Thursday, January 12, 2017

"More F Shenanigans": Some Manhattan Bound Trains To Skip Smith-9th, Carroll, and Bergen Street Stations Till January 27

oo
IMG_4971

 screen shot of MTA Service Change web page taken this morning at 8 am.

In the past few days, a "service change" notice has appeared (and disappeared) several times on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's web site concerning F train service at all three of our local Brooklyn stations.  According to the announcement,  some Manhattan-bound trains will skip the Smith-9th Street, Carroll Street and Bergen Street stations during morning rush hour and afternoon hours from Monday to Friday till January 27th.

Reader Kim made us aware of the notice a few days ago and called the service change the "latest F train shenanigans." She also concluded that this:
 "is most definitely NOT due to actual planned work. 
1) it is during rush hour when trains are running, 
2) the G would be running on the same line making stops on those same stations, so the excuse that it's "planned work" makes no sense. Is this the MTA's 1st plot to sneak in the local cuts in the new year? One has to wonder.
I am not looking forward to the ridiculous and unsafe number of people on the platform in the coming days
. "

You may remember that the MTA announced last year that it was proposing the implementation of express F train service between the Jay Street-MetroTech and Church Avenue stations (with a stop at 7th Avenue Park Slope), with half of all F trains running express each way during peak morning and evening rush hours. No new trains would be added to the line.

The express service is slated to be fully implemented in the fall of 2017. During a few weeks this past summer, the MTA already tested the changes.

The plan was met with much skepticism from Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, Boerum Hill, Red Hook and Gowanus residents, who feared that a 50% reduction in service during rush hour at their local stations would lead to severe and dangerous crowding on the platforms.

A "Don't Cut Local F" petition was circulated by a group opposing the change. This past September, the group met with City Councilman Brad Lander, State Senator Daniel Squadron, and Assemblywoman Jo Anne Simon, who pledged to fight the cuts.

Since Kim sent us the latest F train service change information and the link to the MTA web page two days ago, the notice has been taken down and put back up several times.  It was back up this morning at 8 am, so we were able to take the screen shot above.

What the MTA is up to. Either this is a legitimate service change due to "planned work" or its not.  If it is, why does the announcement keep on disappearing? Why is the G train able to use the tracks that it shares with the F train at these stations?
More likely, it is just MTA's way of getting us used to the express F train and the skipping of our stations during rush hour.

Have you noticed any F train service changes in the past few days? If so, how did this affect you?

To read the MTA Feasibility study for the F rain express service, click here.

UPDATE
I sent the information and a link to this post to State Senator Squadron's office, since he has been very vocal about the F Train express issue in the past. This afternoon, I received a response from Andrea Bender, who works for Squadron.
She writes:

Hi Katia,
Yes -- we are aware of the issues. We've had high level conversation with the MTA about this. They told us they are working on a signal near Bergen Street causing seven Manhattan-bound trains in both the AM/PM rush to run express between Church St. and Jay Street. We are monitoring the impact on the local stations closely. We're asking people to share photos and their experiences with Don't Cut Local F.
Thanks, Andrea


Photo of the F/G train platform at the Carroll Street Station
Taken January 9th by Lesley Grossman

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

As a rider who lives in South Slope off of 7th Avenue stop, this is amazing news! Thanks for the lift this morning, Katia!

Katia said...

Ha! Wait till they include your stop in the F express program.

Anonymous said...

Good afternoon.

This past Tuesday (the 10th) there was a flooding problem at West 4th Street, which caused extensive delays on the F line.

When I got to the Carroll St station at 8:05 the platform was already packed. Over the course of the next 30 minutes or so the platform became dangerously crowded.

During that period, 2 G trains, an F and inexplicably a "D" came. I finally gave up, left the station and walked to Borough Hall.

No announcements of course.

I view this as a preview of what is to come if F trains begin to bypass Carroll Street.

Express F train service will cause needless delays and dangerous overcrowding.

I cannot believe our elected officials are not doing more to prevent this unnecessary and potentially dangerous situation from happening.

Anonymous said...

This is long term (several weeks) scheduled track work that reduces ability to accommodate the normal rush hour service on the local tracks. This is why select Queens bound trains are running express only during the hours you mention seeing the service notice. Not a conspiracy or practice run for a potential F express.

Katia said...

I just posted a response from State Senator Squadron's office.

Sam said...

I'm wondering in Senator Squadron has the pull that we need as the other Senators seem to be pulling off a major coup in getting the MTA to favor the other half of the F commuters!! No results after numerous discussions...

Anonymous said...

And can you imagine what these scary crowded platforms will look like if Gowanus visionings bring dense residential development adding thousands of commuters at rush hours. Unsafe.

Anonymous said...

Are you kidding???? You seriously think the MTA is running this service change just to fuck with Carroll Gardens? Sorry but this article is so fat-free that you make GOTHAMIST look like the NY Times in comparison. The reason that some rush hour F trains will run up the express is due to a slow speed order between Bergen and Jay, due to track renewal in that area. This is also why there isn't any F service at all running through there this weekend, and F trains are being rerouted to Hoyt. It doesn't affect G service (and allows the weekend G to Coney service to run) because the switch the G line uses to connect to Bergen is just north of the platform and the G doesn't use the trackage that runs to Jay. The express track which runs under Bergen is being utilized to prevent backups during rush hour through that area. Or whatever, I'm the crazy one and there really is a conspiracy to makes your lives harder.