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UWS Leaders Put Brakes on Hampton Jitney Pickup Spot

By Emily Frost | December 11, 2013 12:21pm
 The Hampton Jitney wants to bring a pickup location to the Upper West Side. 
The Hampton Jitney wants to bring a pickup location to the Upper West Side. 
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Flickr/Lehigh Valley, PA

UPPER WEST SIDE — Jit outta town.

An Upper West Side community board slammed a proposal Tuesday night to bring a stop for the Hamptons-bound Jitney bus to the neighborhood.

The proposed pickup spot, which would be the first on the Upper West Side, is in front of 2025 Broadway, on the west side of the street between West 69th and 70th streets. A single bus would pick up passengers there at 5:15 p.m. Monday through Friday, said Patrick Condren, a consultant for the company.

Condren said residents have been clamoring for a West Side stop for the Jitney, which mainly runs trips from the East Side to the Hamptons and other parts of Long Island.

But members of Community Board 7's transportation committee were concerned that pickups would take too long and interfere with existing city buses using the location, including the M5, M7 and M104. 

"The Hampton Jitney at the Third Avenue location [at East 86th Street] is there for many hours at a time," said Andrew Albert, co-chairman of CB7's transportation committee. 

Condren replied that the bus would tailor its arrival to the number of reservations, coming as close to 5:15 p.m. as possible if it only had a handful of passengers.

If there are more reservations, the bus would arrive at most 10 minutes early, he said.

"A worse-case scenario is 10 minutes [of loading time]," Condren said.

Resident Ian Alterman said he was concerned that the Jitney would set a bad precedent, with other bus companies also clamoring for neighborhood pickup spots.

"If you can do it, why can’t they?" he said. 

Board members said they were also hesitant to approve the stop because they hadn't gotten enough input from community members affected by the decision, including residents of The Nevada co-op and condo building next to the stop. 

"The building in front of [where] you want to have this stop could not be here tonight, and we would want to have them here," said Albert, who added the building had sent letters to the board opposing the stop. 

Representatives from The Nevada did not return a request for comment. 

Condren said the company was willing to work with residents and hear recommendations for other spots. The company will return to the community board to continue discussing the proposal in January.

"It’s a tough one up here," he said. "We’re here to listen to suggestions."