We've got their numbers: Five state senators betray a half-million straphangers
If you're among the 109,000 southern Brooklyn subway riders, be warned: your state senator, Carl Kruger, is engineering drastic fare hikes and service cuts for you.
If you're among the 123,000 southern Bronx subway riders, be warned: your senator, Ruben Diaz, is pushing you toward the same awful fate.
The More.. same is true if you're among 111,400 subway riders in Sen. Pedro Espada's central Bronx district; 78,000 in Sen. Kevin Parker's central Brooklyn district, and 56,000 in Ruth Hassell-Thompson's northern Bronx district.
Kruger, Diaz, Espada, Parker and Hassell-Thompson have emerged as the leading opponents of rescuing the MTA from collapse by imposing a tax on payrolls and tolls on the East River and Harlem River bridges.
This is the only viable plan for averting a 23% fare hike, elimination of subway and bus lines and deep subway-maintenance cuts. Gov. Paterson and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver back it because there is no choice.
Kruger, Diaz, Espada, Parker and Hassell-Thompson balk at tolls, placing the interests of a minority of drivers over the quality of life and pocketbooks of far more constituents. And none has offered a sane alternative.
They are living in a fantasyland, especially Kruger. Yesterday, he proposed a scheme that would be laughable were he not Finance Committee chairman. He'd have the state borrow billions, give the MTA a slice and put the rest in the stock market in hopes of hitting a jackpot to repay the loan. Is that how he manages his affairs?
These people need to come back to Earth.
Kruger's district, including Brighton Beach, Sheepshead Bay and Mill Basin, has 20 subway stops. He is on track to hammer 109,737 commuters.
Diaz's (Soundview, Hunts Point, Morrisania) has 20 stations, 123,651 riders; Parker's (Flatbush, East Flatbush) 11 stations, 77,920 riders; Espada's (Tremont, Kingsbridge, Bedford Park) 15 stations, 111,403 riders; Hassell-Thompson's (Wakefield, Baychester, Crotona Park), 12 stations, 56,389 riders.
That doesn't count constituents who use nearby stations in other districts, or tens of thousands of bus riders.
Far fewer residents use untolled bridges. In Espada's district, more than 70% don't even own cars.
Unless they change course, Kruger, Diaz, Espada, Parker and Hassell-Thompson will inflict huge costs and inconveniences on almost a half-million subway riders in their districts. Plus hundreds of thousands of bus riders. Plus millions more citywide.
They need to see the light.
It wasn't too long ago when we had the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Although the stakes were higher then, it would still be for a just cause... don't take your customers for suckas! 
