3
COURIER LIFE, APRIL 1-7, 2022
R U SERIOUS?
R train weeknight service suspended till
June, weekend outages starting soon
An R-train arriving at Atlantic Avenue-Barclays Center. File photo
BY BEN BRACHFELD
The R train is set to
see major service disruptions,
starting today and
trudging for nearly three
months.
The subway line is set to
undergo major track maintenance
work through
June. As a result, the R will
not run weeknights, from
11:45 pm to 5 am, between
59th and 95 streets in Bay
Ridge, to accommodate the
track work between Monday,
March 28 and Friday,
June 17.
To make matters worse,
the R will also shut down
between 95th and 59th
streets on weekends starting
next month, from April
16 until June 6.
The N train will still
run to 59th Street, and free
shuttle buses will make all
local R stops in the weeknight
and weekend hours
between 59th and 95th
streets, the MTA says, as
well as at 36th Street in
Sunset Park.
Seven old switches between
86th and 95th streets
will be replaced as part of
the work, said MTA Chief
of Operations Planning
Judy McClain at the MTA
Board’s NYC Transit Committee
meeting on Monday.
“These switches are at
the end of their useful life,”
McClain said. “And replacing
them will help us improve
reliability.”
But for all the pain and
turmoil historically inflicted
by the R-train upon
the residents of Bay Ridge,
it’s the only transit option
for southwestern Brooklynites
to “reliably” (soto
speak) go to-and-from
Downtown Brooklyn, Manhattan,
and Queens. And
the thousands of essential
workers on the night shift
who were most impacted
by the shutdown of overnight
service for a year
during the pandemic are
once again set to bear the
brunt of the impending
two-month shutdown of
the R.
“We’re happy to see that
money is being invested
in the future of the system.
But it shouldn’t be at
the expense of the riders,
especially our essential
workers and our nurses
who work overnight,” said
Bay Ridge Councilmember
Justin Brannan at a rally
at the 86th Street station
on Sunday. “Some people
might say, who’s riding the
train at 1, 2 o’clock in the
morning? A lot of people
are! We saw that during
COVID, a lot of essential
workers, they’re not working
9 to 5. When you and I
are asleep, the city is still
working, and these workers
need to get to and from
where they’re going safely
and reliably.”
Brannan and State Sen.
Andrew Gounardes, who
also represents Bay Ridge
R-train straphangers,
along with transit advocates,
are asking the MTA
to ensure shuttle headways
not exceed 8 minutes between
buses and that the
MTA attempt to time shuttle
bus arrivals with subway
arrivals at 59th Street
to allow for a “seamless”
commute.
“Commuters should not
be waiting on a corner out
here in the cold for 20 minutes,
25 minutes for a shuttle
bus,” Gounardes said.
McClain said at the
board meeting that on
weekends, the shuttles will
operate every two minutes
and on weekday evenings
every four minutes, but
late at night she said the
buses will only operate every
10-20 minutes.
Brannan and Gounardes
are also calling for
the installation of transitsignal
priority — wherein
traffic signals are coordi-
Continued on page 26
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