Express Buses Spared the Ax
MTA chairman E. Virgil Conway caught many by surprise when he requested that express bus service cuts to be voted on by the MTA board Thursday be removed from the agenda. As a result, the 11 express bus lines, worth about 5,000 fares daily, get a reprieve at least until Jan. 1, 1996. Other service cuts are scheduled to take effect Sept. 1. It's unclear whether the $7.8 million the express bus cuts would have produced will now have to be made up with more cuts elsewhere in the system. Conway told local radio that in order for the express buses to stay, they must find a way to run at a lower cost--saying "the unions must cooperate." The Straphangers Campaign's Gene Russianoff pointed out that the express buses are heavily subsidized and queried why the MTA wasn't sticking to its original plan to cut services with the lowest farebox recovery. Suggestions to privatize the service have not produced any specific plans. The last-minute move suggests some heavy duty political pressuring to preserve the buses; many credit active involvement of angry riders from neighborhoods that have supported Mayor Giuliani and Gov. Pataki. New York Times, Newsday.
