The New York Sun
February 23, 2004
Bloomberg Sends a Mixed Message to the MTA
Criticizes Stance on Bus Lines as Manhattan Bridge Service Resumes
David Andreatta
Mayor
Bloomberg yesterday accused the Metropolitan Transportation Authority of
shortchanging city straphangers by refusing to take over the operation of
seven franchised bus lines serving Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx.
The mayor, who was giving his weekly radio address on 1010 WINS, in the same
breath lauded the restoration of full subway service over the Manhattan Bridge
— to begin today after 18 years — and ripped into the authority for catering
to suburban commuters.
He criticized the MTA for spending $230 million on new train cars for the
Metro-North Railroad while refusing to assume the city’s $100 million expense
of operating the seven bus lines.
The seven companies — New York Bus, Liberty Lines, Command Bus, Green Bus,
Jamaica Buses, Triboro Coach, and Queens Surface — serve about 400,000 daily
riders over 82 routes in the outer boroughs.
“Unfortunately, the MTA is showing more interest in improving life for suburban
commuters than in helping these riders, and every straphanger in the city
is getting squeezed,” Mr. Bloomberg said.
He added that service aboard the buses was deteriorating, referring to last
month’s Mayor’s Management Report that found the percentage of acceptably
clean buses run by the companies plummeted 17 points to 68%.
“The MTA has resisted this idea by crying poverty, even though the cost of
running these lines would be a drop in the bucket of the MTA’s overall $8
billion annual operating budget,” the mayor said.
A spokesman for the MTA, Thomas Kelly, said the authority bought new subway
cars for New York City Transit five years ago and is now helping out Metro-North.
“In regard to the subsidy private bus issue, we agree with the mayor that
the MTA could provide better and faster service,” Mr. Kelly said. “However,
we cannot take over the private buses without the subsidy currently provided
by the city.We continue to be in discussions and hopeful the issue can be
resolved.”
In addition to the $100 million in city subsidies, the bus lines receive
about $50 million each year from the state. MTA officials have expressed
worries about the state pulling its subsidy if the authority were to bail
out the city.
If the seven lines were a single bus system, they would constitute the seventh-largest system in the country.
Gene Russianoff, lawyer for the Straphangers Campaign, a transit advocacy
group that favors an MTA takeover with continued city financial aid, accused
the mayor of playing politics.
“The irony here is the mayor isn’t defending city subway and bus riders,
he is trying to balance the city budget on the backs of them,” Mr. Russianoff
said. “Asking the MTA to take over the lines without city aid is a recipe
for service cuts and fare hikes.”
Transit Alliance, an umbrella organization for four of the bus companies,
sued the city last year for more subsidies to repair and maintain buses.
No one from the organization could be reached yesterday for comment.
The mayor’s sharp criticism of the MTA comes amid ongoing negotiations between
the city and the authority over a proposed $1.2 billion extension of the
no. 7 train to the West Side of Manhattan.
The MTA maintains the two-stop extension must be built with city funds, while
the city has reportedly asked the MTA to divert $645 million from a planned
rail link to La Guardia Airport to the no. 7 train extension.
The extension would be central to an expanded Javits Center, a New York Jets
stadium, and 28 million square feet of office space that the Bloomberg administration
envisions.
Jennifer Falk, a spokeswoman for the mayor, said his criticism of the MTA
had nothing to do with the city’s plans for the West Side.
© 2004, The Sun, One SL, LLC