The L Train Slowdown Starts This Weekend: What You Need To Know

L TRAIN CORRIDOR, NY — After years of planning for an L train shutdown that didn't happen, and months of figuring out what would take its place, the day has finally come.

Repairs to fix the Canarsie tunnel from Superstorm Sandy damage will officially start at 8 p.m. Friday, along with the slowed service that will leave the 400,000 daily L train riders looking for new ways to get around on nights and weekends until at least summer 2020.

If you're still wondering exactly what will happen over the next 15 months, check out Patch's guide to the L train project below — including new announcements made this week.

When will L train service slow down? How often and when will the L train run?

The MTA already starting shutting down parts of the subway line over the last week to get ready for the repairs, but starting this weekend, the L will follow a slowed-down schedule every weeknight and weekend. Transit officials have said the slowed service should last the same amount of time as the original shutdown, or 15 to 18 months.

Read more about why the L train doesn't need to fully shut down here.

Here's what the slowdown schedule will look like, per the MTA:

The New York City Transit Subway Twitter account will be tweeting service updates, and pink L project signage will detail additional ways to get around the city.

How can I get around the L line during the slowdown?

If you don't want to wait 20 minutes for an L train on nights and weekends, getting between boroughs or within Brooklyn and Manhattan will be all about finding the best way to transfer to another subway line, or a bus.

NYCT Subway has encouraged straphangers to take bus service to other trains too — like additional M14 service and two new bus lines in Williamsburg, which are detailed below. NYCT Subway also encourages riders to consider other alternatives if riders are unable to board the first L train that arrives, since platforms are expected to be crowded as fewer trains will run. If a station becomes too packed, the MTA may bypass or restrict entry to that station — decisions that will be made in real-time.

Patch wrote out a detailed guide for how to do so at each station on the L, which you can find here.

Or, check out the maps below to see the options in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Here are the options if you usually go from the Bedford Avenue station or the Lorimer Street station in Brooklyn. L trains will still run between Lorimer and Canarsie every 10 minutes during the slow-down times, but find more detailed maps for that area here:

Here are the options if you usually go from L stations in Manhattan:

Will there be extra buses and bike lanes?

In Brooklyn, the MTA has set up two free new buses, the B91 and B92, that will make the rounds between the Bedford, Lorimer, Marcy and Hewes stations between 8 p.m. and 5 a.m. on weeknights and over the weekend.

Here's the B91 and B92 schedule:

The M14A and M14D are expected to run an average of every three to five minutes during much of the day on weekends.

The M14A will run to Delancey/Essex St. F/J/M station every seven to 10 minutes, nearly double the current schedule, the MTA says. The M14 also connects to the M train at Sixth Avenue. Riders can also take the M14 to the 6 train from Union Square to Broadway-Lafayette, where they can transfer to the M.

The MTA had already said there would be additional M14 buses during the L train repairs, but just this week, the city announced a new plan to ban private vehicles on 14th Street during an 18-month bus priority program.

The bus and truck priority plan will coincide with the launch of an M14 Select Bus Service with the goal of speeding of bus service on the notoriously slow route. Details of the SBS route are still being ironed out with locals, who are advocating to keep local stops in the East Village and Lower East Side.

The private traffic ban, which will mostly be between Third and Ninth avenues, won't start until June — more than a month into the L train slowdown. The hours of the bus priority plan remain unclear.

Here's the M14A/D schedule, as of now:

The surprise announcement this week also included bike lanes and other improvements along the corridor:

• Bike lanes along Grand Street in Brooklyn will be made permanent. DOT will modify parts of the bike lanes to include metered parking and loading zones.
• Bike lanes along 12th and 13th streets in Manhattan will be made permanent. More delineators and loading zones will be added.
• University Place will become a "shared-street" between West 13th and 14th streets.
• Union Square West between West 14th and 15th streets and West 16th and 17th streets will remain closed to traffic.

New Citibike docks are also rolling out in Brooklyn. A map from April shows that new stations are still planned throughout the second half of Brooklyn's L train corridor.

Apart from the above bike lanes on Grand Street in Brooklyn and 12th and 13th streets in Manhattan, the city installed a portion of protected bike lanes at the foot of Williamsburg Bridge. The additional lanes connect to protected lanes on Chrystie Street, but cyclists should caution a narrow gap that cycling advocates have pointed out could be dangerous as new cyclists take up cycling during L repairs.

For a citywide bike lane map, see the Department of Transportation's 2019 bike map here.

For more details on the L project from the MTA, click here.

Patch reporter Sydney Pereira contributed to this report.