THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK
OFFICE OF COMMUNICATIONS
CITY HALL
NEW YORK, NY 10007
(212) 788-7116

For Immediate Release
Release # 020-2010

March 2, 2010

New York City, March 2, 2010 - Today Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn and Transportation Committee Chair James Vacca, along with Gene Russianoff of Straphangers, Paul Steely White of Transportation Alternatives and Bobbie Sackman of the Council of Senior Centers and Services, delivered over 40,000 petitions to MTA Headquarters protesting extensive service reductions and programming cuts to New York City's transit system. The Speaker, Council Members and advocates urged commuters to attend the MTA's public hearings which commence today and let the transit agency know that New Yorkers will not stand for devastating cuts to its public transportation system. Representatives from WE ACT, the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, and UPROSE/Students for Transportation Justice were also in attendance.

"Over the last three months, I have heard from New Yorkers across the City that they are simply fed up with paying more and more for transit service and getting less and less in return," said Speaker Quinn. "These 40,000 petitions represent just a microcosm of commuters that oppose these severe cuts, cuts which New York City Transit President Tom Prendergast described as the worst he has seen in his 35 years of service. We call on all New Yorkers to attend the MTA's public hearings this week and let them know how these cuts will impact their daily lives."

"People across our city have been galvanized by these cuts as never before, and even the MTA admits that thousands of New Yorkers would be left stranded," said Transportation Chair Vacca. "There's something wrong when an agency is willing to go ahead with a plan that is so clearly flawed, where students would get cut off from the schools of their choice and millions of riders would experience more crowding, longer waits, and reduced service overall. What these petitions show is that straphangers refuse to sit idly by and watch the dismemberment of one of the greatest transportation systems in the world."

Facing a $400 million deficit, the MTA is threatening to phase out student MetroCards, scale back Access-A-Ride, eliminate the W and M subway lines, and reduce service on a dozen other subway lines and over 50 local and express bus routes.

Since these service reductions were announced by the MTA in December, Council Members and advocates have crisscrossed the city educating commuters about the deep service cuts the MTA is expected to make in communities across the City. They collected petitions against the cuts from commuters at subway stations, bus stops, senior centers, and on the City Council's website.

Starting Tuesday, the MTA will hold five public hearings in New York City on the service cuts, one in each borough. Hearings will take place Tuesday in Queens and Staten Island, Wednesday in the Bronx and Brooklyn, and Thursday in Manhattan. All hearings start at 6 p.m. Anyone wishing to speak is encouraged to pre-register on http://www.mta.info, where they can also find detailed information about hearing locations.

Speaker Quinn, Transportation Chair Vacca, the Straphangers Campaign, and numerous other advocacy groups have called on the MTA to avoid "doomsday" cuts by reallocating up to $140 million of federal stimulus dollars and pay-as-you-go capital funding to its operating budget. This strategy is expressly authorized by the federal government and has already been implemented in large metropolitan areas across the country, including Chicago, Atlanta, and Seattle.

"These are the worst transit cuts I've seen in 30 years of fighting for subway and bus riders," said Gene Russianoff, staff attorney for NYPIRG's Straphangers Campaign. "If you cannot attend the public MTA hearings, please go to www.straphangers.org and submit written testimony."

"If anyone in Albany is wise and listening, then they'll hear the growing wave of anger and anxiety stirring among New York City's transit riders," said Paul Steely White, Executive Director of Transportation Alternatives. "There are no easy outs here, but what we all agree on is that the MTA budget should not be balanced on the backs of straphangers, or the backpacks of school children."

"These petitions prove that New Yorkers want their voices heard about the hardships of the proposed service cuts," says Veronica Vanterpool, Associate Director of Tri-State Transportation Campaign. "All affected transit users should speak at the MTA hearings this week."

"Access-A-Ride serves the growing NYC older adult population ensuring, as required by the American with Disabilities Act, that they have affordable and accessible transportation," said Bobbie Sackman, Director of Public Policy at the Council of Senior Centers and Services. "Transportation can be the difference between being independent or being homebound. The proposed cuts in Access-a-Ride services could doom older New Yorkers to imprisonment in their homes. We are pleased to work with Speaker Christine Quinn and City Council to make sure that this doesn't happen."

"The proposed cuts in MTA service and the Student MetroCards, and the proposed fare increase, are issues that have galvanized hundreds of young people we work with in Sunset Park and New York City," said Joaquin Sanchez Jr. of UPROSE/Students for Transportation Justice. "We understand the MTA, the city and state are undergoing a fiscal crisis and that these decisions are difficult to make. However, disinvesting in the young people and low-income families of New York City, the most vulnerable of this city's population, as a short-term remedy will have a long-term adverse impact beyond measure."

Photo by William Alatriste