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Neighborhood News
Transportation Issues:
Two Year Battle Yields Victory – Weekend
Express Bus Service is a Reality
Bay Ridge Courier, August 5, 2002
Weekend express bus service between
southwestern Brooklyn and Manhattan is finally becoming a reality.
Marty announcing the
return of weekend express bus service to southern Brooklyn
residents.
On September 8th, after
approximately two years of campaigning, the X-27 bus, which runs
between Bay Ridge and Manhattan, and the X-28 bus, which provides
Manhattan service to residents of Sea Gate, Coney Island, Bath
Beach, Bensonhurst and Dyker Heights, will begin Saturday and Sunday
service, thanks to an infusion of $933,000 in funding, allocated by
the New York State Senate.
Buses will run every half hour,
between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m. on Saturday, and 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. on
Sunday, as part of a pilot project to supplement the service
provided by the R, N and W trains that is designed, noted
Metropolitan Transportation Authority Vice Chairperson David Mack,
“to develop the community, and make it easier for all of us to get
to and from New York.”
Standing in front of a shining new
X-27 bus, parked at the MTA’s Ulmer Park Bus Depot, at Harway Avenue
and Bay 37th Street, City Councilmember Marty
Golden celebrated the institution of the new service, which
he credited, in large part, to long-term grass roots efforts by area
residents, who collected thousands of signatures on petitions
supporting the institution of weekend service on the express buses
that serve our area.
“It was not an easy battle,”
Golden acknowledged, emphasizing the importance of offering
seven-day-a-week bus service between Brooklyn and Manhattan. It
was, however, he stressed, an important one.
“In Bay Ridge,” Golden
pointed out, “we have the highest concentration of senior citizens
in the State of New York.” “There are over 30,000 in the community,
he went on. Bringing weekend service is important for the seniors
who can’t traverse the stairs to the subway, then wait, taking one
and a half hours to get from point A to point B. Having express bus
service will give the opportunity, not only to senior citizens to go
into Manhattan and shop and go to the theater, but to all the people
in the area, who will be able to do the same.”
Manhattan Bus Service on Weekends
New York Daily News, August 1, 2002
City buses to Manhattan from several South Brooklyn communities will
make weekend trips, thanks to a subsidy of nearly $1 million from
the state Senate.
The service, which begins in September, will serve a half-dozen
communities, including Bay Ridge, Coney Island and Bensonhurst.
“This service is very important for this community,” said City
Councilman Martin Golden (R-Bay Ridge), who said he has been
lobbying for the weekend buses for five years…
…”There has been a tremendous grass-roots campaign in the community
to have this service, “ said Golden. “This institution of
service shows that when people band together for a common cause, we
are successful in getting services.”
“The greatness of Manhattan and our city is ours once again to enjoy
on the weekends.” |
