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Are F train riders finding the subway a little crowded these days? Maybe it's because the trains aren't coming as frequently as they should be. The Brooklyn Papers found that the F train wasn't close to its rush-hour frequency of trains every 4-6 minutes, but an average of 7-8 minutes apart in their sampling. While that may sound minor, think about how many people stream down the subway stairs every moment - a train coming 2 minutes sooner could mean the difference between some space to stand versus being stuck like sardines.
They also found that when the train finally does arrive, getting on is no easy task. Of course, this is nothing new for people that ride the F train (or the L train, or most other rides during rush-hour), but the situation will only get worse. With people continuing to move into popular neighborhoods as well as moving farther into Brooklyn, trains will only get packed sooner.
Possible solutions The Brooklyn Paper suggests: Extend the V into Brooklyn and make the F express during peak times and run the G train to Church Ave. The MTA said no to both options. Clearly, the only solution is to get MTA employees to push passengers into the subways like they have in Tokyo.
Perhaps for the 2008 budget, the MTA will re-examine the F and plan service additions like they are for the L and G for 2008.
Have F train riders noticed an increase in ridership, or decrease in service lately?
Photo of altered MTA logo by Tien Mao on flickr
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I wouldnt knock the F so fast. I ride it every morning & yes, it is crowded, but it does come around every 2 minutes. Its very consistent.
No matter how early I leave for work, the F Train makes me late. I've waited up to 15 minutes for a train and we are delayed at each station when the doors can't close. If it wasn't so cold, I would walk 15 minutes out of the way to take another train.
I just moved into my neighborhood last year and in the 9 months I've been here, it's gotten worse and worse.
yup, the f has gotten worse in the last few months. longer waits, more crowded once it comes. with new g train improvements, i think it will only get worse, as many times f train is delayed at smith/9th to accomodate g trains (which will now be more frequent.)
somebody be a sport and do something about this....
Someone's gotta come up for an official name for the L to F communte at 830. It's seriously f*cking mental. I would do it myself except by the time I get to work i'm too exhausted from being so pi*sed off.
Its certainly worse...just as bad coming from Queens. I live on Roosevelt Island and trying to get on a train in the morning has become impossible. Many times I've had to walk over to the tram just to get across the river and catch another train from the east side.
The MTA needs to take more responsiblity. Its no longer an excuse to say there's a budget or simply not do anything when riders complain.
And what's so odd is there are express tracks...so why no express trains?
I've been riding the F for about 6 years now and it has definitely gotten more crowded in the morning as of late. Trains certainly do come less frequently, both in the morning and evening rush hours. I've even switched my work hours to avoid the peak rush in the morning because of it. In the evening, it almost seems that more often than not trains must run express at some point to try to catch-up to the schedule. I would definitely advocate some sort of express route. Running the G local to at least Church Ave and having the F run express between there and Jay (local G riders needing the F could switch at 7th Ave or the lower level at Bergen) might be a solution.
The F train has definitely gotten much worse over the past few months.
Particularly morning rush hours, trying to get on in Brooklyn heading into Manhattan - now I very frequently have to wait at least 10 minutes for one train, and then hope I can get inside or else wait even longer for another still-packed train.
I thought they approved the extension of the G to end at Church Avenue in 2008?
In any case, they could certainly do something. Interestingly, they already have the track space to do it (did an express train ever run down there before?)
Wow. I really wish this article had been about the L. That way people could make snarky comments about how all of us who live out there are hipsters and deserve the delays because of our trustfunds.
There is a big stretch of unused track underneath the F line in Brooklyn isn't there? I'm talking about the Bergen St. area, or somewhere around that stop. Because there was one time when I got on at Smith & 9th and the driver announced we were going express to Jay Street. Then, we were suddenly travelling down a track I'd never seen before which seemed to go *underneath* the Carroll and Bergen stops. At least I think that's what happened. Perhaps it was all a crazy dream I was having. I hate the F, it makes me want to cry.
Boohoo F riders. At least you don't have to deal with our beloved G Train.
The F train has definitely gotten much, much worse recently. Lots of waiting for a train with enough room to SQUEEZE onto in the morning at Bergen Street.
Matthew- we do have to deal with your stupid G train- it mocks us as it passes through our stops- empty except for some losers commuting from Brooklyn to Queens. I hate the G more than the F and I never even ride it.
Jangler -- you were not dreaming. There is a second set of tracks along the F line that allows the F to run express, skipping Bergen and Carroll.
I've been living on the F for three years now and in the past couple months it's been horrible. I've waited at Jay St. for 20 minutes at rush hour to make that A/F transfer. The As keep pulling up, so by the time the F arrives it's impossible to get on. I don't know if extending the G train will help, I think initially it will just confuse a lot of people who won't want to use it.
I've been riding the F for 12 years now (yeesh) and it has definitely become more crowded in the last couple of years. I especially notice more people getting on and off at the Bergen and Carroll stops. Also, the "fix" of the track where the train runs express and skips 15th Street and Ft. Hamilton Parkway has been going on since 1994. Is it not fixed by now?!?
I usually take the D or B to work, and when that train stops at Broadway-Lafayette and W. 4th, it invariably waits for an arriving F train...and then TONS of people from the F train try to cram onto the already-crowded D or B train without any regard for the people already on there. So annoying!!
The R is getting more crowded too. I think more people are definitely moving deeper into Brooklyn.
I go to work very early but join the fun of the rush hour on the way home, and I've definitely noticed a change on the F train lately. It doesn't run as frequently in the afternoon/evening, and it's always packed. I spent many evenings waiting on the F platform at Jay Street, watching as five A or C trains came in and people lined up 5 rows deep to get on the F train. I've started taking a different (slightly longer and more complicated) route home just to avoid the packed trains at Jay Street.
I've been riding the F for seven weeks, and GEE WHILIKERS it's been getting my diddly-diddly-do pants in a bunch.
I too have noticed a steady increase in the morning and on the way home, it's just ridiculous some days. I can't wait for several hundred more people to move into my neighborhood, DUMBO, by the end of the year. Hopefully it will be sorted out by then. Not to mention the weekend service is unacceptable.
They used to run an express on those now no-longer-used tracks, I believe.
I took the F every day for the past 5 years and it's gotten worse over the past few years, definitely. Now I walk over to the 4/5 instead and that train comes MUCH more frequently than the F during rush hour.
"Jangler -- you were not dreaming. There is a second set of tracks along the F line that allows the F to run express, skipping Bergen and Carroll."
Thanks for the confirmation that I'm not losing my mind. It would seem logical to extend the V into Brooklyn and have it run on those tracks wouldn't it? Not going to happen though. So nothing runs on that stretch of subway at all? Weird.
I think the V in V train stands for Very, Very, Very irritating. I love standing on a packed F/V platform at evening rush and watching a half-empty V train come in. Please, just extend it into Brooklyn, MTA lamers!
the f is getting worse daily. every day that I come home around between 4pm-7pm it is constantly delayed coming into smith/9th (although it is only waiting for the g). also, every morning I wait for it atleast for 5-7 minutes. it wouldn't be such a major pain if the station wasn't just as cold as it is outside. it's one thing to walk in the cold, quite another when you're standing idly and being late in the process.
Oh my GOD it's been HORRIBLE lately!
I don't understand how the MTA can so easily reject a sensible proposal like running the V train into Brooklyn, at least to 7th Ave. or Church St. The V serves absolutely no purpose except to ease overcrowding on the F from 2nd Avenue north, why not let it ease the obvious overcrowding further down the line? And it's going to get even worse in DUMBO (my neighborhood as well) once those two huge residential towers are filled with people come next Fall.
So we can all stand around nodding our heads and agreeing that it's gotten really bad, but what can we actually DO about it? If the MTA is saying that "service is adequate" (it's not) and they have no plans to extend the V into Brooklyn, what are we supposed to do?
I have no doubts that any commuter I approached on the packed F train in the morning (if I could actually GET to them) would absolutely sign a petition calling for an increase in service, but what would that do? Do petitions even work? I'm signed up for NYPIRG's Straphangers Campaign, but are they actually going to get results on this? Or is the MTA going continue making boneheaded moves (like wasting another surplus on a "holiday discount program" like they did last year)?
I loathe the F. Have hated it from month one in NYC. I think it has gotten a little worse, but what I really hate to envision is how us 2nd avenue riders will get on once those two luxury condo behemoths are finished...the Avalon is likely one of the reasons that stop has been worse lately, so hold on to your hats.
I hate to say "me too." But I've noticed the same thing the last couple weeks. I've been blaming the weather. I saw not one but two fights the other day due to overcrowding.
Nighttime weekend service is even more out of control. The other night the F chugged from 14th St to West 4th where it promptly arrived on the B/D track. We all got out and had a crowd of people had to browbeat an MTA employee into finally admitting that there were no F trains for the immediate future.
I am so used to walking home to Red Hook from Jay St it's not even funny.
I've been taking the F for abou 10 years now, and I remember that abou 10 years ago, I always called it the "Few and Far Between", but then it got slowly better for a while, but in the last year, I really have noticed that it is getting precipitously worse. Maybe due to the phantom weekend/late-night construction?
Please. The F has always sucked (for the last 20 years of my experience), and just like clockwork, now that Park Slope is an upper-middle class bastion, now it's news.
For almost six years I lived in Kennsington near the Church Avenue stop. When I moved there in 1999 I had no trouble getting a seat in the morning. Once in a while I would have to let a train go because there was no seat but that was rare.
Before I left the neighborhood in 2005 the platform became more and more crowded and I would often have to let several trains go by.
The higher the rents, the deeper peole move into Brooklyn and the more crowded that F-train or any Brooklyn train is going to get. I live out in Brighton Beach now and the B-train is much faster into Manhattan then the F-train was from Kensington.
The F has always been bad. I've depended on it for 17 years, first while living in the East Village, then in Carroll Gardens. Service has never been adequate on this line which links so many crowded and popular neighborhoods to midtown Manhattan. Think of it: East Village, LES, Chinatown, Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens, Park Slope—basically most of the hot nabes of the last 10 years—all riding the F.
I just recently moved to Stuyvesant Heights after three years in Boerum Hill, and despite being about 3 miles further out, my A to 4/5 commute is actually a bit quicker than the F to the 7 (work in Midtown East).
For the past few months, the F has definitely had problems -- fewer trains, and the ones that show up crawl along the tracks. Even catching the F as late as 9:30, I've had to wait as packed trains pulled into Bergen with no room to squeeze on.
It does seem that the subway has been generally fairly messed up this winter. Which is odd, because it hasn't been particularly cold or snowy.
the n and w trains have been awful as well. it´s almost as if they are sending all the dispatch trainees to work at ditmars ave or astoria blvd.
but at least with the trains so crowded we get to be yelled at by the train conductor, that´s always nice. as if it´s our fault the mta can´t figure out how to run a subway.
Riding the F 12 years-- haven't noticed much change, but I can't quite figure out the design of the line-- express and local tracks from church to Bergen but then the local heads over to Hoyt Schermerhorn toward Queens. I guess they could run a G local out to Church but who ever heard of a local that heads off in the wrong direction--i.e., say you get on at 4th Ave, and the F ran express, you could never switch to the express because you'd end up at Hoyt Schermerhorn instead of Jay. And the F line beyond Bergen is only a two track system--not enough capacity to run V and F in both directions. Seems like that old station at Court St that's now a subway museum was part of the original plan, maybe the start of a tunnel into Manhattan that never got built, but I dont quite get it.
I agree... I hope the MTA can find a way to run express on the F Line. The problem is that the G and the F lines compete so much as it is (the G constantly holds up the F on the short trip from 4th to Jay). Seems like the MTA needs to add more Fs and run them express when the doors won't close. In my two-year experience, the F has gotten worse.
THE F TRAIN IS WHAT IT STANDS FOR F....CK TRAIN. IT IS THE SLOWEST TRAIN IN THE NYC...!! AN EXPRESS TRAIN WOULD BE SUCH A RELIEF
I moved here 9 months ago and I can't complain about the commute. Yes, there are frustrating days, but for the most part if I make it to the train by 8:10 then it's smooth sailing. It could be worse, in San Francisco their transit system merges multiple trains onto one track in the center of downtown - now that can be frustrating!