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Opinion: Join the Fight to Prevent MTA Service Cuts

March 5, 2010

By ASSEMBLYWOMAN VANESSA GIBSON

Thousands of west Bronx residents use mass transit every day and those services are vital to the quality of life we all share. Whether it is the young people traveling to school and tutorial programs or the many adults who take buses and subways to get to work, medical appointments and shopping, access to affordable public transportation is crucial to all of our families.

I am a strong supporter of the transit services our families need and have been working in the state Legislature to protect local bus and subway routes from the absolutely unacceptable cuts proposed by the management of the MTA. These cuts will cost many families hundreds of dollars a year by dismantling the existing student MetroCard program and would harm our residents by completely eliminating the BX18 bus route which travels through Morris Heights. The service cuts proposed by the MTA would also impact many west Bronx residents by reducing the number of hours of the BX32 bus route runs, eliminating the BX41 and making major changes to the Access-A-Ride program.

The elimination of student MetroCards would place a toll gate in front of the doors to our schools as many low income and working families in the west Bronx struggle to pay for the cost of access to an education for their children and I am working with my colleagues in the state Legislature to force the MTA to restore this essential program.

I was one of the first state legislators to take action to support the student MetroCard program, and three months ago, on Dec. 17, I wrote a letter to Jay Walder, the executive director of the MTA, asking him to reconsider this devastating policy. I have also introduced state legislation that would require the MTA to have a free fare student MetroCard program for our children so that the kids in the west Bronx and throughout New York City will continue to have access to the quality education they deserve.

I am taking a leading role in supporting continuation of bus service on the BX18 route as well. This bus service is crucial for residents of the Highbridge and Morris Heights communities and is an essential transit link for many families living along Sedgwick and Undercliff avenues. Without the BX18, those residents would be forced to walk along potentially hazardous streets and would be virtually cut off from more eastern portions of the south Bronx.

The MTA’s own data indicates that the BX18 has a significant number of passengers with 1,780 weekday and 1,130 weekend riders using this valuable bus service. Many of those passengers use the BX18 to get to work and eliminating this service would cause substantial hardships for them and other families in our community.

Now is the time for every resident to help in this important fight to protect bus and subway service in the west Bronx by signing one of the many petitions circulating in our community or by writing to: MTA Community Affairs, 347 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10017.

Working together we can speak with one voice in defense of the public transit services that are essential to our community. I am committed to standing up for the residents of Claremont, the Concourse, Highbridge, Mount Eden and Morris Heights and ask you to join me in the fight to restore these essential bus and transportation services to improve the quality of life in Bronx County and the State of New York.

Assemblywoman Vanessa Gibson represents the 77th Assembly District.

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