See you in September: X27 weekend service returns this month

Ridgeites, rejoice.

On Sunday, September 30, X27 weekend bus service between Bay Ridge and Manhattan will roll again, after a year and a half long hiatus.

The weekend buses were cancelled in 2010 when MTA New York City Transit had to make cuts because of a straitened budget, and were included in $29.5 million worth of service restorations or additions scheduled to be phased in, beginning in October, that were announced in July.

“I think this is very exciting and welcome news for the community in Bay Ridge,” remarked Assemblymember Nicole Malliotakis. “It’s something that we as elected officials and community leaders fought for.

“The express bus is a crucial means of transport for residents of Bay Ridge who wish to go to Manhattan for work or recreation,” Malliotakis added. “I am happy we were successful in getting the restoration.”

City Councilmember Vincent Gentile agreed. “Restoring weekend express bus service is something I’ve been fighting for since 2010,” he said. “In those two years, rarely has a day gone by without a constituent coming in to my office to ask when the weekend X27 would be restored.

“This is a major victory for our community,” Gentile went on. “The new MTA Chairman Joe Lhota is a Brooklyn guy so I am hoping we will continue down this path – and with the completion of the new Barclay’s Center, we can finally persuade the MTA to bring back our beloved B37 as well!”

The fight will also continue to get X28 service restored, said State Senator Marty Golden. “We fought to get this service restored for a long time,” he told this paper, adding, “The battle is not complete. We need the X28 to be fully restored.

“This will take care of the needs of our community seniors who can’t get up and down the steps,” he noted. “Families can go to pier and go shopping, and kids can go to school. It’s an important service.”

Local seniors will benefit, concurred Peter Killen, the president of the Bay Ridge chapter of AARP. Any bus, especially the X27, allows senior citizens a way of getting out of Bay Ridge and into Manhattan to go see shows, go to the movies, and to big stores, because they cannot use the R train station,” he noted. “None of the R train stations are handicapped accessible; there are no escalators, no elevators.”

The X27’s new weekend schedule will be posted on line on MTA’s website, http://mta.info/nyct/, beginning on September 23.

Also scheduled to be restored, though the date has not yet been announced, is the extension of the B64 bus into Coney Island to end at the Stillwell Avenue train station. The bus has had a shortened run — between Bay Ridge and Bensonhurst only — for the past year and a half, and residents and elected officials have advocated for the restoration of the full route since its truncation to end at Harway and 25th Avenues.