Riders rap MTA for ignoringg J/Z
The MTA’s proposed 10-year subway-signal overhaul plan covers nearly everything from A to Z — well, maybe not Z.
The $37 billion Fast Forward program championed by new NYC Transit head Andy Byford promises upgrades to signals in at least part of every outdated line in the system — except for the J and Z.
Not counting the already-modernized L, an outline of the proposal released Wednesday shows improvements for every other line in the system plus the five-station Rockaway Beach shuttle.
An MTA source said the signalreplacement schedule was sequenced to prioritize lines that serve the largest percentages of the system’s 5.7 million daily riders — leaving the 190,000 riders who use the J and Z on an average weekday out of luck.
“The main reason [for the J and Z’s exclusion] is we wanted to get to the lines with the biggest capacity,” the source said.
The MTA still intends to modernize the line’s signals, though the upgrades wouldn’t come until after the first 10 years of the plan, which is projected to improve service for 5 million — or about 87.7 percent — of the system’s riders, the source said.
But riders along the forgotten line — which runs from lower Manhattan and along the Brooklyn-Queens border to Jamaica — were in no mood to hear the explanation, particularly as the April 2019 L train shutdown threatens to crowd their trains with a massive influx of new riders.
“What are we going to do when the L shuts down?” fumed art handler Julio Borrero aboard a Manhattan-bound J. “Start walking across the bridge?”
Borrero’s pal Emma Stern, an art-gallery consultant, said the snub was only the latest for the line at the hands of the MTA.
“I feel like it’s been a Band-Aid on a bullet hole for a decade now,” said Stern, 25, a Bushwick resident.
The Independent Budget Office found rush-hour J/Z riders experienced nearly 960 hours’ worth of delays from mid-2016 to mid-2017 — a 71 percent increase from 2012, The Post reported last year.
“It’s so crowded that two trains have to go by for you to get on,” Stern griped. “Strangers shoved together in a metal tube — people get aggravated.”
“I would pay 50 cents more to know that I would arrive at a cer- tain time,” Stern added.
The MTA could use the spare change.
Agency officials admit there is no concrete plan to come up with the $37 billion sources say the overhaul is projected to cost.
In the meantime, beleaguered riders on the J/Z line are more concerned with getting from Point A to Point B.
“Why the J? Let me guess, the switches are good?” cracked Dave Terry, a 35-year-old composer. “They can do billions of dollars, and then can’t [fix] one more train?” “That’s ridiculous.” Jessica Roberts added flatly, “That sucks!”
“The J is unreliable as it is,” the 26-year-old paralegal said. “I normally need 40 minutes to get to work, but I budget 60 minutes.”
The MTA said the ambitious proposal would have a trickledown effect that improves service across the entire system.
“The Fast Forward plan will benefit every single rider of New York City Transit, no matter the line they ride on or the bus they take,” said an MTA spokesman, noting that the J/Z has relatively newer signals that are in a better-thanaverage state of repair.