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Early Addition
Well, we had a good run. Brooklyn commuters who've been enjoying a free ride on the IKEA Water Taxi that runs between Red Hook and Wall Street are going to have to make some adjustments: The Swedish retailer will be reducing hours on the service, which since June has been running every 20 minutes from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Starting October 1st, the boat will run every 40 minutes, from 1 p.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays.
Also, those free shuttle buses that run back and forth from the store to three nearby subway stops will now run only every half-hour from 1 p.m. to 10 p.m. on weekdays, a big change from their former 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. schedule, when they ran every 15 minutes. The shuttle has been a big hit with commuters, some of whom say 'IKEA who?' and use it to go to places like the local methadone clinic. A spokesman for the store says that "after Labor Day, it [use of the service] kind of tapered off in the morning."
The Daily News boarded the bus to get some riders' reactions, and they were not pleased: "I [am] ...angry ... they cut the hours for the bus. It's way better than the city bus," says Nicky Jackson, 20, who has been using the bus to get her Red Hook home. And upon hearing of the changes, 64-year-old Lillian Massed from Cobble Hill brought some perspective to the situation: "That's a hardship."
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Whiney freeloaders. What a drag.
I'm angry that a service that is being provided to me for no cost, which is better than an alternative service that I have to pay for, and which I am not supporting with any of my own money, will now be provided to me less frequently than it previously was (but still at no charge).
Waaaah fuckin' waaaah.
I was down there for the first time the other day. That parking lot is HUGE -- a sea of concrete and metal.
Green times....
www.forgotten-ny.com
tis sad. too bad. i'm glad.
The times they are a changing.
It kind of reminds me of all those freeloading jerks that sat at the Barnes and Noble bookstore on Sixth Avenue doing their research papers and not spending a dime.
I go to Ikea for the swedish meatballs in the cafeteria. You can keep the chintzy sofas.
Wait a minute...wasn't the free buses and water taxi part of what got Ikea into the neighborhood - a trade off for the traffic, etc?
It's like the developers who get to add several stories to their development (blotting out more sun in the neighborhood) in exchange for a 'public plaza'. And the public plaza is either so miniscule or unappealing or limited in it's access after it's opened.
So now, just because they don't have as much traffic as expected (their problem, not the neighborhood's), they're going to cut back.
Does Ikea need a bail-out too?
Um, during the week, the shuttle already WAS every 40 minutes. It was only every 20 minutes on the weekend (but who would be crazy enough to go to Ikea on the weekend??)
Come on people. IKEA was trying to play nice but way too many people were taking advantage of their free transport. Other than the Staten Island Ferry where else does the PA or the MTA give that kind of service?