The Buffalo Common Council on Tuesday unanimously adopted a resolution calling on the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority to halt its recent bus service cuts.
The resolution was sponsored by Fillmore District Councilmember Mitch Nowakowski, who cited transit inequities resulting from service reductions across his district and throughout the city of Buffalo and Erie County.
The measure calls on the NFTA to restore the service cuts immediately and commit to no further service cuts. The Council is also calling on the transit agency to develop a bus driver hiring program that provides significant incentives and application assistance programs.
Nowakowski said the NFTA has benefited from recent high levels of government investment, and that it has a duty to provide continuity of service for the 93,000 people who rely on it every year.
"As of Feb. 13, the Sycamore and Genesee lines were cut and the Main, Delaware and Clinton lines were reduced, and these are just the lines affected in the Fillmore District. There are many more," Nowakowski said Friday. "Our city is growing. It is not the time to shrink services and accessibility, but develop a strategic plan for enhancing connections and transportation."
NFTA Executive Director Kimberley Minkel has been asked to testify about the service cuts at a meeting of the Erie County Legislature's Economic Development Committee meeting Thursday morning.
