MTA Threatens More Cuts to Malverne and West Hempstead

Malverne and West Hempstead residents who rely on Long Island Bus to get around may soon see their service reduced or dropped altogether.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced Wednesday morning that it is proposing the elimination of more than half of the lines on Long Island Bus and reducing weekend service on some routes.

"Nassau County's failure to provide the funds necessary to operate at current service levels is what forced us to have to consider these service reductions," MTA spokesman Kevin Ortiz told Patch.

According to the MTA, Nassau is the only county in New York, that doesn't fund the full amount necessary to operate the services provided by LI Bus after fares and state grants are collected. Ortiz explained that since 2000, the County has only contributed a portion - $9.1 million in 2010, for example - toward the budget shortfall. The rest has fallen on the shoulders of the MTA, which has contributed over $140 million since 2000 to fill the funding gaps. 

"The MTA does not fund service at all in any other county in the state including Westchester and Suffolk," Ortiz said. "This is an issue of Nassau not recognizing its obligation to fund its bus system."

This year, he says that the County's funding will fall $24 million short of what is needed to operate the current local bus and Able-Ride network, and due to MTA's fragile fiscal condition, it can no longer afford to subsidize it. 

"This is a certainly a difficult choice that we had to make," Ortiz said. "We did our best to mitigate the impact on riders by identifying low volume routes."

The proposed actions would impact 27 of 48 routes and affect about 15 percent of local bus ridership. Local routes on the chopping block include the N-31 Hempstead to Far Rockaway line which runs through both Malverne and West Hempstead via Hempstead Avenue. According to the MTA, this line had "moderate ridership," about 1,458 on an average day, and was costing them about $3.21 per passenger. (Riders would still have the N-32, which follows a similar route, but expect these buses to be more crowded if the other line is cut.)

The N-25 Lynbrook to Great Neck line, which runs through Malverne by way of Franklin Avenue, would no longer run on weekends. The MTA found that ridership on this bus line was low on Sundays, around 361 passengers.

The MTA has already halted train service on weekends and holidays to Malverne and West Hempstead, which are both on the West Hempstead branch of the Long Island Rail Road.

According to Malverne Mayor Patricia Norris McDonald, who recently spoke with MTA officials, they are looking into restoring service for holidays that fall during the week. At Wednesday's meeting of the village board of trustees, she also said that they have no plans to shut down the branch completely and hope that when their financial situation improves, they can bring back the weekend train service.

 "They know how vital it is to the community," she added.

As for the buses, McDonald and Village Trustee Michael Bailey encouraged residents to attend a public hearing that the MTA is holding on March 23 from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Hofstra University, where they will have the opportunity to voice their opinions. For more details about the hearing click here.

Bailey pointed out that the young people in the community who use the Long Island Bus service to travel to school and work would be affected by the cuts as well as those with disabilities who depend on the Able-Ride program.

According to the statement released by the MTA, "Complementary paratransit (Able-Ride) services associated with discontinued fixed route service would no longer be provided after such discontinuance; ADA-required complementary paratransit services would continue in association with remaining fixed route service."

This aspect of the proposed cuts hit a nerve with Mayor McDonald, who said, "[For] people with disabilities, that’s there only form of transportation and really form of independence...to be able to be a part of society. It's terrible.” 

"We should be able to help and take care of people less fortunate than ourselves," she added.

Ortiz said MTA's board would take all written and verbal testimony into consideration before making a decision on the proposed service reductions. They would vote on the issue on April 27 and any changes would be implemented in July.

He pointed out that the MTA has exhausted all efforts to cut costs internally,  -eliminating $16 million (about 31 percent) in administrative costs over the past 2 years - before resorting to service reductions.

"Most importantly, he said,"we are still very open to working with [Nassau] County to prevent the service reductions from happening."

Meanwhile, County Executive Ed Mangano on the issue earlier this week, promising that residents will not lose their bus service. 

“There will be bus service in Nassau County,” Mangano vowed Monday during a press conference at the  in Mineola.

The MTA has asked the county to , which county leaders have balked at. 

“For our subsidy to go from $9.1 million to $35 million in one year in this fiscal environment was just not sustainable to the taxpayers here in Nassau County,” Mangano said.

Nassau has  to operate the bus system. (The county owns both the buses and the terminal in Hempstead.) Mangano intends to approach the MTA proposal similarly to the solicited bids from the public-private partnership.

“We were happy with the MTA operating the bus service,” Mangano said. “It is the MTA that a few weeks into my administration decided that they needed an additional $[24] million to operate bus service.”

The county has received three bids from outside companies, all of which include continuing Able Ride service for disabled and handicapped riders.

Mangano intends to hold public hearings on any proposal from a private company and give residents the opportunity to weigh in on “at least” two plans, one being the MTA and the other the private option.

The county executive was “not certain” about any timetable for the county’s hearings, but hoped the committee in charge of evaluating the bids would have a decision within the next few weeks.

“[MTA's] proposal will be measured against the responses that we have received,” he said. “We have no other choice but to measure the public-private responses to operate our bus system against the MTA proposal. We intend to continue bus service.”

How will the proposed cuts and service reductions affect you? E-mail Tara.Conry@Patch.com or sound off on the comments board below.