Draft of service changes leaked, revealing aspects of Cuomo’s L Train plan

Draft of service changes leaked, revealing aspects of Cuomo’s L Train plan

We’re all pretty excited that the L Train shutdown has been cancelled, but that doesn’t mean Cuomo’s plan will be completely painless. Streetsblog has obtained an early draft of planned service changes. Keep in mind that this is a draft and MTA officials, in fact, were not happy that the blog published the memo. Still, here are some potential service changes that we can expect:

• Stations at First and Third avenues will likely be reconfigured to exit-only. (“That’s just abysmal for the East Village,” said Jon Orcutt, the spokesman for TransitCenter.)
• There will be no new inter-borough bus route because such a bus will no longer be “time competitive” if the city eliminates the HOV-3 requirement on the Williamsburg Bridge, as it is expected to do.
• There will be no additional ferry service.

The overnight plan includes the same 20-minute gaps in train service, plus the following difficulties for riders:

• There will be no additional L shuttle service.
• There will be no increase in normal G service.
• There will be the aforementioned need for “metering” at L platforms at Union Square, Third Avenue, First Avenue and Bedford Avenue. If the monitoring of station crowds reveals a danger, the MTA would temporarily restrict access to the platforms.
• There will be no new bus service along 14th Street, between the boroughs, or in Brooklyn.

On weekends:

• There will be service on the M line along the Second Avenue line on the Upper East Side. The train doesn’t currently go there, but can be sent along that route so that it can turn around without affecting other lines, a source said.
• Service on the G train will run every eight minutes instead of every 10 minutes.
• There will be out-of-station MetroCard transfers between the Broadway stop on the G and the Hewes Street and Lorimer Street stops on the J and M lines. There will be similar free transfers between the Junius Street stop on the 3 train and the Livonia Avenue stop on the L.
• The MTA will provide additional service on the M14 bus to reduce waits from 12 minutes to 10 minutes. (Reminder: Under the original shutdown plan, 14th Street was slated to become a bus-only route.)
• There will be a bus shuttle from the L station at Bedford Avenue to the J and M station at Marcy Avenue

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