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MTA Moving Forward With Plan For New Waterfront Bus Route

By Meredith Hoffman | December 5, 2012 12:00pm

WILLIAMSBURG — A long-requested bus route connecting the Williamsburg waterfront with Greenpoint and Long Island City is on track, MTA representatives said.

The route would begin underneath the Williamsburg Bridge by the Marcy Avenue J train station and extend to the G, 7, E and M train stations in Long Island City, according to a presentation the authority shared Monday.

The MTA, which proposed the route this July along with four other new routes in the city, plans to meet with local community boards this winter to discuss the details of the plan, the presentation noted.

"The creation of these new routes is a work in progress," MTA spokesman Charles Seaton said. "We are discussing various options with various parties, and also looking at our budget."

The proposed route runs from the Williamsburg bridge along Kent Avenue to Franklin Street in Greenpoint, and then on Green Street to McGuiness Boulevard before crossing the Pulaski Bridge and running up 11th Street in Long Island City.

And to return from Queens, the bus would travel on 21st Street to Jackson Avenue and then cross the Pulaski Bridge back on McGuiness Boulevard, Freeman Street, Franklin Street and then Wythe Avenue.

Williamsburg Community Board 1 members and residents said the neighborhood has desperately needed the route for years.

"It's great, this is what the community has been asking for since the rezoning," Community Board 1 transportation committee member Karen Nieves said, referrring to Williamsburg's 2005 rezoning to allow residential and commercial developments. "We knew that all the developments on the waterfront and that the community overall would need bus routes."

Currently the only route the area has is the B62, Nieves noted, which does not cover the waterfront.

"There's pretty much nothing on the waterfront that goes from Williamsburg to Long Island City," she said.

Seaton said economic constraints had caused the delay in additional bus service. 

"Due to severe budget issues we cut dozens of bus routes in 2010," he said. "Only last July did we propose the addition of new routes."