By Gabriela Resto-Montero
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
TURTLE BAY — A resident frustrated by a lack of signage explaining changes to Midtown's M50 crosstown bus service helped out this week by taping a hand-lettered note to the back of the bus shelter alerting riders that there is no weekend service.
People in that area said that since the MTA discontinued weekend and overnight service of the M50 bus line June 27, there's been a lot of confusion over the schedule.
"They've been waiting in this horrendous heat, waiting for a bus that's never going to come," said Mazal Schonfeld, a resident at Beekman Court in Turtle Bay, who said the new bus schedules put into place are not clear enough — especially for the many tourists in the area visiting the U.N.
The New York City Transit department said that on June 29 they put up signs to alert neighbors of the upcoming changes and while there aren't explicit signs still up informing riders of the shift, the updated bus schedule reflects the cuts to weekend service.
"It could be that people are not looking closely at the schedule," said Deirdre Parker, a spokeswoman for the department.
Almira Tannenbaum, 64, who relies on the bus to get across town, said that although the weekday service remains intact, the loss of the weekend M50 bus will severely impact her retail business.
"We're all going to have to take cabs," Tannenbaum, who works during the weekend, said.
Manuel Chalen, 50, a branch manager of CitiBank said the change hadn't affected his commute yet, but will soon have him rethinking his route when he starts Saturday shifts.
East Side elected officials, including Rep. Carolyn Maloney, urged MTA Chairman Jay Walder to reconsider the M50 cut, in part because of its effect on seniors who rely on the bus.
"To take away crosstown buses from Turtle Bay and the heart of Manhattan's central business district simply makes no sense," Maloney recently wrote in a letter to Walter signed by other local officials.
But the MTA said that despite the residents outrage, there was not enough money in the MTA budget to bring service back.
The M50 wasn't the only bus line to see service reductions. Overnight service to the M27 and M104 lines was also cut June 27 as part of the MTA's effort to plug up a nearly $800 million budget shortfall.
Other cuts included the elimination of the M and W Trains as well as reducing service on six other subway lines.
