Here’s a subway service notice: Use your car on the weekends!
An MTA watchdog is finishing a sweeping study of the insanely complicated weekend disruptions — and the results don’t look good.
For the past two weekends, members of the Transit Riders Council have monitored trouble spots and found stations without adequate signs as well as seriously delayed trains.
They’ll be out with stopwatches the next two weekends on “letter” lines, and are expected to release a final report in 2010.
Last weekend, at the 57th Street F station, there were no signs explaining that the E line also would be running along the same tracks. In addition, trains were running two minutes late, said Andrew Albert, a member of the council as well as the MTA board.
“We’re doing this because transit has said that even though all this work is being done on the weekends, that service is staying on a schedule. Our experience is that it’s not,” Albert said. “The signage is not adequate. There’s bedlam.”
The group also found inadequate signs and delays where the F runs on N tracks in Brooklyn. Those problems also exist in Manhattan where the A is diverted to Sixth Avenue in some spots and the Eighth Avenue local tracks in others.
New York City Transit said the endless lists of service changes — which affect most lines — is necessary so repairs can get done before winter.
Not doing the repairs would lead to more breakdowns and stalled trains, said NYC Transit spokesman Charles Seaton, adding that all diversions are reported on the Web and in train announcements.
Straphangers say they’ve felt stranded by the recent weekend work.
“It’s ridiculous. I never get to work on time,” said Eleanor Commey, 23, who rides the L.
Michelle Courtois, a Q-train rider, said she drives on weekends because of the delays.
“It’s an absolute horror sometimes,” she said.