Brooklyn, NY – On Sunday, the western parts of Brooklyn will celebrate 2010 by getting a new bus route. Technically, it’s the break up of the old B61 into the B61 and B62, and while some travelers will have to make a new transfer, others will find a slow and crowded route faster and less packed.
Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
“After careful study, we are dividing one long, cumbersome route into two shorter routes which will be easier to supervise and more manageable to operate,” Transit President Thomas Prendergast said in a statement this afternoon. “We made this decision in response to concerns from customers and community organizations who have long complained about this route’s lack of reliability. Both of the new services are projected to be more reliable than the single route they are replacing.”
The change, originally announced in July, will see the 9.7-mile route linking Red Hook to Queens Plaza split in Downtown Brooklyn. The B61 will run from Ikea to Smith and Livingston Sts. in Downtown Brooklyn while the B62 will run from Boerum Place and Livingston St. to Queens Plaza via the Williamsburge Bridge Plaza Bus Terminal. Transit says the new route will allow a dispatcher to better monitor the popular route.
“We recognize that there are rapidly growing new residential areas along the Williamsburg waterfront,” added Prendergast. “The B62 will also provide convenient bus and subway connections for these customers to the Williamsburg Bridge Plaza transit hub which is served by six bus routes and the Marcy Avenue subway station.”
The B61 in its current incarnation serves approximately 18,500 riders on weekdays, 10,800 on Saturdays and 7400 on Sundays. The new routing should help the bus avoid the heavy congestion in Downtown Brooklyn that often slows the bus to a crawl.
they are right to make this change but the split should have been made at the stop for LICH.