MTA board member seeks service restoration

There may yet be hope of restoring some of last year's drastic MTA service cuts, and Long Island residents who were affected are lining up to press for their train line to get priority.

Metropolitan Transportation Authority board member Mitchell Pally said Thursday that if the agency's 2012 operating budget is not amended to include restoration of some of the service cuts, he will propose such an amendment when the full board votes on the budget at its Dec. 21 meeting.

Pally's plan would have the MTA use $20 million in surplus funds to restore part of the cuts, which eliminated dozens of bus routes, several Long Island Rail Road trains and two subway lines.

Pally, of Stony Brook, suggested that $14 million would go to city subways and buses, and $3 million each to the LIRR and Metro-North Railroad.

MTA spokesman Jeremy Soffin, citing "the ongoing economic crisis and the many risks to the MTA's fragile fiscal stability," said restoring service is "not something we're considering at this time."

LIRR president Helena Williams has said that while restoring some service might make some riders happy, it would be an "enormous challenge" given the MTA's uncertain fiscal state.

But Pally said the MTA should jump at the chance to make the most of a projected $179-million cash balance at the end of this year. That surplus is now intended to help offset a projected deficit next year.

"I think now is the absolute perfect time to do it," Pally said. "If we waited for fiscal certainty in these ages, we would never do it." To pass, an amendment would need eight of the MTA board's 14 votes.

If some service is brought back, West Hempstead Civic Association president Rosalie Norton thinks her community should be at the top of the list. Among the LIRR's most drastic cuts was eliminating weekend trains on the West Hempstead line.

"It certainly would be a big plus for our residents, who purposely bought their homes because of the convenience of having the train there," Norton said.

She added that several local businesses, weekend commuters and families who enjoy day trips into Manhattan have all been hurt by the cut.

Norton said she'd be happy if even a few weekend trains were brought back.

"What they did wasn't reducing service," she said. "They eliminated it."

Great Neck Village Mayor Ralph Kreitzman said he hopes restoring cuts on the busy Port Washington line will be a top priority if the LIRR has money to spend. He said the shift from half-hourly to hourly off-peak service has created a "terrible inconvenience" for commuters there.

"I've actually been told by some people that when they've missed a train by a few minutes, they have chosen to drive into the city," Kreitzman said. "Obviously, we don't need more cars on the LIE . . . If they're willing to take the railroad, it should be available to them."