Politics & Government

MTA Rejects Petition to Extend B68

After a petition was sent to the agency asking for extended bus service to ease commuting pain, the request was denied.

Thousands of commuters on the F and G trains have been slapped with major commuting inconveniences since the city began work on the Culver Viaduct last month.

The MTA, however, has said too bad.

In January Councilmember Brad Lander hit the agency with a to extend the B68 signed by 1,238 Brooklyn straphangers. The petition proposed that the extended service would ease the commuting pains of straphangers stranded at both 15th Street-Prospect Park and Fort Hamilton Parkway, where northbound service is suspended until May due to the rehabilitation project.

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The B68 extension would give commuters an alternative to walking to Seventh Avenue or heading southbound first in order to doubleback and catch northbound trains.

Last week, however, the agency wrote a letter to Lander and other local politicians denying the request.

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“This Valentine’s Day, the MTA has once again spurned the unrequited love of Windsor Terrace and Kensington straphangers,” said Lander in a statement. “Their rejection of the very reasonable plea from over 1,200 neighborhood residents for a modest extension of the B68 bus while the F stations at 15th Street and Fort Hamilton Parkway are closed is heartless.”

The letter to Lander states that in order to address added commuting pains due to the construction work, the MTA has added an additional B35 stop to Church Avenue and Ocean Parkway (which then heads up Church Avenue) and posted information about alternate transportation routes. The letter also notes that the agency monitored the B61, which stops at both Bartel Prichard Square and the Seventh Avenue F/G stop, but did not find a need for increased service.

As for the denial of the proposal to extend the B68, the agency argued that the extension of the B68 bus would save customers little-to-no time compared to “backriding”. According to the MTA, from Fort Hamilton “backriding” is faster, and from 15th-Street-Prospect Park the B68 would only shave one minute off of travel time.

The agency also argued that the extension would be costly, costing the MTA $375,000 for weekday service alone.

“They have inflated the estimated cost by 400 percent (by quoting a cost of $375,000 for an all-day extension, when only the morning rush-hour is needed),” said Lander. “The true cost of giving we lovers of public transit a better option during the closings: $95,000, or just 0.003 percent (that's right, three-one-thousandths of one percent) of the $275 million reconstruction project. But I guess 0.003% is too much to ask from this relationship.”

The letter, however, stated costs estimated by Lander were much lower simply because they referred to the QM16 bus, which was extended at a much lower cost due to factors such as travel time and the amount of additional trips needed.

“Sadly, like many a careless lover, the MTA believes that we'll come back tomorrow all the same,” said Lander. “And we probably will. But it is not the right way to build a long-term relationship.”


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