14 TIMES • MARCH 24, 2016 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.qns.com Here’s what you need to know about the 2017 M train shutdown between Queens and Brooklyn Photo via Wikimedia Commons/Adam E. Moreira BY ROBERT POZARYCKI [email protected] @robbpoz Phase 1 of the MTA’s overhaul of the Myrtle Avenue Line in 2017 will eliminate M train service between Middle Village and Bushwick for two whole months. According to an MTA announcement on Friday, the entire segment of the line between Metropolitan Avenue and Myrtle Avenue-Broadway will need to be closed as crews demolish and replace a bridge over freight rail tracks between the Fresh Pond Road and Metropolitan Avenue stations. The work is scheduled to begin in the summer of 2017. Once that bridge is replaced, the MTA will launch Phase 2, which is demolishing and replacing the concrete viaduct linking the Myrtle Avenue Line with the Broadway Line, which carries the J/Z train, between the Myrtle Avenue- Broadway and Central Avenue stations in Bushwick. This project is expected to take 10 months to complete. The authority indicated in its press release that “this work cannot be postponed because the structures have already severely deteriorated” after decades of use. Fully repairing the Myrtle Avenue Line is especially critical to the MTA in advance of the planned long-term L train shutdown, which is required to repair the Canarsie Tube that suffered damage during Hurricane Sandy. The M line fi gures to play an important role in contingency travel plans while the L line is down. “These temporary closures are vital to the long-term viability of the M line in Brooklyn and Queens,” MTA New York City Transit President Veronique Hakim said. “We will work closely with the affected communities, their elected offi cials and other representatives to minimize the disruption and address their concerns, and we will do our utmost to complete this work as quickly as possible.” During both phases of the M train project, the MTA will reroute the M train along the J/Z line to and from Broadway Junction in Brooklyn; it will continue providing weekday service to and from 71-Continental Avenues in Forest Hills. However, peak-hour frequency of M train service will be reduced by 25 percent. To accommodate the affected commuters, J/Z trains will make all local stops between Marcy Avenue and Broadway Junction. The MTA will also increase peak-hour service on the L line. During Phase 1, free shuttle buses will replace train service on the Myrtle Avenue Line, making stops at each of the affected stations: Metropolitan Avenue, Fresh Pond Road, Forest Avenue, Seneca Avenue, Myrtle- Wyckoff Avenues (where a connection to the L train is available), Knickerbocker Avenue, Central Avenue and Myrtle Avenue-Broadway (where riders can connect to the J/Z and M trains). An express shuttle bus will also be created between Metropolitan Avenue and the Flushing Avenue station in Brooklyn, where J/Z and M train service is available. This bus will only make one stop in between these points: at the Jefferson Street L train station in Bushwick. Phase 1 will likely start in July 2017; according to the MTA, it is scheduling the work so it would not affect students traveling to and from Christ the King Regional High School, which is located near the Metropolitan Avenue stop. After Phase 1 is complete, the MTA will operate an M shuttle train between Metropolitan Avenue and Myrtle-Wyckoff Avenues, where riders can connect to the L line. Free shuttle buses will replace train service to the Knickerbocker Avenue and Central Avenue stations in Bushwick. Service is projected to be back to normal on the M line by the summer of 2018. Then the MTA will focus its attention on the L line. M-ageddon 2017 already has many local commuters wondering how they’ll get around BY ANTHONY GIUDICE [email protected] @A_GiudiceReport Residents of the greater Ridgewood area are wondering about how next summer’s reconstruction of the M line will impact their ability to travel around town. The M train is the primary mode of public transportation into Brooklyn and Manhattan for the residents of Community Board 5 (CB 5) area. The MTA will close the entire Myrtle Avenue Line between Bushwick and Middle Village for reconstruction for two months in the summer of 2017, replacing train service through the area with shuttle buses. “The M train is a lifeline for neighborhoods like Maspeth, Middle Village, Ridgewood and Glendale, where this is the only subway option available to them,” said Toby Sheppard Bloch, a member of Riders Alliance and CB 5. “When the M shuts down, the MTA needs to have alternate solutions for riders in place. This refl ects the lack of capital investments by the state and the crisis that our transportation network is facing.” “July 1, 2017, the MTA hopes to have shovels in the ground and we will have no service by train between Metropolitan Avenue and Myrtle Avenue-Broadway,” said John Maier during the March 22 CB 5 Transportation and Public Transit Services Committees joint meeting. “Once the new bridge is put in place and everything is up and running, there will be a shuttle operating basically between Metropolitan and Myrtle-Wyckoff.” This shuttle will be two, six-car train sets that will be traveling back and forth on each side of the platform since they cannot get back onto the main line until Phase 2 is complete. It will operate during the second phase of the project as the MTA reconstructs the viaduct connecting the M line with the J/Z lines in Bushwick. During the full outage of the line, the MTA wants to run an express shuttle bus along Metropolitan Avenue to compensate for the lack of train service. This will confl ict with the planned replacement of the bridge deck of the Metropolitan Avenue Bridge over the LIRR at Fresh Pond Road, causing even more travel problems for CB 5 residents The MTA’s lack of outreach about fi rst the L train shutdown and now the M train plan with the communities has caused concern with elected offi cials. “The announcement that the M train will be shut down came without the proper community engagement,” said Councilwoman Elizabeth Crowley. “Far too many of my constituents depend on the M train service and the MTA needs to put a better plan into place – one that actively involves local residents and causes the least amount of disruption.”
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