Surprise, shocking news from New York City, as Governor Andrew Cuomo steps in at the 11th hour to change course on the highly anticipated (and dreaded) L Train closure scheduled to begin later this year.
"Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo announced on Thursday that the L train subway tunnel would not fully shut down in April as planned in what would have been one of the biggest transit disruptions in New York City’s recent history," report Emma G. Fitzimmons and Shane Goldmacher.
The L Train closure was scheduled to begin on April 27, and preparations to make up for the lost capacity were already well underway. "The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates the subway, had said the closing was necessary to repair damage from Hurricane Sandy in 2012, when the tunnel between Manhattan and Brooklyn was inundated by floodwaters," according to Fitzsimmons and Goldmacher.
Enter Governor Andrew Cuomo, who hatched a new plan with the help of a panel of experts. Under the new plan, "workers would use a different design to repair the tunnel and some work could be done on nights and weekends," according to the article. "The new plan could be completed in 15 to 20 months and means that the L train’s rush hour schedule will remain the same. Trains would still run at night and one weekends but wait times would be longer."
The methods recommended in the new plan have been deployed in Europe, but never before in the United States.
More coverage of the news is available from the Wall Street Journal (paywall), New York Post, Curbed New York, Business Insider, and Bloomberg.
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