Gentile blasts R shuttle

March 3, 2007

By Matthew Lysiak
The Brooklyn Paper

The MTA leaves Bay Ridge R-train riders stranded at rush hour by taking trains out of service, Councilman Vince Gentile fumed this week.

The Bay Ridge Democrat slammed the MTA for forcing many Bay Ridge–bound R passengers to transfer to a shuttle bus at 59th Street, where trains are taken out of service rather than continuing to 95th Street.

“The MTA has designated 59th Street as the final stop for a significant portion of Brooklyn-bound trains during peak hours,” Gentile said. “This is a major concern.

“The MTA is effectively telling riders that there is no rush hour in Bay Ridge,” added Gentile, who admitted that he did not know the exact percentage of trains that get taken out of service, but said he considered one to be one too many.

The councilman fired a letter to MTA President Lawrence Reuter on Feb. 7 demanding better service for Ridge residents, and has yet to receive a response.

An MTA spokesman said that some R trains are taken out of service at the 59th Street station, but said it only happens when the trains are coordinated.

“When the train is parked at 59th Street, it means that usually there is another train right behind it, so that passengers don’t have to wait,” said the spokesman, James Anyansi.

The Straphangers Campaign, a commuter advocacy group, agreed with Gentile’s overall assessment that the R train is underperforming.

They rank the R train in the lower third of all subway trains because it “arrives with regularity less often than the average line.” In addition, the R “breaks down more often than the average line,” the group said.

A passenger who makes the commute from Bay Ridge to Manhattan wasn’t as diplomatic in her evaluation.

“It’s slow as s—t,” said Lisa Tizzichillo. “The express is a total joke and the stop [at 59th Street] is a major inconvenience.

“The one word that comes to mind when I think of the R is, slow — slow coming, slow going, slow, slow, slow,” Tizzichillo added.