At least at this ‘funeral,’ mourners didn’t just wear black – they wore a wry smile or two.
But the issue is hardly a laughing matter for commuters, as well as to the elected officials and transit advocates who came out last week for a mock funeral for the M and R subway lines.
The service, which include a performance by bagpiper John Maynard, who played the somber standby “Danny Boy,” was held at the Borough Hall station, which both lines serve.
Faced with a $1.2 billion budget deficit, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is planning cuts to both lines, which both converge on Downtown Brooklyn.
“Dearly beloved, we are gathered here to ask Governor David Paterson and state legislative leaders to spare the M and the N/R lines from partial extinction by voting new state aid for the transit system,” said Gene Russianoff, staff attorney for the Straphangers Campaign, a transit riders advocacy group.
The MTA plan also calls for six stations on the R line in downtown Brooklyn and lower Manhattan to be bypassed between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. Currently, the N train serves these stations at night, but the proposal is to run the N over the Manhattan Bridge and skip the stations, according to the Straphangers. Four of affected stations would be shuttered at night and are the City Hall, Cortlandt, Rector and White Hall-South Ferry stops in Manhattan. Two of the stations are in Brooklyn, the Court and Lawrence Street stations, respectively.
Also planned is the elimination of the M train in southern Brooklyn, cutting out 16 trains during the morning rush hour and 12 trains in the afternoon rush hour, resulting in longer waits and more crowding on the R line.
The MTA admits “17,000 weekday passengers from South Brooklyn to Lower Manhattan would require an extra transfer to nearby lines and/or additional walking distance to their destination,” the Staphangers add.
“As Brooklyn’s own Woody Allen once said, ‘I don’t want to achieve immortality through my work, I want to achieve it through not dying,’” eulogized Borough President Marty Markowitz. “We know the M and the R trains feel the same way. They want to live long and productive lives, and let’s face it, Brooklyn needs them! Our growing population of Downtown Brooklyn residents needs night-time service on the R; and for the M to be denied any entry into Brooklyn–that’s a fate worse than death.”
Jeremy Soffin, an MTA spokesperson said his agency feels commuters’ pain.
“At a time where transit ridership is higher, you want to be adding service, not cutting service,” he told this paper. “Unfortunately, we have a deficit that’s over a billion dollars, so we have no choice given our limited resources to cut service and raise fares.”
He said the MTA is advocating “every day” that the state legislature implement the Ravitch funding proposal, a rescue plan drafted by former MTA chairman Richard Ravitch that could include tolls on East River bridges.
If there is no rescue, the service cuts will be phased in over the spring and summer, Soffin said. He said the cuts would have been even worse had the MTA not had the foresight to initiate a recent fare increase. “It would have been hundreds of millions of dollars worse,” he noted.
Also in attendance were State Senator Daniel Squadron, Michael Burke, the head of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership and a representative of State Assembly Member Joan Millman.
Other cuts being considered include eliminating the Z line; longer waits and more crowding on 12 subway lines; elimination of three bus routes and night service on 10 bus routes; and cutting two area routes to be cut: the B37 which serves Bay Ridge, Boerum Hill, Carroll Gardens, Downtown Brooklyn, Greenwood, Sunset Park) and B75, which rumbles through Boerum Hill, Downtown Brooklyn, Park Slope, and Carroll Gardens.
