Subway cuts to persist
MTA: Service will slow on several lines through 2022
Riders on a handful of subway lines can expect regular hiccups in their evening commutes until at least November 2022 as MTA officials attempt to give more time for slow-crawling work trains to travel to construction sites.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority board on Wednesday is set to approve the move, which will trim weekday evening service on the B, D, N, Q and R lines.
The changes mean D and N trains will run local instead of express beneath Fourth Ave. in Brooklyn, cutting the number of hourly trains on each line. Some northbound D train service will begin at Broadway-Lafayette St. instead of Coney Island, according to the MTA’s service plan.
Cutting off express service along Fourth Ave. will also require the MTA to reduce the frequency of B, Q and R trains during the evenings, the plan states.
Transit honchos have used temporary schedules to implement the same service changes on most weeknights since December, and have since 2014 made similar tweaks to service on the same subway lines.
If the MTA board approves the extension Wednesday as expected, it means the service cuts will continue until at least November 2022, MTA officials said.
Officials said the service changes are necessary to give more space for work trains to enter and exit the MTA’s 38th St. train yard in Sunset Park, Brooklyn.
Those trains — which move significantly slower than passenger trains — are needed for crucial construction work, like upgrades to outdated subway signals on several lines and the installation of elevators at the 14th St./Sixth Ave. subway station, officials said.
“This formalizes service that New York City Transit has been operating every weekday evening for six months, and for many weeknights since 2014,” MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan said. “The changes minimize interference to subway passengers from our fleet of maintenance trains, which will grow even busier as our record capital program gathers momentum.”
The approval of the changes comes as MTA officials continue to struggle to lure riders back to the subway. Ridership remains down roughly 60% from before the pandemic.
NYC Transit officials also face a dire shortage of subway crews as a result of a hiring freeze and a rush of retirements during the pandemic.
MTA payroll records show the number of employees working in subway service delivery — which includes roles like train operators, conductors, dispatchers and supervisors — shrunk by 10% between May 2019 and May 2021, from 8,572 to 7,693.
Officials at Transport Workers Union Local 100, which represents roughly half of the MTA’s workforce, said last week transit officials have been slow to open up new training classes to onboard new train crews more quickly. The training process for conductors can take as long as a year — and union leaders said the crew shortages could impact service until at least 2022.