By Dana Schulz, Tue, October 30, 2018 Photo via Flickr cc
L train riders, be warned. You have exactly six months until all hell breaks loose. The MTA announced that the line will officially cease running between 8th Avenue and Bedford Avenue for 15 months on April 27, 2019 (a Monday, in case you were wondering) so that the Canarsie Tunnel can be repaired from damaged sustained during Hurricane Sandy. For many, however, the L-pocalypse has already begun; the line was not running between Manhattan and Brooklyn for most October weekends, weeknight service has been suspended through November, and more weekend suspensions are to come in February, March, and April.
All the info
By Devin Gannon, Mon, October 22, 2018 Via Dan Phiffer Flickr
During the L train shutdown, 1,000 new alternate roundtrips will be added every week, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Starting in April, extra service will be added to the A, E, F, J, Z, M, and G lines, NBC reported. The L train will not run between 8th Avenue and Bedford Avenue for 15 months while the Carnarsie Tunnel, heavily damaged by Hurricane Sandy, is repaired. About 275,000 of the L train’s 400,000 daily riders are expected to be affected by the temporary shut down.
More this way
By Michelle Cohen, Fri, October 19, 2018 The impending 15-month L train hiatus has lots of people wanting to stand on a chair and go “eek!” to begin with, but some clever hosts have found a way to turn transit terror into a Halloween happening. The L Train Shutdown & Club Transit haunted house and nightclub, which opened yesterday and will run through November 3rd, serves up a chilling six-months post-shutdown Brooklyn where “things did not go as planned” in a 40,000-square-foot Bushwick warehouse.
The full horror, this way
By Devin Gannon, Tue, October 16, 2018 Via Roshan Vyas on Flickr
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority announced this summer that the L-train will not run between Brooklyn and Manhattan for 15 weekends, including every Saturday and Sunday in October. To ease the impact of the L-train’s mini shutdown before the 15-month shutdown scheduled for April, ride-share service Via is offering riders this month an affordable option to travel to and from Williamsburg, Bushwick, and Lower Manhattan. According to the company, the L-Train ViaPass costs $19 per week and provides riders with four shared rides per day on weekends in October, between Friday night and Saturday morning.
More here
By Dana Schulz, Thu, October 4, 2018 NY Waterway, via Wiki Commons
Express buses, shuttle service, electric scooters, Citi Bike–now New Yorkers can add the ferry to their list of alternate transportation modes during the impending L train shutdown. The MTA announced that when the 15-month hiatus hits in April, they’ll launch a temporary ferry service that will run express from Williamsburg to Stuyvesant Cove near the East Village. According to the agency, “In response to feedback from customers and elected officials, the temporary service will now include 240-passenger vessels that will provide up to 61% more capacity than originally planned.”
All the details
By Cait Etherington, Wed, October 3, 2018 Williamsburg, where the L train shutdown will soon take effect, via Wiki Commons
In a city with fewer car owners than nearly any other location in North America, it should come as no surprise that subway access is a key factor for most New Yorkers when they go on the housing market. In fact, many New Yorkers won’t even consider renting or buying if the address is more than a 10-minute walk from the nearest subway. This explains why some neighborhoods, including Greenpoint, which has a subway but not one that leads to Manhattan, and Alphabet City, which doesn’t have a subway at all, have long reported lower real estate values and rental prices that their nearest neighbors. However, there are growing signs that subway access may no longer matter as much as it once did.
While subway access remains important, it is increasingly no longer a deal breaker for developers or prospective tenants. In today’s real estate market, a growing number of developers are pouring money into developments located off the subway line, and many tenants don’t seem to mind. This may also explain why not all developers with projects located along the L line are worried about the pending shutdown, which is now slated to begin in April 2019.
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By Devin Gannon, Tue, September 25, 2018 Via Wikimedia
Electric scooters are currently illegal in New York City. But with the L train shutdown quickly approaching, Brooklyn officials are pushing to legalize them as a transit alternative to the subway. Council Members Antonio Reynoso and Ydanis Rodriguez announced on Monday plans to introduce legislation that would make e-scooters legal, amNY reported. “The L train shutdown is real. It is going to happen. It is going to be disruptive,” Reynoso said. “When that shuts down, they’re all going to need alternate transportation.”
More here
By Michelle Cohen, Thu, September 13, 2018 Via Wikimedia
Several bills were passed in New York City Council on Wednesday to help address the inconvenience and traffic chaos expected during the planned 15-month L train tunnel closure for repairs due to damage from Hurricane Sandy, slated to begin in April 2019. The legislation calls for information centers in both Brooklyn and Manhattan, complaint investigation resources, and the fast-tracking of a new electric bus fleet, Curbed reports.
Find out more
By Devin Gannon, Tue, August 7, 2018 L train stop at Bedford; via Roshan Vyas on Flickr
The MTA announced on Saturday that the L train will not run between Manhattan and Brooklyn over 15 weekends. Between this coming weekend and mid-April, the L will only operate between Broadway Junction and Carnasie-Rockaway Parkway during specific weekends. As Gothamist reported, this “pre-shutdown shutdown” will prepare for the 15-month shutdown of the L-train scheduled to begin sometime in April.
More L-shutdown nightmares
By Michelle Cohen, Fri, July 27, 2018 Photo via The New L Train
As the doomsday clock ticks down the minutes to the dreaded L train apocalypse–the line is being shut down between 8th Avenue in Manhattan and Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn for Hurricane Sandy repairs starting in April of 2019–the powers that be have been telling us to take the bus, take the bus and take the bus or ride a bike. But Gothamist reports that a service called The New L hopes to keep us out of commuter hell by offering ultra-luxe commuter vans with professional chauffeurs at the wheel plus wi-fi, breakfast bars, and phone chargers.
And how much will it cost us?
