Brooklyn Bus Cuts Protested By Pols And Advocates

DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN, NY — Transit advocates and elected officials are outraged over proposed cuts to bus service along two major Brooklyn routes and urged the MTA and Gov. Andrew Cuomo to reconsider.

Protesters gathered at Camden Plaza Thursday morning to decry service cuts on the B38 and B54 lines this fall as part of the MTA's attempt to save $7 million in expenses.

“Black and brown and poor New Yorkers depend on this system,” said Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, arguing cutting bus service would harm people who use the system “not as a luxury, but as a requirement.”

“They don’t have the luxury of just getting on their apps and calling an Uber or a Lyft,” said Adams, who is running for mayor. “I say to the governor and to Patrick Foye, no cuts to the B38, no cuts to the B54, no cuts to the bus system."

The press conference comes after MTA Chair Pat Foye suggested in August at a board meeting that bus service cuts—"service guideline adjustments,” he called them— may be on the way as part of a series of cost-containment measures in response to the agency’s operating deficit.

But advocates and politicians argued that cuts to the B38, which runs from Bushwick to Downtown Brooklyn, and B54, which runs from Downtown Brooklyn to Ridgewood via Myrtle Avenue, are not fair to bus riders who depend on those lines, and that the state agency should find new revenue streams to fund them.

“We do not want to see service cuts. We want a commitment from them that they will not cut service on the backs of bus riders,” said Riders Alliance campaign manager Stephanie Burgos-Veras.

“What we need is the governor to find a revenue source to make sure that they are filling the gap in the operating budget, because if we do not have the money to fund our subways and buses, riders cannot get around.”

Comptroller Scott Stringer, also a presumed top-tier mayoral candidate, said the B38 and B54 are “critical links” in the city’s transportation network, and that cutting bus service would be detrimental to Brooklyn’s economy.

“Nothing is more crucial to the economy and lifeblood of this city than making sure we expand our bus service,” he said. “When you cut bus service, you hurt small businesses and create loss of jobs and you also hurt the people who use the bus the most, which is working people in this city.”

“I urge the state government save to come through and say ‘Let’s save the buses.”

Bed-Stuy resident and Riders Alliance member Pedro Valdez Jr. said that the B38 bus he regularly takes is already “unreliable,” and further cuts will “mean that thousands of riders will need to spend more time” waiting for the bus putting them at risk of being late to work and appointments.

“Governor Cuomo is the only person who can change this and ensure New Yorkers have reliable and frequent bus and subway service,” he said. “We are here to call on Governor Cuomo to improve our buses and trains, not to reduce service.”