MTA To Fast Track Queens Boulevard Line Upgrades During Holidays

LONG ISLAND CITY, QUEENS — This holiday season, the MTA is going full speed ahead on key signal and track work along one of the busiest corridors of the city's subway system.

The transit authority will fast-track signal upgrades and track maintenance on the Queens Boulevard line during the nine days of traditionally low subway ridership between Christmas and the first days of the new year, according to a news release.

From 5 a.m. on Dec. 26 to 5 a.m. on Jan. 4, the 53rd Street tunnel between Queens and Manhattan will be closed and E trains will run via the F line in both directions between Roosevelt Avenue in Queens and West 4th Street in Manhattan.

From Dec. 28 to Dec. 31, M trains will run between Chambers Street in Manhattan and Metropolitan Avenue in Queens during the hours it normally runs between Forest Hills-71st Avenue in Queens and Essex Street in Manhattan.

“Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the MTA remains committed to installing modern signaling throughout the system,” Janno Lieber, president of MTA construction and development, said in a statement. “We are taking advantage of the low ridership over the holiday period and during COVID to get more work done, and to complete it faster."

The work is part of a long-term project to bring the modern signal technology known as “communications-based train control” to the Queens Boulevard line between Union Turnpike in Queens and the 50th Street – 8th Avenue and 47th – 50th Street Rockefeller Center stations in Manhattan.

The technology is already up and running on the 7 and L lines.

With the new signal system, the Queens Boulevard line could run as many as 36 trains per hour, up from 30, according to the New York Daily News.

“The work to install modern signaling throughout our system may impact riders for a short time, but will lead to more trains, fewer delays and the improved accuracy of real-time information for decades to come,” Sarah Feinberg, interim president of NYC Transit, said in a statement. “I’m grateful to the team at NYC Transit that has worked hard to ensure there are a multitude of travel alternatives and robust outreach and information for our riders.”