Dinowitz to MTA: ‘Leave the 9 Line Alone’

May 17, 2004

Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz has reached out to Peter S. Kalikow, the Chairman of the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA), and asked him to leave the current service of the number 9 train as is.

The MTA has been recently studying whether or not to remove the 9 line which skips certain stops as it travels down Broadway. They site a higher volume of ridership at the stops being skipped as a reason they may scrap the line. Assemblyman Dinowitz has asked them to save the money required to conduct this study, stating that the current service serves all commuters and changes would negatively affect commuters of the Bronx who would now have a longer commute if all stops were made.

In a letter to the MTA Chairman, Assemblyman Dinowitz stated, "The study to determine whether or not the number 9 train will be eliminated raises concerns to the Bronx commuters of this line. It has been my impression that there were no problems with the scheduling of trains along this line. Those who will be most affected by the elimination of the skip stops will obviously be those who live at the northern end of the line, i.e., the Bronx. This seems to be another case of correcting something that does not require correcting. If the same number of trains are going to be used, why not continue to have some trains run at a more "express" schedule where rider-ship is heavier. ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’

"In these times of fiscal troubles, it would be more efficient to save the costs of this study and let the 1/9 lines continue to run at their current schedules," concluded Dinowitz.

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