First Weekend of L Train Slowdown Could Have Been Worse

Ali Watkins and Edgar Sandoval report from the first weekend of a partial shutdown on the L Train on the New York MTA subway system.

"The crowds? Large, but not mutinous. The annoyance levels during the inaugural weekend of the L train slowdown? Present, but predictable."

The MTA is running significantly fewer trains on the L line on nights and weekend for the next 15 to 18 months to make repairs to damage caused by Hurricane Sandy. The partial shutdown is the work of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who intervened at the 11the hour in a plan to shut down the line completely.

Now the long-awaited repair work has begun, and Watkins and Sandoval report that it all could have gone  a lot worse on the first weekend. "Despite doomsday predictions of long turnstile lines, closed station entrances and dangerously crowded platforms, the L train’s first rehab weekend went as well as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority could have hoped."

At the time of their writing, the return to regular schedules for Monday rush hour was an open question, but Stephen Nessen and Jake Offenhartz picked up where Watkins and Sandoval left off.

"On Monday at 5 a.m, L train service was supposed to return to normal after the first weekend of construction, just in time for the morning rush hour. And it did—for an hour. Then at 6 a.m. an L train with mechanical issues caused delays that rippled to Bedford Avenue, where headways jumped from 9 minutes to 24 minutes."

Still, by 6:40 am, the trains were running on schedule again. New York City Transit President Andy Byford was on hand at the Bedford Avenue and was pleased with what he saw, according to the article. Nessen and Offenhartz offer their own assessment of the weekend slowdown too, and paint a slightly less rosy picture.