Sandy, that sonofabitch hurricane that wreaked so much havoc on the city four years ago, is still impacting us today. There's the problems associated with the city's Build It Back program, there's the looming L-pocalypse and now we can add a weekend shutdown of 2 and 3 trains between Brooklyn and Manhattan in order for the MTA to do Sandy-related repairs.
The Clark Street tube, which the 2 and 3 trains use to get between Brooklyn and Manhattan, will be closed for 56 straight weekends starting in the spring of 2017, the MTA said in a statement:
The 1.2 mile-long tunnel, known as the Clark St Tube, was one of nine MTA New York City Transit subway tunnels flooded and damaged by an unprecedented storm surge during Sandy in October 2012. More than half a million gallons of corrosive salt water flooded the tunnel, damaging tracks, signals, pumping equipment, and electrical and switching equipment. Although temporary repairs immediately after the storm enabled a safe return to service, extensive reconstruction is required in the Clark St Tube to ensure that 2 and 3 line operations remain safe and viable.
As a result of the weekend work, 2 trains will be rerouted to run along the 1 track from Chambers Street to South Ferry, and 3 trains will terminate at 14th Street. The construction also means that there'll be no 2 or 3 trains at these Manhattan and Brooklyn stations:
- Park Place
- Fulton St
- Wall St
- Clark St
- Borough Hall
- Hoyt St
Northbound 2/3 trains in Brooklyn will stop running at Nevins Street.
1 and 2 train riders will be able to use a free out of system transfer between South Ferry and both Whitehall Street-South Ferry and Bowling Green. To accommodate 3 train riders, the 4 train will be extended to New Lots Avenue on weekends, and the 5 train will run to Flatbush Avenue-Brooklyn College to replace the 2 train. In the Bronx, 2 and 5 trains will swap their routes at East 180th Street, resulting in 2 trains ending at Eastchester-Dyre Avenue and 5 trains ending at Wakefield-241 Street. According to the MTA "work in the Clark Street Tube will start prior to June 2017 and require a few weekend service diversions" before the above service changes are officially implemented.
The MTA claims that the changes will affect about 205,000 riders on the average weekend, and increase average travel times by about 4.5 minutes.
