BP MARKOWITZ "MOURNS" WITH STRAPHANGERS CAMPAIGN & MANHATTAN BP STRINGER AT MOCK FUNERAL FOR Z TRAIN
On Thursday, January 15, 2009, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz paid his last respects at a mock funeral for the Z train organized by the NYPIRG Straphangers Campaign and held at the Fulton Street-Broadway/Nassau subway station in Manhattan. Also participating in the event to call on lawmakers and the MTA to save the Z line in its 2009 budget were Gene Russianoff, staff attorney for the Straphangers Campaign, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer and bagpiper John Maynard.
Loss of the Z would end "skip stop" service on the J line during rush hours between Jamaica, Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan, adding an hour extra each week in commuting for many riders, according to the Straphangers Campaign. Tens of thousands of New Yorkers rely on the J and Z lines, with 78,660 riders boarding on an average daily weekday at the 22 stations that serve the J, Z and M lines in Brooklyn and Queens, according to MTA New York City Transit as of December, 2007. Another 59,178 board at two stations in Queens that serve the J, Z and E, and the Broadway Junction station in Brooklyn, which serves the J, Z, A, C and L.
"Friends, New Yorkers, straphangers--I come to praise the Z train, not to bury it. Though the Z train begins in Queens and ends in Manhattan, it is--like the J--Brooklyn to the core. When trains like the Z die, our City's economy dies with them. This is why we grieve at this mock funeral today. Let's hope these are not the Z's last rites. Long live the Z!"
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Photo credit: Mark Zustovich
In photo (left to right): Luke DePalma, transportation analyst, Brooklyn Borough President's Office; Gene Russianoff, staff attorney, Straphangers Campaign; BP Markowitz; Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer
