Suffolk County Transit riders, students and advocates held a press conference at the Patchogue Long Island Rail Road station this morning to call on Suffolk County’s state elected delegation to find additional funding for the county’s bus system. The group released nearly 1,500 petitions from Suffolk County residents and transit riders highlighting the broad-based support for expanding  Suffolk County Transit service. Immediately following the press conference, the participants boarded the S40 bus bound for State Senator Phil Boyle’s office in Bay Shore – their first stop on a ride to deliver the petitions to each representative in the state delegation over the next week.

The event followed a New York State budget session where Suffolk County state elected officials resolved to allocate only a fraction of the $10 million in transit operating assistance requested by  riders, advocates, businesses and workers, as well as Suffolk County Executive Steve Bellone. $500,000 in increased support was included in the final budget, which is not even sufficient to cover inflation increases from 2013. The lack of a substantial boost perpetuates the regional funding imbalance that Suffolk County Transit experiences every year. In 2013, Suffolk County contributed to over 50 percent of Suffolk County Transit’s operating budget, while New York State only contributed 35 percent to the system. In comparison, neighboring Nassau County contributes only 2 percent to the Nassau Inter-County Express operating budget while the state contributes more than 50 percent.

Students, workers and riders who depend on Suffolk County buses to access jobs, higher education and local businesses secured the petitions over a three week period. The petitions called for additional funding and expanded service, with participants in today’s press conference and bus ride pointing specifically to the need for buses to run on Sundays and later in the evenings, as their ability to work more and later hours is severely limited by bus service that ends at 7 pm on weekdays.

Suffolk County recently used a small bump in state and federal funds to launch limited Sunday bus service along 10 routes in January. Since the launch, ridership has grown exponentially. Through the end of March Sunday ridership had grown by 97 percent, allowing more people affordable access to work and to local businesses. In fact, the S40 that today’s press conference participants boarded to Bay Shore saw a 56 percent increase in Sunday ridership from January through March. Last spring, Suffolk County Transit enjoyed unprecedented service expansion thanks to a $2 million boost in funding from the State of New York. This expansion not only added substantially more service hours, but also approximately 30 additional jobs for drivers and mechanics.