New York, NY – New York State Assemblymember Linda B. Rosenthal (D/WF, Manhattan) condemned the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) for voting to deny essential transportation services to the disabled and to abandon their subsidy of MetroCards for New York City students. The MTA cuts will also reduce or eliminate key bus lines that service Manhattan’s Upper West Side. In a unanimous vote, the MTA Finance Committee Wednesday opted to begin a budgetary process that may culminate with the elimination of these two vital programs that serve our most vulnerable New Yorkers. Following this vote, the MTA will again have to certify these cuts before they are enacted.

“I am outraged by what these cuts will do to our city’s youngest commuters. As we stand on the precipice of winter, I will not abide by a decision that will force children to walk to school in the cold, miss out on school trips, or have their education curtailed by bureaucratic decisions. This action breaks a covenant between the MTA and New York's schoolchildren that has guaranteed students free transportation as they pursue their education. As a lifelong public transit supporter, I am incensed that the MTA has resorted to this disgraceful and regressive tactic," Rosenthal stated.

“I am just as appalled that the MTA has taken the first step in cutting these vital services to the disabled,” said Rosenthal. “Disabled New Yorkers depend on Access-A-Ride for basic mobility and will be effectively trapped without it. This is an unnecessarily cruel way to save money that allows disabled riders to stay engaged in city life through millions of trips each year. Access-A-Ride helps prevent the isolation and loneliness often experienced by senior citizens and there will more of these heartbreaking incidents if the right to accessible transit is denied."

Assemblymember Rosenthal also emphasized the importance of the M10 and M20 bus lines, which run from Harlem to Penn Station, and from Lincoln Center to Battery Park City, respectively, stating, “It is shortsighted to cut these heavily utilized bus lines from such a densely populated area of New York City.”

“The elimination or curtailment of these services will inflict hardship on a broad spectrum of my constituents, including commuters, seniors, children and the disabled,” said Rosenthal. “There is still time to time to derail these cuts and I hope this terrible decision will be reversed.”