Notice of Public Hearings and Information on 1995 Service Reduction Proposals: MTA New York City Transit

Esoteric Resources Incorporated is pleased to present the text of this MTA New York City Transit Authority brochure which delineates the proposed cuts in service sought by the NYCTA.

We have tried to keep the brochure intact, with mild corrections to make the proposals intelligible. The order of presentation is complete, but we have changed the order of presentation to a logical format: either in order by bus route number (for buses), or geographically, within borough, north to south (for token booths). We have spelled out most abbreviations.

At the time of writing - April 7, 1995, 01:30 A.M. - there are allegations that these cuts have been incompletely presented to the public. Readers may note that no mention is made of service cuts in train service , such as fewer trains and/or longer headways. Esoteric Resources will present that information as soon as it becomes available.

Esoteric Resources Incorporated takes responsibility for any errors caused by converting this document into a Web Page. If you have any comments on that, feel free to e-mail us.

Notice of Public Hearings and Information on 1995 Service Reduction Proposals: MTA New York City Transit

MTA New York City Transit is losing much of the government funding we count on to run daily subway and bus service. To balance our budget, we have to cut costs sharply. Unfortunately, cuts in some services can't be avoided. We have prepared this brochure to outline our proposals for these reductions.

Even though fares pay for about 60% of our operations, we rely on aid from the city, the state and Washington to make up the difference. All these governments are undergoing financial crises and are slashing their subsidies. As a result, we're facing a $113 million deficit in 1995 that may grow to $340 million in 1996.

Most of NYC Transit's cost savings will come from scaling down administration and improving productivity. While some savings will come from maintenance programs, it would be unwise to put off the regular upkeep and replacement of equipment, as we were forced to do during the funding cutbacks of the 1970s and early 1980s. What we can't avoid are service reductions.

Service Proposals
Every service we provide is important to some customers, but some services are not used as heavily as others. In determining where to propose service changes, we have made every effort to be sensitive to the needs of our customers by focusing on reducing services that are less frequently used. Therefore, we believe that the following proposed service changes will minimize inconvenience for the majority of our customers.

Bus Service

Local Routes

NYC Transit operates 203 local bus routes. During the late evening, overnight and on weekends, many bus routes are not heavily used. We propose to reduce the hours of operation of 28 of these local bus routes. We propose to discontinue three lightly used bus routes that have very low ridership and very high cost per customer. In addition, we propose to restructure six bus routes by combining duplicate service patterns, shortening routes or eliminating branches of routes where the demand for service is very low.

Express Bus Service

Express bus routes operating from Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan require NYC Transit to spend at least $9.00 per customer more than each fare brings in, much more than the $1.58-per-customer subsidy for local bus routes. Due to the high cost of operation, the relatively small number of daily customers and the availability of alternative rail service, we propose to discontinue all eleven express bus routes operating from these three boroughs.

Subway Service

Subway Shuttle

NYC Transit operates three short subway shuttles. We propose to discontinue these services during late night hours, when they are used infrequently. Substitute bus service will be available for two of these routes and parallel subway and bus service is available for the other route.

Subway Stations

All subway stations have at least one token booth that is always open. Most subway stations operate additional "auxiliary" token booths and station entrances for customer convenience and to ease traffic flow during rush hours. Many of these auxiliary token booths and entrances arenot used frequently during the evening, overnight and on weekends. We propose to reduce the operating hours of 22 auxiliary token booths and entrances. In general, customers will have to walk only one or two blocks further to reach an open entrance.

We propose to permanently close the Dean Street station on the Franklin Avenue shuttle. NYC Transit remains committed to rebuilding the Franklin Avenue shuttle.

Public Hearings

For more information on these service proposals, we invite you to attend public hearings at the times and locations listed below:

At these meetings, you are invited to comment on any aspect of the proposals, providing that you register to speak. You may register until 9:00 P.M. at the hearing. Verbal presentations will be limited to three (3) minutes. The meetings will continue until all presentations are heard.

To register to speak, or for further information, contact:

All locations are accessible to the mobility-impaired. Interpreter services will be available for the hearing-impaired.

22-30-0400

The horizontal line above marks the end of the printed matter in this NYCTA handout.

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