L Trains Won't Run For 15 Weekends Between Manhattan And Brooklyn

EAST VILLAGE, NY — The MTA plans to cut L train service between Manhattan and Brooklyn over 15 weekends leading up to the L train shutdown next spring, the transportation authority announced.

The weekend closures, which are peppered between this coming weekend and April, are part of preparations for the train line's 15-month spring shutdown, said a top transit official.

“Our crews are working hard on track and signal infrastructure during periods of lower ridership so that while the L train tunnel is reconstructed and we run in Brooklyn only next year, it’s the most reliable service we can deliver on the line,” said Andy Byford, the president of the New York City Transit Authority, in a statement.

Work includes track and signal maintenance, namely installing signal adjustments to make it easier for trains to turn back into Brooklyn at Williamsburg's Bedford Avenue station once the closure is in effect. The Saturday and Sunday closures will also be used to perform “super-maintenance” on station features that will be strained during the closure, such as certain signals, elevators and escalators, according to Byford.

L train service will cease under the East River for each weekend in October and the second and third weekends in November. Come 2019, service will shutter for each weekend in February, the first three weekends in March and the weekend of April 13 and 14, according to the MTA.

The 15-month L train shutdown is expected to begin in April, but officials have yet to release an exact closure date.

Elected officials and transit leaders joined Byford Monday morning for a bus ride previewing the select bus service that will help shuttle some 225,000 week day commuters who rely on the L train to travel between Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Photo by Kathleen Culliton/Patch