Has L.I. Bus been saved?

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Nassau County and state Senate Republicans, led by Sen. Charles Fuschillo of Merrick and Sen. Jack Martins of Elmont, announced an agreement last week to avert proposed cuts to the MTA’s Long Island Bus service in Floral Park, Elmont, Franklin Square, Bellerose Terrace, Bellerose Village and North Valley Stream. The cuts, which were announced nearly a month ago and were expected to affect more than half of Nassau County’s bus routes, have been postponed until January 2012, and the MTA will have to find a way to solve its budget shortfall in the meantime.

In February, the MTA announced that 100,000 daily Long Island Bus riders would face dramatic cuts in the spring, in an effort to save $26 million — the amount that MTA officials said was needed to maintain existing bus service. Long Island Bus services were expected to be cut by 56 percent, and the service reductions would have impacted nearly 16,000 riders on 27 of 48 Long Island Bus routes.

Fuschillo, who chairs the Senate’s Transportation Committee, said that several Nassau County communities would have lost bus service entirely, leaving riders who live or work in those communities no alternative transportation. “Riders are tired of hearing about problems,” Fuschillo said. “They want to hear solutions, and we were happy to finally achieve a solution.”

The MTA was scheduled to vote on service cuts at its April board meeting. However, hundreds of L.I. Bus riders attended a public hearing at Hofstra University last week to voice their concerns about the service cuts, and local officials responded.

“We have heard from many of our constituents that depend on Long Island Bus services to get to work, school or go shopping,” said Sen. Dean Skelos, the Senate’s majority leader. “They are very concerned that if these cuts go through, they will have no other way to get around. Fortunately, we were able to reach an agreement to avert the cuts and prevent any disruption in service.”