[Photo by Fallopia Tuba]
The M8 weekend service to and from the West Village returned on April 6 ... apparently it's not a permanent thing just yet. The M8 is one of the routes up for discussion tomorrow night.
Per the MTA:
MTA New York City Transit invites you to comment on the following proposed changes ...
M8 Weekend Service
To make permanent Saturday and Sunday service on the M8, operating between the West Village and East Village. Weekend service operates every 30 minutes between 7 am and 1 am on Saturdays and Sundays. This service was introduced on an experimental basis on April 6.
Meeting details:
Wednesday, May 14
Start Time: 5:30 p.m.
Metropolitan Transportation Authority Headquarters
347 Madison Avenue
Board Room, 5th Floor
So, you have two ways of speaking out about this. You may register online to speak at this hearing. Or, for those residents who are unable to attend, you may submit a comment online. Go HERE for more info on the meeting and to submit a comment.
Anyway, if the city would just widen these narrow side streets so that we can fit more cars on them, then we wouldn't need stupid buses. Right? Right??? (Heh.)
The weekend service was discontinued in June 2010 to help ease the MTA's $400 million financial shortfall. This route and others came back via NYC Transit's "2013-14 Service Enhancements Program."
10 comments:
What?!
Thanks for posting this. I got the impression from those signs that this was permanent now. Nowhere did the signs say "If you like this, tell us."
Off to make a comment. I don't think I can get to the meeting tomorrow. Not with such short *&^^%#x$ notice!
Good news - although I would be happier with a streetcar system.
They ran weekend service for a long time, what is there to experiment? Have demographics really changed that much that they no longer know if a weekend M8 will be useful?
LETS MAKE SOME NOISE
FIGHT FOR YER RIGHT FOR
PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION...
THINGS ARE BAD ENOUGH..
ALREADY..DONT YOU KNOW..???
There have been notices posted about the hearing in the M8 and M9 buses for a few weeks now, but it's still understandable if people missed them.
And re: Anon 4:30 PM:
Yeah, the M8 was always a 7-day bus, and a 24-hour bus. I hope people can come out for this hearing to show the MTA there's tons of support for this "new" idea. (Let them think it was their bright idea!)
Personally, I don't understand how they could justify cutting off weekend service, because it strands a lot of people who need to get crosstown. (The MTA's rationale was that the M14 was close enough and ran often enough to justify cutting it out. If people hadn't protested strenuously the entire bus would have been cut out entirely.
So let's show up in force Wednesday night; I know I will!
For what it's worth, I think it's just a formality. Any time service changes more than a certain amount are put into effect (adding or removing service) the MTA is required by law to have a public hearing.
Scuba Diva, after reading your comment, I made a point of looking this morning on the bus. There wasn't one that I could see (and the bus wasn't totally packed, although it is possible someone may have been blocking it). (I was on the west-bound that leaves 9th & A at 7:25am.) I suspect this wasn't as well-promoted as it could have been.
And, Anon @ 10:06, hope you are right. But, I'm going to try to get to the meeting, even though I already submitted a comment through their web page.
It was my understanding that the only reason the M8 bus continues to operate at all was the use by local schoolkids, and it was a BAD idea to limit it to weekday service alone, as it serves a very good option for crosstown travel. The next battle will be to have Select Service on the 1st and 2nd Aven buses to address the LONG distances between the Houston and 14 street stops on these lines.
How did the hearing go? Anybody? And yes, we need to fight to get Select Service (the former express bus service) restored to the St Mark's/9th Street stops on First and Second Aves. They basically halved our service at that stop when they decided not to give us Select Service. I have stood at those stops countless times and watched six, eight or more Select buses roll by empty before a packed to the rafters, older, rattletrap local bus pulls up. It is a disgrace and it serves our neighborhood poorly.
Wait, haven't you heard? We already have 24 hour crosstown mass transit system for the East Village. It's called CitiBike.
What, your kids can't ride those big clunkers? Or your elderly mother? And you don't have a credit card? Or a helmet? You say you can't ride a bike or refuse to ride next to speeding taxis? Well then we have another form of mass transit in the East Village, and it's free. It's called walking, and it's available 24x7. Stop complaining, and start walking. And get rid of that soda, it's bad for you.
This message brought to you by the Mayor formerly known as Bloomberg, who also decided it was a good idea for select bus service on both 1st and 2nd Avenues to just skip 8th Street altogether, since no one who takes a select bus ever needs to go there, right?
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