Following the Dec. 26 accident in which a Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) bus crashed into a building in Yonkers after striking two cars, Yonkers Mayor Mike Spano has called on the MTA to move its bus depot out of Yonkers and into New York City.
The bus driver who was the only person on board the bus at the time was taken to a hospital for treatment of her minor injuries. The store near the corner of Warburton and Ashburton Avenues into which the bus crashed was vacant.
“New York City’s MTA bus depot no longer belongs on the Yonkers waterfront,” Spano said. “The waterfront has changed. What was once an industrial area is now home to housing, restaurants, public spaces, and a growing downtown economy.”
The MTA’s Yonkers Depot is at 59 Babcock Place and is one of 27 MTA bus depots. On the site is an administration building, a shop for bus maintenance and repairs, and an outdoor parking lot used for storing about 80 express uses. Buses that are dispatched from the depot provide express service between Yonkers and stops in the city.
“The bus depot provides no benefit to Yonkers taxpayers,” Spano said. “Because the MTA does not pay property taxes, the city loses approximately $400,000 each year that could otherwise support essential services for residents. I am calling for the bus depot to be relocated to New York City so Yonkers can continue moving forward with the redevelopment of its waterfront and the continued growth of the city.”
For several years Yonkers has been trying to buy all or part of the bus depot site for development and to help open up the area along the Hudson River for recreational purposes.
As far back at January 10, 2020, Craig Cipriano, who at the time was acting president of the MTA Bus Company, wrote to Spano saying, “We appreciate your longstanding interest in the redevelopment of the Yonkers Depot. As we have communicated many times, we support your efforts and do not see the Yonkers Depot as an obstacle in proceeding with development. Since 2012, we have regularly met with representatives of the City of Yonkers and New York City, from whom we lease the property, regarding the waterfront development.”
Cipriano said that the Yonkers Depot is a critical part of the MTA’s bus operations infrastructure, providing six express bus routes between Yonkers or Western Bronx and Manhattan, and serving an average weekday ridership of 4,200 people.
“We service and maintain 80 buses in the depot, and have administrative facilities on site,” Cipriano said. “While we understand the intent to incorporate the 3.65 acres on which the depot sits into the overall development of the area, substantial time and expense would be needed to locate and build another site, and there would be environmental and operational impacts associated with a relocation. To be clear, any relocation of the depot would require the identification of an alternate, workable site and full funding.”
