MTA finds $18M for new, restored service

The MTA has taketh, but now it giveth to tens of thousands of riders.

After slashing service in 2010, the MTA is pumping $18 million into the system to restore axed bus lines, add service to the G and M trains in burgeoning neighborhoods, and clean tracks and stations, the agency announced Monday.

This is the second year in a row that the MTA is adding service, which is expected to be implemented by the middle of 2014.

"The enhancements mean that the MTA is listening to our customers and we are trying to be responsive," said Thomas Prendergast, MTA chair and CEO.

The G train will get the funds to run trains every eight minutes during the day. M train riders will have access to Manhattan's Delancey Street-Essex Street station on weekends instead, of stopping at Myrtle Avenue in Brooklyn.

Bus lines that will be restored include the weekend M8 on 8th and 9th streets; B37 along Third Avenue; B70 to 7th Avenue; B8 to Bay Ridge-95th Street R train station; and the weekend Q31 in eastern Queens. There will also be Sunday service added to the Q77 and the M100 in Northern Manhattan will serve neighborhoods on Dyckman Street and Tenth Avenue. The service investments also entail a new Select Bus Service route and full review of bus service around Co-Op City in the Bronx.

Meanwhile, Long Island Rail Road will get $2.6 million for five new weekday trains and half-hour weekend service in both directions to Ronkonkoma and Port Washington.

The money came from cost-cutting since 2009, increased fare revenue and funding from the state.

Prendergast called the service improvements were "sustainable."

"We do not want to be in a position where we restore or add a new service today only to have to pull it back next year," he said.