Q&A
Challenges faced by public transit in serving certain routes
0:43:53
·
3 min
Council Member Brooks-Powers asks representatives from ATU and TWU about challenges in providing service on certain routes, particularly in light of the ongoing bus redesign in Queens. Alexander Kemp responds, emphasizing the need for investment in public transportation.
- Kemp argues that efforts to improve transportation should focus on public transit rather than alternative services
- He highlights issues of service cuts, modifications, and reductions leading to long wait times
- Kemp stresses the importance of highly trained, professional operators in providing reliable service
- He emphasizes the sacrifices made by transit workers, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic
- Luis Alzate adds that Queens has unique challenges due to its heavy reliance on bus service
Selvena N. Brooks-Powers
0:43:53
Mister Alsate and Mister Kemp, what are some of the challenges faced in terms of the services right now that you see in play.
0:44:03
I know in Queen's, we have the bus redesign underway.
0:44:06
So there is a unique opportunity to try to address some of these routes.
0:44:12
But what are some of the challenges that, for example, the routes that Mister Morrison just mentioned that ATU or TWU has tried to to work through, and how can the council be able to address that in light of that?
Alexander Kemp
0:44:38
Well, that's kind of the reason we're here.
0:44:41
Right?
0:44:41
That the intros kind of argue against what our ultimate argument is is that if there's going to be an effort to get better service or better transportation network, The entries should lie in public transportation that there should be an influx of resources and support in trying to get these deserts fixed because in the areas that he specified in Brooklyn, let's just say gateway, flat pushed the junction, Fulton Street, all of those areas have bus routes that run through them.
0:45:11
Whether the service has been either cut, modified, or reduced, that in essence leads to these 45 minute waits.
0:45:17
That if you have 1 bus, 2 buses, or 3 buses with a 15 minute headway, in the event, one of those buses are late.
0:45:23
You're now waiting 30 minutes.
0:45:25
When they talk about a better bus network, a better a better bus network requires operators who are highly trained, who are professionals, who meet a standard that is the highest in the country and have who and as the gentleman next to me has stated, where the dollar vans have been available to crises.
0:45:45
There has not been a day, a moment, or a minute that New York City Transit bus operators have not been available to provide service in emergencies for New York City and actually have lost our lives.
0:45:58
And New York City transit workers have lost more lives than any other agency on the planet during COVID.
0:46:04
So our sacrifices to the communities should never be overlooked or understated when it comes to protecting our work as far as it pertains to TW Local 100 and the other locals for sure.
Selvena N. Brooks-Powers
0:46:20
Miss Elsie, you have anything to add to that?
Luis Alzate
0:46:23
I mean, ATU has had experience with with what is now called micro transit and and and these band services when we lost our q 74 route in in Northern Part of Queens, and this route service was was gonna be replaced with commuter vans.
0:46:41
That's exactly the danger of such legislation that it replaces commute event service with, you know, replaces public transportation.
0:46:51
They are I I'm not here to say that we don't have our challenges when it comes to routes and when it comes to to to the schedules.
0:46:59
These challenges that as as you pointed out, we are trying to address in Queens, and and everybody understands that Queens is a unique system based on the fact that everybody depends on the bus service.
0:47:12
We have a system that only goes up to flushing trains and and into a 179 car 79th Street corridor in the hillside after that, and and solely on bus service.
0:47:22
And the the remedy to fix in the the issues that we have is not to allow health service by anybody specifically in the bus stops.