Idle buses and a lack of adequate service are some of the transit problems plaguing northeast Queens, residents say.
About 25 people aired their grievances to bus, subway and LIRR officials during a town hall meeting on Thursday.
“I think we can all agree that we are under-serviced by mass transit in this district,” said State Senator Tony Avella.
Some residents said they were outraged at buses that park for as long as an hour with their engines running along the service road of the Clearview Expressway near Bayside High School.
The MTA said it would find a different location for the vehicles to park, according to Joseph Raskin, the agency’s assistant director of government and community relations.
He encouraged residents to call the MTA with the time of the incident and bus number to further curb the problem.
“We take that very seriously,” Raskin said. “We do not tolerate [drivers] leaving their busses running. We will take care of it.”
Leaders from St. George’s Church on 135th Street and 38th Avenue in Flushing said an increasing number of buses end their routes right outside the church. The vehicles, they said, were re-routed to Main Street between 38th and 39th Streets.
“We’re surrounded by buses that are idling and blocking traffic,” a church representative said.
Raskin said the move was due to the popularity of the Main Street station in Flushing. He called it “by far the largest transfer station in our whole system.”
Many commuters also argued for a free transfer from the LIRR to the subway at Penn Station.
LIRR official Bob Brennan said the agency might not be able to supply that service.
“Over 80 percent of our customers transfer to the subway,” he said. “Quite frankly, as most of you know, the MTA is on an austerity budget. Things like that cost money.”
Rider Al Matican said he wanted the MTA to implement a pilot program that would install sliding doors between platforms and rails in subway stations.
“The most important thing is saving lives,” he said. “Making the yellow lines bigger won’t stop someone from pushing you off the platform. If an elevator door was missing, it would be fixed right away.”
Raskin said the MTA was looking into the sliding doors and “a lot of different solutions to stop this from happening.”
“It’s a huge capital investment [but] it’s going to be addressed,” he said.
-BY LUKE TABET
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