MTA holds out hope for more buses

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The MTA might consider expanding Bx10 bus service, but no changes to the Bx20 line are likely, officials said, after local residents urged improvements to the lines commuters say are marred by long waits, overcrowding and a lack of seats.

The Bx10 line saw a 5-percent increase in its average daily ridership to 11,040 in 2015 from 10,500 in 2011, Deirdre Parker, a community relations official at the MTA, told a meeting of Community Board 8’s traffic and transportation committee on Jan. 17. The slight increase might warrant an expansion—although it would not happen right away, she said.

“We have reviewed the route again in the last quarter of 2016,” she said. “The results are being analyzed right now. If there is a need for more buses on the route, that is something that would go into effect in fall of 2017. There may be an increase, but right now we don’t have access to that data yet.”

The Bx20, meanwhile, saw its ridership decline 15 percent to 804 in 2015 from 948 in 2011, according to MTA figures. Parker said she would ask MTA experts if adding more buses to the line might be possible, but she added it would be unlikely.

“At this point… there is no plan to change that [Bx20 service],” Parker told the meeting.

The remarks came after community board’s traffic and transportation committee chairman Michael Heller invited MTA officials to address residents’ concerns about the buses’ service, following months of complaints of long waits and other problems.

A petition by local activists to improve bus service has garnered more than 1,000 signatures, said Deborah Wallace, who together with her husband, Roderick, helped organize the drive.

Wait times can reach up to 20 minutes, and buses sometimes skip stops because of overcrowding, she said. The petition, calling on the MTA to increase the number of buses on the Bx10 and Bx20 lines and to introduce better-designed buses that could accommodate more people, received support from residents of local housing co-ops, such as The Knolls, River Point Towers and The Whitehall, she said.

“The move for this drive was under service resulting in long erratic waits and overcrowding on buses sometimes to dangerous levels that threatened the elderly, the infirmed, small children and even the driver,” she said.

Another problem, according to the traffic and transportation committee chairman, is that the limited service of the Bx20 forced riders to rely on alternate routes and pay separate fares in what is known as a “two-fare zone.” Adding more buses along the line would allow commuters to ride the A train more often, which would help alleviate the crowding on the No. 1 train, Heller said.

Councilman Andrew Cohen attended the meeting and spoke out in support of increasing the number of buses on both lines.

“I would often get pictures tweeted at me of people crammed into the bus—and the bus goes right by my office,” he said. “I see people packed to the gills. And the bus service coming home in the evenings, there has to be a better way. The signatures, the community board. I think that we are all begging for some relief.”

Wallace said her group had initially sent its petition in November to the offices of Cohen, Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowtiz and state Senator Jeffrey Klein, as well as to the MTA.

The city will be adding newer buses, and older ones will eventually be phased out, the MTA’s Parker told the community board meeting.

The Bx20 runs from Broadway and Isham Street in Inwood to 246th Street and Henry Hudson Parkway and the Bx10 goes from 206th Street and Bainbridge Avenue to 263rd Street and Riverdale Avenue.

Wallace and her fellow activists will continue trying to muster support for their call to increase service, she said in an email after the meeting. The group plans to appeal to parent teacher associations, seniors, merchants and realtors, she said.

MTA, Bx10, Bx20, Deborah Wallace, Community Board 8, CB 8, Traffic and Transportation Committee, Michael Heller, Deirdre Parker, Councilman Andrew Cohen, State Senator Jeff Klein, Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz

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