The lone hearing seeking public input on an ill-conceived MTA proposal to eliminate airport stops from the popular and successful Q33 bus route to LaGuardia went off Wednesday evening without much coherent resistance to the measure.

MTA police officers on hand to maintain order both inside and out of the Clarion Hotel’s lower level conference room doubled in number those who registered to speak.

Limited to just three minutes, I voiced strong opposition to the Q33 route alteration set for implementation the fall.

I followed two MTA public hearing gadflies who make it a hobby of appearing at these legally-mandated opportunities for members of the public to stand and speak before assembled board members and staffers.

First up was a guy known city-wide as Mr. X. Wearing sunglasses and shorts, X unleashed a hostile diatribe at the six well-dressed bureaucrats at the main table. His rambling speech exceeded the bounds of decorum but included one salient point. X mocked the MTA’s claim that the newly-created Q70 bus slated to run down the BQE and Grand Central Parkway would be a faster, more reliable ride to the airport. The MTA “staff summary” claims the Q70 will shave ten minutes off the Q33’s scheduled travel time and attract a bulk of the 33’s airport customers as a result. That potentially flawed reasoning is the basis for removing the airport from the Q33’s path.

Even if one were to accept the MTA’s shaky argument that the 70 will be a quicker way to LaGuardia for luggage-toting tourists exiting trains at Woodside and Jackson Heights, it’s impossible to defend the traumatic amputation of the Q33’s most vital quarter-mile of route given the number of people who rely on it along the way.

The Q33 has become a wildly successful mode of public transport for a mix of airport passengers and workers as well as people running errands or going to churches in the neighborhoods the bus passes through. Its success has taken years to develop.

To suddenly lop off a critical terminus because of an experimental effort with a new route that will run down a notoriously-congested highway is horribly misguided.

Unfortunately, the public who will be impacted by this change didn’t show up to voice displeasure in meaningful numbers.

There was no media that I could see, although I believe I caught a glance of Gridlock Sam when I walked in. Gene Russianoff wasn’t there. No regular riders of the Q33 besides me made their voice heard.

The hearing started at 6 PM. After five people with convoluted agendas were done speaking, the hearing officer put the meeting into “recess” at 6:16 PM. At that point, everybody looked at each other, unsure how a gathering with a 8 PM cutoff would proceed. I walked out, a bit disgusted by the indifference. And then I got on a bus. At least I said my piece.