Michelle Schimel
Member of Assembly
16th
District
Contact: Emily
Frankel ImmediateRelease
Phone: (516) 965-2204 March 8,
2010
ASSEMBLYWOMAN MICHELLE SCHIMEL PROVIDES
TESTIMONY OPPOSING MTA PROPOSED CUTS
Great Neck, New York-Assemblywoman
Michelle Schimel gave testimony concerning the proposed service cuts at the MTA
public hearing held at the Chateaubriand in Westbury on March 1. Because
Assemblywoman Schimel was in legislative session in Albany,
her words were read into the record by her Communications Coordinator Sandy
Portnoy.
Her testimony, written in response to the proposed drastic
service cuts to the Port Washington train line, were well received by the more
than 300 persons attending the meeting. In part, her testimony read as follows:
“I urge you to reconsider the proposed full service cuts to
the Port Washington line. There are two reasons that
many cite as to why they move their families to the northwest corner of Nassau:
schools and the Port Washington LIRR line. The impending loss of trains is
almost too much for my district to bear…
I ask you to review your assessment for your Port
Washington train schedule reductions. Upon reading an article in Newsday, Friday, February 22 entitled
‘LIRR Target: Costly Routes.’ It confirmed what I suspected, that Port
Washington has the highest percentage of fare covering its
operating costs at 67%...well above the Long Island
average of 44%...
I am vehemently opposed to the MTA cutting its financially
strongest branch: The Port Washington
Line. The riders in my district deserve a justification for these drastic
cuts—as my own experience shows that weekend/off-peak travel is
robust—warranting twice hourly trains...
MTA Chairman Jay Walder has stated, ‘I did not become
Chairman of the MTA to make cuts, but to improve the service that we offer. But
these proposed service cuts to the Port Washington line
say—‘To serve you better we will now be
cutting your service in half.’ Never underestimate the public and never
take them for granted. If you don’t provide the service that they have come to
count on, they will turn their back on the MTA.”
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