These cuts went way too deep, according to the New York Post.
That's the charge from three disabled straphangers who yesterday sued the MTA in Brooklyn federal court for allegedly violating the federal Americans with Disabilities Act by.
The suit demands that the transit agency undo at least 13 of the bus and Access-A-Ride service reductions made in June.
MTA officials made the cuts to help balance their 2010 budget.
The riders say they've been abandoned by the cost-saving measures and can no longer get around the city in a timely manner.
"Because people with mobility impairments rely on buses, they're stranded by the [reduction] of interborough bus lines," said Jennifer Levy, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs. "And Access-A-Ride is inadequate for a variety of reasons."
In the suit, Brooklyn resident RueZalia Watkins, who is in a wheelchair and has heart defects, lamented cuts to the B39 and the B51 between Brooklyn and Manhattan. She said the cuts left her unable to get to work.
The MTA had no comment.
(This item appeared in the New York Post Aug. 18, 2010.)
The transit workers union is escalating its war on New York City MTA Chairman Jay Walder's wealth Thursday by handing out fake vacation postcards from the south of France, according to the New York Daily News.
"Having a great time here in my summer getaway in St. Antonin Noble Val," reads the ersatz note to the city's commuters from Walder, who is relaxing at his villa in the Pyrenees.
The postcard's front depicts Walder frolicking in a suit on the beach at Cannes.
"Heard the weather's real hot and humid back in New York and that you're packed in like sardines on the trains and buses because of all the service cuts," it says.
"I'll be back in plenty of time to push through the fare hikes."
The Transport Workers Union Local 100 says it will hand out 10,000 of the counterfeit cards to embarrass Walder and whip up riders against the MTA cuts.
"Jay Walder is completely out of touch with average, everyday working New Yorkers who don't have country houses - or the unmitigated gall to take a three-week vacation in the south of France in the midst of drastic cuts," said Local 100 President John Samuelsen.
"I personally believe that transit riders are beginning to wake up and smell the coffee and realize that their mass transit has been hijacked by millionaires," he said.
Walder has been criticized for taking his $350,000 MTA salary and buying a $1.6 million upper West Side condo even as he cut 3,400 blue-collar jobs, scaled back service and promised fare hikes.
A former London transportation chief, Walder owns a country home in France, the Daily News reported last week.
The cuts and hikes are to offset MTA losses of about $900 million in expected revenues since the fall.
The MTA declined to comment on the postcard handout.
(This item appeared Aug. 18, 2010, in the Daily News.)
