Claim 'Transit' Missed The Bus: Ridership Outgrew Service Gain
By ARI PAUL

The city's leading commuter advocacy organization July 8 issued a report saying that New York City Transit's bus operations have not grown at the same pace as the demand for service.

GENE RUSSIANOFF: Faults NYC Transit for crowds.

The Straphangers Campaign report stated that although average weekday ridership increased by 22 percent between 1997 and 2007, the authority's weekday bus service increased by just 15 percent.

'Haven't Caught Up'

"Crushed by crowds?" Gene Russianoff, the attorney for the group, said in a statement. "Have to wait for more than one bus to go by? It's not your imagination; transit officials have never caught up to the waves of new bus riders."

Mr. Russianoff said that the problem was particularly acute in Brooklyn, where ridership grew by 26 percent since 1997 but service increased by only 8 percent.

In a statement, NYC Transit denounced the findings as inaccurate and said that it has kept up by offering increasing service since the 1990s and instituted "unprecedented" growth in service since 2001.

"Increasing service at such a rapid pace required NYC Transit to absorb $217 million in annualized costs, including hiring 1,900 new Bus Operators and 300 Bus Maintainers," the authority said. "The fleet additions required a $1.63-billion capital investment in new buses which allowed us to virtually replace the entire bus fleet while increasing its size and diversifying the fleet through the additions of articulated and express coach buses to provide greater capacity."

NYC Transit has been gradually consolidating its workforce in the authority's bus department and its subsidiary, the Manhattan and Bronx Surface Transit Operating Authority.