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A Few Clouds MTA approves service cuts to LIRR, Long Island Bus
Plan cuts two trains on Long Beach Branch
Oceanside and Island Park commuters can soon wave goodbye to two rush hour trains on the Long Beach Branch of the Long Island Rail Road.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority's board voted on March 24 to make its proposed service cuts official. The Long Beach branch, which includes stops in Oceanside and Island Park, will lose its 6:09 a.m. westbound train beginning Sept. 13 and its 5:40 p.m. eastbound train departing from Atlantic Terminal beginning May 17.
Board members approved a plan to cut back service throughout all of the LIRR’s 11 branches as well eliminate a number of Long Island Bus routes.
The board said it heard more than 500 people at its nine public hearings, and received 7,100 e-mails and 110,000 letters and signed petitions.
"The extent of our deficit requires that most of the cuts move ahead, but we listened to our customers and made changes where we could," MTA Chairman and CEO Jay Walder said in a statement. "We were able to take a number of cuts off the table, but, unfortunately, many of the cuts moving ahead will be painful."
To fill a nearly $800 million budget shortfall for 2010, the MTA proposed major cuts across the board that will include laying off personnel, consolidating functions, reducing overtime costs and wiping out some services. The service reductions will save $93 million a year, according to the MTA.
Other changes included the elimination of a number of trains on the LIRR's Babylon and West Hempstead branches. Two of Babylon's eastbound rush-hour trains were combined, while weekend service on the West Hempstead Branch was eliminated.
According to MTA projections, the agency will save about $1.58 million by implementing these changes at the three branches, which will affect about 2,230 daily riders.
Among the routes that will be affected by service cuts and reductions to Long Island Bus are the N1 Travel Path, which serves Valley Stream; the N2, which serves Elmont and Valley Stream; the N3, which serves Elmont, Franklin Square, Malverne and Valley Stream; the N14 and N17, which affect Rockville Centre; the N53 Merrick shuttle; and the N65 and N66, which affect East Rockaway, Lynbrook, Malverne and West Hempstead.
