Brooklyn riders are bracing themselves for major disruptions this summer– but officials and advocacy groups rallied today around alternatives to cope with overcrowding on subway lines during the city’s hottest months.
The MTA will be doing extensive repairs on the G and R lines to fix damage from Superstorm Sandy on subway tubes under the East River and Newtown Creek.
The G train will be shut down for 12 weekends in the summer and fall, starting in early July, and for five full weeks next summer. The R train will end at Court Street in Brooklyn for 14 months, starting the first week of August.
“I know thousands of Brooklynites will be effectively stranded,” said Marty Markowitz, Brooklyn’s borough president.
Officials and advocates proposed a slew of ideas on the steps of Borough Hall — including weekday ferries from Sunset Park to the Battery in Manhattan, more service on nearby train lines, and increased bus services.
Frustrated Bay Ridge resident David Greenberg, 31, said the R train is already a difficult commute now — before the cuts.
“It’s already unreliable,” said Greenberg, a member of the advocacy group Riders Alliance. “I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been late for work or lost time with family. It’s only going to make it worse.”
Alexis Saba, a Clinton Hill resident and member of the Alliance, said the G train shutdown will make it much harder to go to the work and her gym.
“The slated disruptions will be very difficult, and I will have to get crafty in my commute,” she said. “Craftier than when I am chasing the G train!”
MTA spokesman Adam Lisberg said the agency would consider the ideas– and that some might be unworkable or unaffordable, but others worth pursuing.
Commuters using the G train will be asked to use a shuttle bus between Greenpoint Avenue and Court Square.
For R train riders going to Manhattan , commuters can use the Court Street station to transfer to eleven other subway lines.
One silver lining for some commuters heading uptown on the R is that the train will be-routed over the Manhattan Bridge on the weekend, skipping four stops in Lower Manhattan.
Superstorm Sandy filled the Greenpoint and Montague tubes with millions of gallons of saltwater, which ruined tracks, switches, and cables.