Riders of the B36 bus will have to wait up to 15 minutes for a bus thanks to the MTA’s latest attempt to save money by cutting service, and locals are upset that they’ll have to stand around longer for rides they say already show up late.
“I’m not looking forward to waiting longer, especially if it’s cold out,” said Khan, a Sheepshead Bay resident who declined to give his last name. “The B36 already runs behind schedule.”
As part of service cuts that will affect 14 lines in Brooklyn, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is slashing the B36 — which runs from Sheepshead Bay through Coney Island to Sea Gate — more than any other.
Starting in April, passengers’ wait times for the bus, used by many to shuttle to the three subway stations along the route, will be up to three minutes longer, with the shortest of five minutes from 7 am to 8 am. The service reduction is expected to save the MTA $300,000 per year, according to officials. The MTA says it will be increasing service of 24 other bus routes and will add two more round-trips on the J subway line during the morning rush.
The agency says the cuts are based solely on ridership, but passengers aren’t buying that argument, claiming more would take the bus if it showed up.
“It’s late all the time,” said Marissa Gargiulo, who takes the line from Coney Island Avenue and Avenue Z to the Sheepshead Bay Road train station. “Yesterday two B36 buses just passed right by me. I was waiting for so long.”
When the Courier waited for the Nostrand Avenue-bound B36 at the corner of Coney Island Avenue and Avenue Z on Tuesday morning, two buses that were supposed to arrive seven minutes apart actually arrived 10 minutes apart. Two buses even arrived together at 9:25 — commonly known as “bus bunching” — another indication that the buses were off-schedule. Some residents complained that on some occasions they’ve waited up to a half hour to catch a bus.
Southern Brooklyn bus riders tend to have bumpy commutes, and not just the wintertime potholes that line the city streets. The B44 on Nostrand Avenue is a notoriously unreliable line, winning the Straphangers Campaign and Transportation Alternatives Schleppie Award for lateness in 2008 and 2009.
