The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has curtailed some of its Draconian transit cuts, including the Z train and a handful of bus lines, but now have their sights on curtailing nighttime service on Park Slope’s beloved B67, officials announced at Wednesday’s community meeting at the Brooklyn Museum.
The cash-strapped agency told fearful straphangers that it had altered the original cost-saving proposal made in December, “based on public hearings we’ve held,” said MTA spokeswoman Deirdre Parker.
“During this review process, we’ve had more time to make an efficient plan,” she added.
Since the original cut announcement last year, politicians and community members have rallied behind their particular bus and train lines, and it looks like the MTA listened a bit. Still, some cuts would be made on what the MTA calls relatively “unused bus and train lines,” to close a $383-million shortfall in the transit company’s reported 2010 budget.
Here’s a roundup of important service changes — both the ones that are no longer being considered and the ones that still are — as of Wednesday night’s meeting:
Cuts that would still be made:
Trains
• Reduced Saturday service on the D, F, G, J, M, N, Q and R trains, and reductions on Sunday for the A, D, F, G, N, Q, and R trains.
• The G would never run deeper into Queens than Court Square again, but there would be increased service on all G trains during evening hours.
Buses
• No weekend service on the X27 express from Bay Ridge to Downtown and the B24 from Williamsburg to Greenpoint. The MTA suggests that X27 riders already use the R train on weekends (since the two lines run parallel), and that the B24 has seen a decline in ridership. The MTA notes that users of the weekend B24 — which runs to east Greenpoint, up into Queens and back — could “transfer” to another bus or train, possibly referring to the B43 (which runs north and south on Manhattan Avenue) or the B48 (which runs east and west on Nassau Avenue).
• There would no longer be overnight service on the B67, which goes from Windsor Terrace, through Park Slope, to Downtown; the B64, which goes from Bay Ridge to Coney Island; and the B65, which cuts through Boerum Hill and Prospect Heights on its route between Crown Heights and Downtown.
Cuts that would not be made:
Trains
• Service on all trains will not be reduced from 20 to 30 minutes from 2 am to 5 am.
• Service will not be reduced on the A line on Saturdays.
Buses
• The B25 — which runs from DUMBO to East New York along Fulton Street — bus was taken off the chopping block after politicians complained because that line will be the only one to service Brooklyn Bridge Park, if it ever opens.
• There will be service on the B48 from Prospect Lefferts-Gardens to Greenpoint on nights and weekends.
For a full list of citywide cuts, visit www.mta.info.
