Senator Krueger Joins Other East Side Elected Officials and Residents in Celebrating the Restoration of the East 50th Street Select Bus Service Stop; Calls Upon the Mta to Reconsider Drastic Crosstown Bus Cuts

For Immediate Release | June 4, 2010

Jennifer Krinsky | jenniferkrinsky@gmail.com | 212-490-9535

(New York, NY) Today, at the urging of the elected officials

representing the Manhattan neighborhoods of Turtle Bay and East

Midtown, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) and the New

York City Department of Transportation (DOT) have made a commitment to

re-instate the Select Bus Service (SBS) 49th/50th Street bus stop.

Select Bus Service, which will replace Limited Service on the M15 bus

lines which traverses up and down First and Second Avenues, will be

implemented in October of this coming year and will help to increase

travel speeds along this slow-moving corridor which is the only public

transportation option east of the Lexington Avenue subway line. The

original proposals for SBS included a stop in this neighborhood which

has a substantial elderly population.

"I am pleased today to see that the MTA and the DOT have been

receptive to my and my colleagues' requests to re-implement the

49th/50th Street Select Bus Service stop," said Senator Krueger

(D-Manhattan). "However, their commitment to our constituents in the

Turtle Bay Area must go further."

In response to its financial difficulties, the MTA has proposed a

number of service cuts, including the total elimination of the M27 bus

line, stopping evening and weekend service on the M50 bus line, and

ending service on the M104 bus line from the West Side to the United

Nations. These buses run crosstown on 42nd, 49th and 50th Streets

(with the M104 continuing uptown on the West Side of Manhattan) and

serve as the only crosstown service for this community.

"If these proposals are enacted, this would mean the complete

isolation of this community by the DOT and the MTA. We must protect

this neighborhood's residents' connection to their essential needs,"

said Senator Krueger. "Without crosstown bus service in East Midtown,

there is no alternative for travel to doctors appointments, senior

centers and cultural institutions, which are central, vital parts of

many of these constituents' lives.

"While we celebrate this victory on SBS service, we will be continuing

to work together to express this community's needs for crosstown

service. We cannot allow our constituents to be cut off from their

transportation lifelines."