“With the closing of Beach Channel High School and the MTA taking away MetroCards for students, the people of Rockaway have been left stranded,” said City Councilmember Eric Ulrich.
Ulrich, who, along with other politicians and leaders, gathered to protest the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) 2010 budget – which includes the elimination of the “W” and “Z” subway lines and charging students for MetroCards.
Additional cuts include the removal of the Rockaway/Broad Channel residents’ rebate program, which allows free passage on the Cross Bay Bridge for local residents and that dozens of local bus lines would see reduced or eliminated service during overnights and on weekends.
“Public transportation is the lifeblood of New York,” said Assemblymember Rory Lancman at the rally on Tuesday, December 22. “For many years, the MTA has been a very sloppily run organization. They have a lot of work to do internally, and that’s where they should start.”
“The legislature responded to the MTA’s demands last year and it was a bitter pill for us to swallow,” Lancman continued. “The MTA assured us it was required to save us from cuts, but now we find ourselves here today.”
The MTA says $383 billion in last-minute, cost-cutting measures, which the Board voted on last Wednesday, December 16, comes primarily as a result of $143 million in state funding cuts, $100 million in lower than expected payroll taxes and $91 million in pay raises from an arbitration with the Transit Workers Union.
“To present a balanced budget despite losing hundreds of millions of dollars in state funding over the past two weeks requires measures that are painful to the MTA, our employees and our customers,” said MTA chief financial officer Gary J. Dellaverson.
If the MTA passes the budget, the proposed elimination and service reductions on bus and subway lines would go into effect in July of 2010.
“This is a direct slap in the face to the working men and women in our community,” said Ulrich. “If you take away the bus to Jamaica Avenue, you take away access to stores on Jamaica Avenue.”
Moreover, this is exactly what worries Maria A. Thomson, executive director of the Woodhaven Business Improvement District (BID).
“We need that bus [the Q56] for stores along the avenue,” she said. “How are people going to get there to shop?”
“While we understand it is tough economic times, we’re hopeful that with increased transparency we can really examine the books, curtail wasteful spending and restore services,” said State Senator Joseph Addabbo, who noted that MTA Chairman Jay Walder himself was a student at Beach Channel High School.
Of the toll, Addabbo said, “It has really killed economic development in the Rockaways. It’s a measly toll that will not fix the MTA.”
