Queens residents and business owners are irate at the MTA for temporarily halting weekend service on the No. 7 train.
Track upgrading that began this past weekend is to go on for eight more Saturdays and Sundays.
Riders feel stranded.
“The 7 train is a lifeline to Queens,” City Councilman Eric Gioia yesterday said at the Vernon-Jackson stop. “When the MTA shuts it down for nine weekends, it hurts families and businesses in already tough economic times.”
The Queens Democrat demanded that the MTA provide buses to ferry people from Grand Central Terminal to closed subway stops.
Sheila Lewandowski said ticket sales for a major exhibit next month at her Long Island City art and theater gallery were down 50 percent from last year.
“We operate on weekends,” she noted.