Bus Line Service To Be Cut
It is not yet known how many buses will be removed from service but according to budgets cited in the Times, the MTA will save an average of $250,000 per day, or a total of $1.8 million a year. The MTA said it needs to increase revenues by 3.85 percent to balance $6 billion in future deficits.
BY RICHARD GENTILVISO

Although the $2 fare has been saved, bus riders in Queens and throughout the city could be in for a longer wait during the holidays this year as the MTA is planning to reduce service.

Bus service on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Eve, New Year's Day, Martin Luther King's Birthday, Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday after Thanksgiving, one of the biggest shopping days of the year, will all be reduced according to a report in the November 30 New York Times.

The reductions will go into effect only days after a vote by the MTA executive board on December 19. "Any money we save now will save us more money later on," MTA Board Member Barry Feinstein said in the November 30 Times report.

It is not yet known how many buses will be removed from service but according to budgets cited in the Times, the MTA will save an average of $250,000 per day, or a total of $1.8 million a year. The MTA said it needs to increase revenues by 3.85 percent to balance $6 billion in future deficits.

Although service is already limited on Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day, the MTA plans further reductions. Normal weekday service schedules were used in the past on the other days; Martin Luther King's Birthday, Black Friday after Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. In 2005, a special MetroCard discount was even offered during the holidays to encourage riders.

Paul Fleuranges, an MTA spokesperson, said the reductions were not cuts in service. "It's not a service cut," he said in the November 30 Times report. "It's matching service with the number of riders we have." The MTA budget states it would provide an "intermediate level of service, sufficient to meet ridership demands" and Feinstein said the changes would not result in overcrowding.

In the past, MTA has said it would not cut service while the number of riders was growing. An estimated 3 million people ride city buses daily.

In the subways, trains are running behind schedule this year. During the morning rush hour, an average of more than 8 percent of trains did not reach the end of the line within five minutes of scheduled times.

Problems were at a peak on lines running at or near full capacity. One solution that has been proposed is to reduce slightly the number of trains for heavy-use lines at peak times. Howard H. Roberts Jr., president of New York City Transit said that if even one train was removed, it might lessen delays.

Track and other work projects were responsible for an average of 2,235 train delays a month during the one-year period that ended in September. Signal problems caused an average of 657 delays a month and holding doors open by riders caused 518 trains to be late.

On-time performance in the subways rose steadily from 1994 to 2003 but began to drop steadily since 2004.

Although the base $2 fare will not go up, unlimited-ride MetroCards will.