Suffolk bus lines add Sunday service

Steve Edwards stepped onto a public bus in Flanders Sunday morning, not knowing it was a milestone ride.

As soon as the 50-year-old fed two dollars into the fare machine, the driver excitedly delivered the news: Suffolk Transit's S92 line was one of two on the East End starting Sunday service as part of a long-sought pilot program.

"It took, like, seven years to do this," said the driver, Jay Lefkowitz, noting the efforts of the two county legislators -- Jay Schneiderman (I-Montauk) and Edward Romaine (R-Center Moriches) -- who had just exited the bus at the previous stop.

Edwards, a school bus and taxi driver in Hampton Bays, nodded and took his seat. The advent of Sunday service could benefit many local residents, including churchgoers, retail and restaurant workers, and the businesses themselves, he said.

That's what Schneiderman, Romaine and the East End advocacy groups that supported added Sunday service through numerous political battles had in mind. The S92 is Suffolk County's heaviest-traveled summer route, with beachwear-clad residents sharing seats with immigrant laborers.

Sunday, there were no more than a dozen people riding the bus at any time through the late morning and early afternoon.

Officials surmised that many weren't aware of the new service, despite posted notices on the bus window. A county survey of nearly 600 riders this year found that 80 percent supported the proposal.

"People think of Sunday as a down day," said John Rooney, a board member of the nonprofit Five Town Rural Transit. "But out here, it's not."

Lefkowitz said he's heard stories of lower-income East End residents being gouged by taxis as they try to get to work on a Sunday. Others walk miles through villages and rural connecting roads.

Greg Browne, 26, of Hampton Bays, was riding the S92 Sunday to his job at Olympia Sports in the Bridgehampton Commons. He said he was initially angered by the 50-cent fare increase, instituted to help pay for the Sunday service, but soon realized the benefit.

"The hours could be a little bit better," Browne said, of the line that has its last bus heading east from Bridgehampton at 6:35 p.m. "But I can't complain."

The program runs through Sept. 10 with only S92 and C10 riders, not all county bus riders or residents, paying for service.

Officials said they would like to bring it back beginning Memorial Day 2012.

"The idea is to give it two years," Romaine said. "It takes that much time to build ridership."

Tara Thesing, a 22-year-old Sag Harbor resident, had never taken a county bus before, and didn't know that Sunday service was new. But on a friend's suggestion, she rode the S92 back from Hampton Bays Sunday morning.

"I've been on some awful buses," she said. "But this is clean. And it's always good to have another option."