MTA: Single Magical Train Will Solve L Overcrowding

Just a typical morning on the L train (Flickr user everyplace)

Hey, you know how the L train sucks, like, a lot? How it rarely runs on weekends, is mind-bogglingly crowded pretty much all the time, and is occasionally overtaken by Chippendale-lite male dancers? Well, the MTA knows, too! And they're coming to save you from your overcrowded commute, with the help of...one extra train. In December.

That's right, straphangers! The MTA hears your cries, and they will be answering them by supplying a single extra train between 9 and 9:30 a.m. on weekdays this December. The MTA has also vowed to run more L trains on the weekends starting next summer, which is funny, because we could have sworn that's when most of the construction work shuts down the L. Also funny? That 2007 report promising better service on the L by 2010. Oh, MTA, you cruel mistress.

The current report, which was commissioned by State Senator Daniel Squadron, also found that ridership on the L has grown three times faster than the rest of the system since 1998, and that the average morning rush hour train passing through Bedford Avenue was filled to 116 percent of its capacity levels. Officials promised, yet again, that they'll get right on adding more trains when that fancy new computerized system gets fully into place, you know, the one they've been working on for years.

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By Jamie Feldmar in News on October 3, 2011 4:40 PM

Comments [rss]

Adam Moreira

1 extra train could do wonders...given that there are a maximum of 34 trainsets on the L, and peak requirement is about 22 trainsets.

brooklynwry

Yeah one extra car doesn't sound like much until you throw it into some fancy algebraic expression that engineers use to figure out how to run transit systems.

I don't know to what extend the L is generally automated, but it's leaps better now than in the past. I think train's should still have conductors, but dispatch and actual piloting the trains is much better left to computers.

Erik Lyngved

I think people are underestimating how much 1 extra train can do. There is always a big gap in Manhattan-bound L trains between 9-9:30 which screws things up for people who get into work around 10, like me. If done right, 1 more train can make a huge difference. But there always has to be something to complain about I guess!

Kiki Valentine

Perhaps if the city combined AA meetings with Williamsburg Community Board Meetings there would be less bellyaching and more progress? At least the alcoholic hipsters who go to meetings probably already have a baby, one on the way or some sober investment in the area as opposed to ... whatever you call what is going on over there now.

Greg

9am - 9:30am? this is great news. If I am ever late to work, I can now get to work late on time!

Rebecca Paolucci

The L is absolutely better now than it was in 2007 and earlier. I was constantly late to high school because of L train delays coming out of Canarsie, or stalling out somewhere else along the route. Fast forward to 2010: I commuted every morning last year, and I was almost never late to work.

Pixelwhore

GREAT! now lets see if they could do something about the tardiness of the GOD DAMN G train.

maria

for real, this is my serious gripe. compared to the G, the L is a dream. even not compared to the G, the L is so far from being a pain in the ass.

ImperialStout

I like the G, actually. I feel it's underrated. Lived off it for 4 years now.

brooklynwry

I agree. I've lived on or around the G for a decade. Works as well as any, better than some.

Kari

I get that not everyone has to be in to work by 9am, but isn't 8 to 9 the prime commute time? Maybe this extra train is going to help by picking up everyone who's already late and been waiting on the platform for 45 minutes because the trains were crap at 8:30.

seattlesnow

J/Z/M suckers!

soothsayer

i just saw the wnbc channel 4 news story. they sounded so enthusiatic about the new service, even interviewed squadron. they obviously didn't mention HOW many more trains will be run (1 extra train)

soothsayer

people in williamsburg have jobs?

Marc Hug

^^^idiot comment of the day^^^

how fucking stupid are you? you are about 6 years too late for the trust fund hipster jokes. you really have no idea that williamsburg is full of yuppies with jobs now? and has been for a long time?

ImperialStout

Exactly. These so-called hipsters were priced out during the 2008 crash and sometimes come in to hang out, but only during the summer. It's all permanent, older residents of the hood and wealthy yuppies mixed with normal people with jobs who found a good deal.

T. Funke

This makes sense if the extra train acts as a shuttle between 8th and Bedford. That seems to be where most of the crowding is.

Phil Ryan

Maybe if people actually understood that the CBTC implementation on the L will actually increase capacity by 33% by running 20tph instead of the maximum and current 15tph due to what is essentially manual signalling, they'll be more appreciative that the inconveniences now will make their commutes a lot faster and more bearable in the future. But this is Williamsburg, where all the self-absorbed, nouveau-riche offspring for some reason decided to live. Guess that's good since it keeps them out of better neighborhoods.

NYC1978

WOW! Someone knows their stuff.
But no matter how many trains are added with the implementation of CBTC Williamsburg Hipsters will still crowd the 1st Car of a Manhattan-Bound L (At Lorimer and then Bedford Ave) just so they can have easy access to the exit.
Sickening

Trustafarian

actually, having commuted from bedford ave station for a few years i find the middle cars near the R/Q transfer at union square are the most crowded. front usually has the best shot of getting on.