An irate bus rider went berserk and punched a driver in the face as the MTA's dreaded doomsday cuts took full effect - bewildering straphangers citywide.
Jason Ferreira, 22, of Brooklyn was ordered off a B6 bus after mouthing off to driver Gilberto Davila that the trip was taking too long.
Instead, Ferreira, who a police source said is 6-feet-2 and 205 pounds, pummeled the driver as he drove on Bay Parkway at 4:50a.m., police said.
The driver, treated at Maimonides Medical Center and released, suffered cuts, bruises and swelling.
Ferreira, who was charged with felony assault and misdemeanor menacing and harassment, was released last night on $500 bail. He has six previous arrests, police said. Four are sealed and two are for allegedly attempting to beat the subway fare.
"He's not a violent person," Ferreira's grandmother, who declined to give her name, told the Daily News. "He's always helpful to us." She said he works at a gym and is the father of a 1-year-old girl.
Although Ferreira may have resorted to violence, most straphangers settled for grumbling over the massive changes to city subway and bus service.
City Councilman James Vacca (D-Bronx) said riders didn't know if they were coming or going in Co-op City because route signs remained at bus stops while service didn't.
"There wasn't enough outreach done," Vacca charged. "There wasn't enough notice."
Riders who used to rely on the M train to get to lower Manhattan from Brooklyn were upset the train now travels uptown.
"It makes me really angry," said Norma Roberts, 35, of Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, who used to take the M to her waitress job. "It will take me longer to go home from work, which means that I might be late to pick up my kids from school."
On Staten Island, riders complained that reduced bus service left still-operating lines overcrowded. "When you're tired and coming home from work, you want a seat, but you can't get one," said John Russo, 47, who rode the X17.
Private transport operators - of uncertain legality - jumped into the void left by service cuts in many parts of the city.
Mariella Pallazo took a commuter van from eastern Queens to midtown after losing the X51 bus. It charged the same price as the bus and made fewer stops.
"I actually got into the city much quicker," Pallazo said.
Meanwhile, hundreds of laid-off Metropolitan Transportation Authority workers gathered at a transit facility in Bensonhurst to turn in their employee ID cards.
"I took this job for the better pay," Kayonne Coote, 29, of Jamaica, Queens, said tearfully. "Just when I thought everything was going right, they took it away."
Coote said she got only a week's notice she was losing her job.
John Samuelsen and other union leaders mingled with the crowd, attempting to offer comfort and dispel rumors.
"We will fight tooth and nail until everyone is back in their jobs," he said.
With Rocco Parascandola, Trevor Kapp, Sandra Ifraimova and Ryan Lavis
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