BY AIDAN GRAHAM
More than 650 scorned straphangers
signed a petition opposing
the Metropolitan Transportation
Authority’s plan to
run express F trains through
brownstone Brooklyn.
Councilman Brad Lander
(D-Park Slope) delivered the
signatures to transit head
Andy Byford at the MTA’s
monthly board meeting on
Monday — arguing that the
scheme throws commuters
living between Cobble Hill
and Windsor Terrace under
the proverbial train in an effort
to shorten ride times for
southern Brooklynites.
“The current proposal
adds no train service whatsoever.
It simply eliminates service
during rush hour at six
local stations — some of the
busiest and most used ones on
the line, stations that already
experience severe overcrowding,”
Lander said at the July
22 meeting.
The Transit Authority says
adding additional trains to
make the arrangement work
is impossible due to signal
constraints that require long
spaces in between trains.
Instead, the plan calls for
four existing local trains —
two Manhattan-bound trains
in the morning, and two Coney
Island-bound trains in
the evening — to be converted
to run express between Jay
Street-Metrotech and Church
Avenue stations during weekdays.
Between those stations,
the express F train would stop
at Seventh Avenue only, while
bypassing six other stations
in a service expected to debut
this September.
Lander said the potential
benefi t to commuters would
be minuscule, arguing that
catching the limited express
Councilman Brad Lander (D-Park Slope) delivered a petition to the MTA
with more than 650 signatures opposing the transit agency’s plan to run
express F trains through brownstone Brooklyn.
Photo by Aidan Graham
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trains would come down to
luck.
“You’d have to be like a lottery
winner — more than a lottery
winner — to get the benefi
ts,” he said. “You don’t really
know which days that you’ll
be able to save the up-to six
minutes.”
Assemblywoman Jo Anne
Simon (D-Cobble Hill) joined
Lander in criticizing the
Transit Authority at Monday’s
meeting, echoing his
claim that the MTA is not adding
service, but reducing it.
“Getting on those trains
now is next to impossible. It
will be even more diffi cult if
we are skipping two trains in
the morning, and two trains
in the afternoon,” she said.
“We should be adding service,
not reducing service — anywhere
in the system.”
Even the Transit Authority
agrees that the F express
would hurt more riders than
it would help, according to
Lander, who pointed to a 2016
study published by the MTA
that concluded 52 percent of
F THIS! Angry commuters sign petition
opposing express F train plan
riders would face longer commutes
under the new plan.
However, the Authority’s
report notes that riders who do
benefi t from the new express
service will save more time on
average — about 3.4 minutes
— as compared to other commuters,
who will only lose 1.3
minutes.
As much as Lander and Simon
opposed the new service
swap, southern Brooklyn politicians
defended the express F
train, claiming uptown straphangers
can wait the extra
minute to ensure their longsuffering
southern neighbors
get to work on time.
“We’re asking some people
in New York City to wait on a
platform for approximately a
minute more — those who live
closest to Manhattan,” said
Kalman Yeger (D-Borough
Park). “In exchange, those
who live further away will see
their commutes reduced.”
Coney Island residents, who
live on the farthest reaches of
the F line, currently travel the
longest stretch of exclusively
local service in the city — 26
uninterrupted stops between
Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue
and Broadway-Lafayette
Street, where straphangers
can transfer to express B and
D trains, which run parallel to
the F.
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