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Hyung Jun spends 12 hours a day behind a deli counter on Manhattan's Upper East Side, selling sandwiches, salads and soup.

The 41-year-old Korean immigrant says he doesn't sit or take a break all day. So around 8 p.m., when it's time to return to his home in Flushing, Queens, Jun is exhausted. Walking, waiting or standing any more than he has to only lengthens his 1 ½ hour commute. Jun especially dreads this in the winter. "It's windier here because we're near the East River," he says.

Walking an additional two blocks when several bus stops in this Upper East Side community closed is all it took for Jun and many others to wage a protest against the Metropolitan Transit Authority. Before introducing a fleet of longer buses in January 2000, the MTA shut down all East 88th Street stops for the crosstown M86 and M31, which travels north and south on York Avenue.

The new buses are known as "articulated buses," and were introduced on the crosstown 79th and 86th street lines since January. Tested in the Bronx, these vehicles resemble a compound bus linked by a rubber accordion-like midsection. All the buses on the routes will be replaced with the articulated buses by spring 2000, and they also will be introduced on other routes throughout the city, said MTA spokesman Al O'Leary.

In the months before the longer buses' arrival, the neighborhood signed and circulated petitions against the MTA's partial shutdown of many bus stops. Community Board 8 voted unanimously in September 1999 to oppose the plan for new buses. Jun's deli joined a convenience store and a branch of Chase Manhattan bank in putting up signs in windows to protest the changes. The businesses also asked customers to sign petitions. As a result, all stops were restored, except the westbound stop at East 88th and York Avenue. Now, the crosstown M86 stops first at 91st and York, then 86th and York.

Still, the protests continue.

"This is the only stop on the crosstown route to have so many blocks between two stops," said Margaret McGlynn, who lives on York Avenue. "A lot of people have already walked a couple of blocks to get here."

Businesses near the 88th Street stop say they've been hurt, too. Jun says people waiting for the bus used to duck into his deli and grab a sandwich or bag of chips. "They don't stop by here no more," he says.

The MTA says it is feasible for riders to walk the one or two blocks to other stops. The new longer buses result in an additional 30 seconds to 1 minute of waiting time, but can transport 50 percent more people, O'Leary said.

The agency's plan calls for a 20 percent to 25 percent reduction on the number of buses on the route, but O'Leary had no specific figures on just how many buses would be affected. "We adjust routes based on the demand for service," he says. "Once people get used to the extra 30 seconds of waiting time, they'll be fine with it."