BusTalk

[Dan]

No extension to Home Depot / Target shopping center.

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S55 Bus route extension set for September.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
By MAURA YATES
ADVANCE STAFF WRITER

http://www.silive.com/news/advance/index.ssf?/base/news/1180010702256680.xml&coll=1

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The Metropolitan Transportation Authority yesterday approved the first major extension of bus service here in six years, and it's going to make a big difference in the way people get around in Rossville, Pleasant Plains, Prince's Bay and Charleston.

Timed for the start of school in September, the S55 will begin running from the current end-of-the-line on Luten Avenue in Huguenot to Arthur Kill and Bloomingdale roads, along Hylan Boulevard, Seguine Avenue, Amboy Road and Bloomingdale.

For the first time, booming, transit-starved South Shore communities will have access to a cross-island bus route west of Richmond Avenue.

Though the route extension comes on the heels of other recent transit improvements, including the addition of more limited-stop service on the North Shore, more stops on the S93 and an enhanced Staten Island Railway schedule, "this is the first real new route in a long time," said Paul Gawkowski, New York City Transit's director of bus service planning for Staten Island, Queens and Brooklyn.

When the service starts, the S55 will link to the Pleasant Plains train station and the Eltingville Transit Center, where passengers can connect to 14 other bus lines and the Staten Island Mall. Connections also will be available to the S74 and S56.

The service will be available weekdays from 6 a.m. until 7 p.m., and will be more frequent, with buses running every half-hour instead of every 40 minutes on both the S55 and S56.

An estimated 8,700 residents and 2,200 jobs are located within a quarter-mile of the new route extension, which was one of the short-term recommendations of the Mayor's Transportation Task Force.

The estimated annual price tag for the new service is $675,000, but the new connections to transit hubs are expected to boost ridership and revenue to help cover the costs.

Maura Yates covers transportation news for the Advance.


© 2007 Staten Island Advance
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