Have you spent years of shit weekend L preparing for the slowdown after all ?: Gothamist

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If the first hours of the L train slowdown were marked by excessive waiting times and overcrowding, on Saturday afternoon, the MTA had almost fully recovered. As promised, trains ran about every 20 minutes between Brooklyn and Manhattan. The wharves were chaotic, but not overwhelming, and New Yorkers helped each other to find other ways to get where they needed to go. It's almost as if years of shitty weekend train service have prepared us for this moment.

"The L-train had already had problems before, I'm a bit used to it," said Rod Stevenson, Belt Tieer, at Gothamist as he was returning to Union Square to return home to his home, at the same time. 39, Jefferson Avenue Station. Stevenson pointed to weekend work periods in years when the L was completely closed or his hours were irregular.

"It's a price to pay, but it's better than closing it [entirely] and causing even more problems, "Stevenson said of the delays. I am happy that they have found another route to follow. "

From 8th Avenue to Lorimer, MTA employees surveyed platforms by handing out documentation and shouting instructions for runners to fall into the horns. "It adds a human element that screens or panels can not give you," said an MTA employee. "This kiosk right here is not going to give you real-time information like I can."

Outside of the Bedford Avenue stop, where two-way trains share a single lane and where runners must navigate a maze of barricades and construction fences, New York City Transit President Andy Byford was watching what he thought would be the most important. crowd of the day, from 16h to 18 hours "Up to here, everything is fine", he commented evaluated the first 20 hours of the slowdown.

Byford said it was crucial to maintain the 20-night weekend interborough L-train weekend (only 10 minutes for Brooklyn trains), "the other sign of success for me is that people have definitely migrated to other services – we ". We have seen an increase in the number of users on the M line. "

The head of the metro has attributed to a single train poorly scheduled late Friday night. "This has slightly unbalanced the system.We think we have just identified the fix, but in any case we have a lot of staff, including myself, to provide people with real-time information." (This sentence, "real-time information," seems to be a favorite of MTA employees.)

Byford council to people considering taking the L train? Perhaps consider not taking the L train.

"If you can avoid line L and use one of the alternative routes, the J, the M, the G, the 7, the buses that we have installed on 14th Street, the M14, are good alternatives. . "

That's right, assuming these lines work well and for at least part of Saturday, they were not. And while there are significantly more M14 buses, nothing prevents them from getting stuck in the miserable traffic that clutters 14th Street. It took us 47 minutes to get from Grand Street on the Lower East Side to 8th Avenue and 14th Street.

That could change in June, when DOT is supposed to start restricting traffic on 14th Street by allowing private drivers to drive one block before turning right. Select the bus service is also coming.

Nicole Fineman, who was driving the M14A to the Union Square playground with her kids Lior and Miko, said the arrival of SBS would be bittersweet.

"I'm glad they're doing something to try to fix the speed of service problem," she said, as the bus was traveling up Essex Street. "But I'm unfortunate that they are closing three stops on Grand Street that are actually quite vital to our neighborhood for the residents of Grand Street, which will affect us a lot."

She added, "My heart goes to all the passengers on the L train in New York, with the MTA, it's like you're getting one thing and you're losing something else."

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