As you might be aware, I have been fighting to get downtown service on the QM20 express bus and I am angry at the fact that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority Bus Co. wastes northeast Queens residents’ taxpayer money.
The MTA Bus Co. wastes our money by providing express bus service to and from Manhattan for residents in Westchester County on its BxM3 bus route, which runs from Westchester to Midtown Manhattan. As you might be aware, the city has an agreement with the MTA, which has the city subsidizing the MTA Bus Co., not Westchester or the city of Yonkers, where the BxM3 operates.
It is unfair that the city and northeast Queens residents are held responsible for the shortcomings of Westchester. It is also unfair that city taxpayer money, and northeast Queens residents’ money, is going to subsidize the rides of Westchester residents on the MTA Bus Co.’s BxM3 bus route.
Meanwhile, northeast Queens residents are being denied service improvements, such as downtown service on the QM20, and northeast Queens residents have to suffer by either making multiple transfers or having to drive to Fresh Meadows for direct downtown service, especially with indications that ridership is growing on northeast Queens express buses.
The resources MTA Bus uses to provide direct express bus service for Westchester residents and to take responsibility for the shortcomings of Westchester could be used to make service improvements for city residents, namely in northeast Queens, where there has been a call for a downtown branch on the QM20 express bus, which the MTA admits is a great idea and has wide community support.
I will be glad to stand with northeast Queens elected officials, civic leaders and residents to denounce this waste of our taxpayer money because it is unfair that Westchester residents get to enjoy the benefits of express bus service at the expense of the city and northeast Queens taxpayers.
The northeast Queens taxpayer is being denied service improvements which would greatly help the commutes of northeast Queens residents.
Ali Fadil
Whitestone
