By Tien-Shun Lee
A $1 million cut in city subsidies has forced seven private bus companies, including Queens Surface Corporation and Green Bus Lines, to reduce weekend express bus service from Queens to Midtown Manhattan, starting Jan. 4.
Specifically, the Queens Surface express routes to be eliminated are the QM1 route from North Shore Towers, the QM1A route from Glen Oaks, the QM4 route from Jewel Avenue, and the QM2 route from Bayside. The QM15 Green Bus Line express route from Lindenwood is also being eliminated.
“This is something that City Hall has been grappling with,” said Lisi de Bourbon, a city Department of Transportation spokeswoman. “I’m terribly sorry for the inconvenience that people will have to go through, but we’re not the ones making decisions. We just foot the bill.”
People traveling into Manhattan on weekends can still take local bus routes, which the cuts will not affect.
Martin Burke, vice president of transportation at Queens Surface Corp., said the companies had decided to eliminate weekend express routes because they were among the most expensive to operate.
“It costs $20 per person to run (the service), and the fare is only $3. That’s one of the reasons they made the decision to eliminate the service,” said Burke. “This service cannot be operated without subsidies.”
Queens Surface Corp. currently operates about 3,000 one-way express trips per weekend. Routes run about once an hour from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.
The city gives the bus companies about $100 million worth of subsidies every year to operate in areas not covered by the subways and MTA buses, said de Bourbon. In addition, the state contributes $50 million.
The subsidized bus companies, which have been in existence since the 1970s, are Queens Surface Corp., Green Bus Lines, Command Bus Company, Jamaica Buses, Liberty Lines Express, New York Bus Service and Triboro Coach Corporation.
In addition to Queens, weekend express bus service cuts will also affect service from Brooklyn and the Bronx into Manhattan.
“We have gotten lots and lots of phone calls from people who are very unhappy about this,” said de Bourbon. “They don’t want their express service taken away. But local service will still continue. It might take them longer, but they will still be able to get into Manhattan.”
Burke pointed out that in some cases taking local bus routes, combined with subway transportation might actually be faster than express bus routes to get into Manhattan.
“Anybody that wants to go into the city on a weekend would rather take one bus than a bus and a subway, but in some cases it’s actually faster to take a local plus subway,” he said.
The elimination of express bus services will affect six employees’ jobs at Queens Surface Corp., said Burke but because of retirements the company will not have to lay off anyone.
“This is a more drastic cut than we’ve had in the past,” said Burke. “I don’t know what was in the mind of the politicians when they made this decision, but they made it and we’ll live with it.”
Reach reporter Tien-Shun Lee by e-mail at Timesledger@aol.com, or call 229-0300, Ext. 155.
