Hope Fades for Bus Riders Left Stranded After Suffolk County Route Cuts

Despite pleas for help from the blind and disabled, students and seniors who begged Suffolk County officials not to cut eight bus lines some called their only "lifeline," as of Friday, it appeared that hope for an eleventh hour save are fading.

Suffolk County is slashing eight bus lines to close a $78 million budget gap. Friday is slated to be the last day of service for the affected routes.

Bus routes impacted are the S71, 7D/E, S35, S90, 5A, 1B, 10A and the 10D/E.

Suffolk County Legis. Al Krupski said this week that there had been no word on efforts to save some of the bus lines affected. "I haven't heard anything different," he said.

Southampton Town Supervisor Jay Schneiderman was disheartened by the fact that two recent public hearings hadn't made a difference, with the cuts still moving forward. "I'm very sad to see any retraction in public transportation, when we know we need to be expanding. It goes counter to a lot things that we are trying to do at the local and county level to promote sustainable development, reduce traffic and fossil fuels, and promote economic development."

In Southampton, he said, one reason by a new health clinic was embraced was because it was located on a soon to be defunct bus route.

"I think it's shortsighted," he said. "I understand the county is broke, but I think the approach they took was inherently unfair to the East End, because they looked at it from the standpoint of what routes were most expensive on a per passenger basis. We have more geography and less population density; that is inherently skewed against the East End."

Schneiderman said he was also disturbed to see only a few Suffolk County legislators — including Krupski, Bridget Fleming and Sarah Anker — attend the recent hearing in Riverside. "I said at the hearing, 'I hope this bus hasn't left the station," he said. "They held public hearings but they weren't interested; they'd already made their decision, which I hate, but which was probably true."

Schneiderman said he wishes he'd been asked to join the discussion; he would have proposed possibly replacing buses with some smaller vans or maybe seasonal routes, rather than just "killing" service. Scheiderman, who fought for years for Sunday and night bus service, said, "This was a giant step back."

Fleming said she's not ready to give up the fight on Friday. "I am still talking with the administration to try to find funding to keep open at least routes where people don't have any other options for getting around. But frankly, with the deadline getting so close, I don't know what can be accomplished."

That said, Fleming said, "This is not the end of it, though."

She and Suffolk County Legis. Kate Browning introduced a bill that will create a working group that includes local operators, local municipalities, transportation professionals and a representative of the bus riders' union, "to take a hard look at how we can provide this critically important service that people need while staying within difficult budgetary constraints."

The working group, Fleming said, will begin meeting very soon. "I am committed to getting this right," she said.

But for bus riders who will find themselves stranded come Monday, the answers aren't coming soon enough. One man, who asked not to be identified, said he no longer has a way to get from the 7-Eleven in Southampton to his job in North Sea. "I'll have to buy a bike," he said.

In September, in wheelchairs and with canes, the blind and physically challenged made their way with determination to the podium at the county center in Riverside, imploring the Suffolk County Legislature not to cut bus lines that some say are literal lifelines.

The hearing began with a presentation by Darnell Tyson, deputy commissioner of the Suffolk County Department of Public Works.

The proposed routes to be cut, he said, are eight of the "least used" routes that comprise two percent of the ridership. Slashing the routes would mean a savings of $4 million per year.

In some cases, alternatives might be proposed or existing routes might be altered to service affected areas.

He also outlined how many riders utilize each route, with certain routes costly: While an average ride costs the county $7.73 for one trip, some are much higher. For example, the 10 D/E, that services East Quogue and Hampton Bays, has a daily ridership of 12, with a cost of $82 per ride, he said.

And the S71, with a route that includes Stony Brook, Selden, Farmingdale, Brookhaven Town Hall, Yaphank and Mastic, has 159 riders per day, at a cost of $20 per rider, or a savings of $996,000 per year if discontinued, Tyson said.

But the cost to riders affected could prove staggering, they said: The long line of physically challenged, seniors, elected officials and students painted verbal pictures for the Legislature of the enormous toll the service cuts would take on 400 riders' lives, some of whom would be left with no transportation at all for vital doctors' appointments, trips to the pharmacy, rides to school, and visits to the supermarket and other shops. Some students said, with no way to get to college, they'd have to drop morning classes they'd already paid for, and which were required for graduation.