Saturday, July 31, 2010

More on the M10 Bus



My friend Jan of Broadway and Me picked up on my thoughts about the M10 Bus.  She suggests that we as theatre lovers should be fighting to save the M10 bus route and wonders where is the Broadway League when we need them.  

Jan also points out that many of the regular riders in the post-theatre commuters are elderly: "Many of these folks were seniors and disabled people who found it easier to ride the bus."  

Besides just dealing with stairs, there is a walk to consider. 

The M10 bus provided easy accessibility with stops every two blocks or so along 8th Avenue within the theatre district at 44th, 46th, 49th, 52nd, and 55th streets.  

If one does take the subway from the theatre district, the options are limited for the upper west side corridor between Central Park West and Broadway - there's the B, C, D, A and the most undesirable 1 train due to it being the Broadway line and a fairly long walk from stops on Broadway.   These residential blocks from Central Park West to Amsterdam Avenue are dark and long. 

The B doesn't run on weekends or late nights.  The C is more often not running on weekends due to construction.  The D and A are express on weeknights and mostly on weekends.    The closest B or D train stops in the theatre district are at Rockefeller Center or 42nd Street.  The closest C or A train stops in the theatre district are at 50th and 8th Avenue or 42nd and 8th Avenue.   The train is often much slower in the later hours.

Personally, if it takes me longer than an hour to get home at night after theatre, I would have to re-think post-theatre drinks or even going at all since I still have a regular job to get to in the early morning.

I don't have the numbers for how many people this is affecting, but I would estimate hundreds on any given night. This translates into $1,000s of tickets for the New York Theatre economy, not to mention dinners and drinks purchased at theatre district restaurants.  Isn't it possible that if upper west side residents, particularly senior citizens, do not have a safe and convenient method of commuting from the theatre district after 11:00 p.m., they will simply decide not to go at all?

Would the MTA possibly consider limiting the M10 route within the theatre district to the hours immediately following curtain calls?   This seems that it would be more desirable than killing it all together.

Jan says, "You can tell the MTA how boneheaded the decision to cut the Theater District from the M10 route is by clicking here."

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