to improve transportation services throughout the city including reopening shuttered Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) stations, expanding the CityTicket discount programs to weekdays and providing commuter vans to neighborhoods underserved by mass transit.
Bloomberg followed his Monday, August 3 announcement by having breakfast the next morning at the Glendale Diner with a group of community members to talk over his plan, which includes many initiatives that would help Queens transit riders.
“As our city grows, it becomes more and more important to have a system in place that is efficient, accessible and cost-effective,” Bloomberg said. “Queens residents deserve better and cheaper service.”
During the roughly 20-minute breakfast discussion, Bloomberg talked about different elements of his plan, which include displaying the time when the next subway or bus is expected to arrive, creating gateless tolls at bridges and tunnels and possibly using a light rail or street cars in Western Queens areas.
“All of this has been done other places; it’s not inventing the wheel, all you have to do is do it,” Bloomberg said.
Specifically in Queens, Bloomberg said the MTA should reopen the LIRR stations in Glendale, Richmond Hill and Elmhurst, which he said would not be a big expense since the stations are already there. He also spoke about starting a pilot program in Bayside – an area with limited mass transit options – that would involve commuter vans taking riders to stations
In addition, he wants to expand the CityTicket program to weekdays, which would benefit commuters in parts of the Rockaways, Long Island City and Hunters Point, potentially saving Queens residents who work in Manhattan nearly $200 a month in transit costs.
Meanwhile, City Comptroller and likely Democratic Mayoral nominee Bill Thompson’s campaign quickly fired off a response saying parts of Bloomberg’s plan were originally Thompson’s idea.
"This plan is full of empty promises and stolen ideas such as CityTicket which was proposed by Bill Thompson in 2006 and 2009,” Thompson’s spokesperson said in a statement. “As mayor, Bill Thompson will not only offer concrete plans to address our city’s transit issues – unlike Mike Bloomberg, he’ll actually execute them."
Former City Councilmember Tom Ognibene, who attended the breakfast and plans to run for City Council again in the 31st District in November, praised Bloomberg’s plan.
“I think it’s a great plan. We need mass transit, and nobody has really addressed the issue,” Ognibene said. “Even some simple things that he is doing right here in the community with opening up the Glendale station – the trains pass through there anyway, they can stop and pick up people.”
