This past weekend, residents and business owners held a rally to protest the 7 line's weekend service disruptions. They were probably also complaining about MTA's poor efforts to explain new directions during the diversions as well.
The work on the 7 line, which is to upgrade signals and other infrastructure, will continue for another four weekends. And one of those weekends is a big bar day - St. Patrick's Day on March 17 - leading bars and restaurants wondering how they'll fare. Businesses and residents who rely on the 7 train to get to their jobs say they are suffering. WNBC reported about the protest, noting that City Councilman Eric Gioia felt the shutdown "created an undue hardship for the borough of Queens," with shuttle bus service being "insufficient and inconvenient."
But businesses aren't the only ones hurting, families are being kept apart, too. One woman told amNew York, "I'm trying to go visit my aunt in Flushing. I really can't spend much time with her though. So if it is going to take twice as long to get there, I guess I'll skip it."
Here's the MTA's PDF of the diversions. The Daily News had an editorial chastising the MTA yesterday, "no matter how great the gain later on, the MTA is doubling the pain on riders now."
Photographs of the 7 line's shutdown and diversions by joshbousel on Flickr
