WILLIAMSBURG — If you think the looming L train shutdown will mess up your life, try living without access to Manhattan for five years.
Disabled Brooklyn residents haven't been able to reliably get across the East River for half a decade since the MTA cut to bus routes into the city.
The B39 and the B51 that disabled riders relied on to get into Manhattan were cut in 2011 because of funding crunch and haven't been ever been fully restored, stranding many Brooklyn residents who use wheelchairs or have other impairments to their mobility, they said.
“My social life has been totally crippled. I mean seriously there’s no reason for me to go out as much,” said Anthony Trocchia, 46, a disabled activist and with Disabled in Action who uses a wheelchair and is a Williamsburg resident.
Trocchia used to visit friends and run errands in Manhattan twice or three times a week before the B39 route that goes across he relied on to get into Manhattan was cut out in 2011, he said.
Following a 2010 lawsuit against the MTA, service was partially restored on the B39 but now the bus only runs about ever 45 minutes and stops running just after 9 p.m.
It used to run every 20 minutes all day long, Trocchia said.
Many disabled people don't want to risk the unpredictability of a 40-minute wait for the bus, he said. Since the B39 service was slashed he makes it into Manhattan about once a month.
Meanwhile B51 service over the Manhattan Bridge was eliminated entirely.
Milagros Franco, 39, a wheelchair user who commutes from Manhattan to downtown Brooklyn every day often wheels across the bridge because it's simpler and more reliable than coordinating an Access-A-Ride to pick her up or trusting that elevators on both sides of the bridge will be in service.
"I'm still cursing under my breath even after all this time," said Franco about the B51's elimination. "The people that were using the buses were usually elderly and disabled."
One former Williamsburg resident who uses a wheelchair, moved out of the neighborhood frustrated by the area's lack of accessibility.
"I couldn't handle it," said Jason DaSilva, 37, who now lives in Long Island City much closer to a ferry stop which he uses to get to Manhattan along with Access-A-Ride. While living on Bedford Avenue, DaSilva would wheel 20 minutes to a ferry stop, he said, the easiest way to get to Manhattan.
The MTA originally cut service to the B39 and the B51 bus routes because of low ridership during the budget crunch in the midst of the financial crisis, MTA spokesman Kevin Ortiz said.
The B51 carried about 900 customers daily and the B39 carried 1,100, compared with 12,000 customers that ride an other bus routes on average across the city, according to Ortiz.
A reinstatement of B39 service over the Williamsburg Bridge could be one of the ways that the MTA braces for a shutdown of the Canarsie Tube on the L line that connects Brooklyn and Manhattan. Service disruptions could last between 18 months and three years, according to the MTA.
"We will look at all possible options for providing alternative service during a potential shutdown of the Canarsie Tube," Ortiz said.
And there is some good news for wheelchair riders along the L line.
As part of that upgrades to the L, the MTA plans on installing elevators at Bedford Avenue and 1st Avenue in Manhattan.
Currently, L line has elevators in just four stops: 8th Avenue and Union Square in Manhattan and Myrtle-Wyckoff and Canarsie in Brooklyn.
