So! How have you been "processing" the MTA's "doomsday" service changes, which were finally implemented yesterday? Taking it like a man non-gender specific human, or finally giving up on life? While most of us were grumbling along in the standard New Yorker "Unbelievable!" default position, police say one B6 bus rider, Jason Ferreira, 22, of Brooklyn, let his fists do the bitching.
After complaining to driver Gilberto Davila that the bus ride was taking too long, Ferreira, 6-feet-2 and 205 pounds, started punching the driver in the face as he drove on Bay Parkway at 4:50 a.m., police sources tell the Daily News. Davila sustained cuts, bruises and swelling, while Ferreria was charged with felony assault and misdemeanor menacing and harassment. He has six previous arrests, including two for allegedly attempting to beat the subway fare. Of course his grandmother, straight out of Central Casting, tells the News, "He's not a violent person. He's always helpful to us."
Other commuters simply seethed at the new, sometimes confusing, changes. Straphanger Sara Sommers, who missed a business meeting because she took two different M trains (thinking it was running along its old route), tells the Post, "It was like Groundhog Day. Only when I got out of the station to get a cab did someone hand me a flier with an explanation." And Gene Russianoff at the Straphangers Campaign says his group found "significant confusion and contradictory signs."
While it was reported yesterday that NYC Transit would be running fewer trains during weekdays because of budget cuts, spokesman Paul Fleuranges emailed us to explain that this was simply not the case. Here's his full statement:
There seems to be some confusion as to whether there will be fewer trains and longer waits for subway service during off peak and evenings during the weekday as a result of the reductions implemented this weekend. Let me try to set the record straight: the only reductions to subway service that went into effect that entail longer waits are on weekends to accommodate for construction work. But as we have said, this is really a change to reflect the amount of service we can run given the amount of work on the system scheduled for the weekend. In other words, the changes are just a reflection of what's happening out there already. The same was done on the IRT years ago.
During the weekday schedule there are no reductions in frequencies. There are plans to tweak the schedule in December when we institute the 125% seated load guidelines, but again those weekday changes (1, 7, A, F, L) will not happen until December as we informed the Board in a Staff Summary submitted in the June Transit Committee agenda last week.
As for the service changes implemented over the weekend:
This weekend, MTA NYC Transit implemented major service reductions on bus and subway lines affecting hundreds of thousands of riders across the city. Riders are advised to consult posted signage and www.mta.info/nyct for more information, or plan their trips by using Trip Planner @ www.tripplanner.mta.info.
These reductions, while painful to our riders who will be inconvenienced, and severe for those employees who will be removed from service as a result, are nonetheless necessary to generate $93 million dollars in savings that are part of a larger effort to help close an $800 million dollar deficit. This deficit was caused by cuts in direct operating assistance and precipitous declines in dedicated taxes and other revenues that fund our operating budget."
In addition to these service reductions, we have taken steps to reduce our expenses and change the way we do business to generate savings by eliminating projects and other costs from our budget, renegotiating contracts with vendors, reducing administrative head count by 15% and managing the use of over-time. Taken together, these steps will help to reduce our deficit but more work can and must be done to cut costs while ensuring that we make every dollar count as we continue to provide safe, reliable transportation to millions of riders daily.
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