Renovated Fourth Avenue F Station Rendering

This is the way the Fourth Avenue Station will look after the MTA is finished renovating it sometime between 2010 and 2012. The renovation will include the replacement of opaque panels with glass, providing views up and down Fourth Avenue from the elevated bridge structure. The rendering is in the latest edition of the Brooklyn Paper. The bad news is that the mess at the Smith-9th Street Station will be even worse that has been previously noted. Last week, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported on the MTA’s recent presentation to Community Board 6: The station will close for nine months in 2010, but it will not be fully returned to service for 27 months, as construction will alternate between northbound and southbound platforms for 18 months after the closure. It’s been previously noted that the Fourth Ave. station renovation will include the use of temporary platforms. If there’s a silver lining to all this, it’s that the G Train is being extended “permanently” to Church Avenue, easing travel between Kensington and Park Slope and Greenpoint.

L Train Report Card: A Lot of "C"s

The L Train, which is the lifeline of an awful lot of people living in North Brooklyn got a mixed set of marks in the latest NYC Transit report cards filled out by riders. While they’re far from stellar grades, they’re a lot better than you’d think, given service disruptions, overcrowding and the like. Here’s a bit from the story in today’s Daily News:

Riders who filled out NYC Transit report cards have graded the line a C. More than 4,000 straphangers completed the report cards, rating the line in 21 categories, including room at rush hour, lack of graffiti in subway cars and sense of security on trains…

“The line has also seen unprecedented ridership growth, growth we didn’t fully anticipate and have been unable to respond to as quickly as we would have liked,” Roberts added.

Riders didn’t give top marks to the line in any category but gave it a B-minus rating in five areas: onboard signs that help riders find their way; lack of graffiti inside trains; comfortable temperature in subway cars; ease of use of subway turnstiles and the availability of MetroCard vending machines.

No F grades were issued, but the line did receive a D for lack of room onboard trains at rush hour.

Straphangers doled out C, C-plus and C-minus grades in the bulk of the categories, including sense of security on trains and in stations, working escalators, station announcements and helpfulness of staff.

Only a D for lack of room at rush hour?

Subway "Potty Time" on the Way to the Park Slope Food Coop

This blog item manages to blend two hot button topics–the Park Slope Food Coop and having one’s child “go potty” on the subway. (We’ve previously covered the topic of them going potty on trees in Park Slope.) This blog post was written by an Upper West Side mom taking her son with her to the Park Slope Food Coop. It is on her blog, Diaper Free Adventures. We present key excerpts:

On Thursdays I take my son to the food co-op. This is an hour train ride from the Upper West Side of Manhattan to Park Slope, Brooklyn. This past Thursday I left my apartment early in the morning with my son sleeping quietly in his carrier and a rickety shopping cart in tow.

There were about six other people on the train, all of whom were nodding off or playing Solitare or Tetris on the cell phones. I was sitting in the corner comfortably taking up two seats…I took his potty out of the plastic bag hanging from my bookbag, put it on my lap and took off his diaper. There he was…my son half naked on the 2 train speeding beneath Brooklyn streets. A far cry from being in at home or in a park. I sat him on the potty and made my cueing sound, “pssssss.”

I looked to my right, not one person was looking at us. “Psssssss,” I said into his hear.

He leaned forward, bounced his right leg up and down against the potty and after a few minutes did a good sized pee-pee. Again, I looked to see if anyone was looking, but not one person stirred. I later told my hudband that in New York you have to rely on the fact that many people are too self-absorbed to notice you…even if your 5 month old son is peeing in a bright red potty just a few feet away!

Okay, so it’s really cute that he’s only five months and doing this, but would going pee-pee in his diedy on the train have been a better option? We don’t know the answer, but it’s an interesting question, indeed.

F Express Update: (Temporarily) Next Year or By 2012 or 2013

Brooklynites that have been pushing for an F Train may get some short-term relief in the form of a temporary F Express if work on the Culver Viaduct project falls behind schedule, but otherwise, the New York City Transit says that express service on the F won’t be possible until 2012 or early 2013. Andrew Inglesby, the MTA’s Assistant Director of Government and Community Relations, gave a long update on the status of F Train service at the Carroll Gardens Neighborhood Association meeting last night.

Mr. Inglesby reiterated that work on the Culver Viaduct, which runs above-ground between the Carroll Street Station and the Fourth Avenue Station, is a critical capital project and that work must be completed before an F Express can be put in place. He said the viaduct is “in extreme need of repair.” Netting and tarp have surrounded the viaduct for about five years to keep chunks of concrete from falling. The MTA expects to award contracts for the work next year. “F Express service just can’t happen until the end of that period.” He said the work will result in “an automatic elimination of any F Express.”

The transit official did offer possibility that if work on the viaduct project is “significantly delayed” by a year or more, then the Transit Authority “will go ahead and examine the possibility of putting in an F Express.” Express service would depend on the availability of cars and funding. So, an F Express could make an appearance for a year or 18 months, if there is a delay in the big repair project.

The bad news for residents of Carroll Gardens, from whence much of the push for F Express service has come, is that an express train would likely stop at Jay Street, Seventh Avenue and Church Avenue; it would bypass Bergen Street, Carroll Street, Smith-9th Street, 15th Street and Fort Hamilton Parkway.

Residents that use the local stops, however, were assured their trains would become less crowded. Gary Reilly, who started the F Train Express petition drive that got a great deal of press attention, said that “It wouldn’t just be a zero-sum game for the neighborhoods” and that the changes would “free up some excess capacity.”

There is also a push to extended the V Train to Brooklyn to provide local service. G Train service is slated to be extended to Church Avenue in 2009. (Mr. Inglesby said the extension of the V isn’t “a complete dead issue.”)

The MTA and New York City Transit are still examining options. “Nothing is set in stone,” Mr. Inglsby told residents.

Is F Train Express Idea Dead Until 2012?

Don’t look now, but even some supporters are starting to suggest that the F Train Express idea, which has gotten much play in the media, may have died at the starting gate. That’s because the MTA is sticking to its guns and continuing to say that there’s no way they can do it until 2012. Work on the Culver Viaduct (the big very tall structure that crosses the Gowanus Canal) sounds like it will make life on the F Train–regular F Trains–awful in coming years. According to Second Ave. Sagas, one of the blogs that has been pushing the concept:

I’ve been in touch with Jeremy Soffin, the MTA’s deputy director of media relations, in an effort to get the bottom of the Culver Viaduct Rehabilitation project and its effects on the express tracks. Here’s what Soffin said to me in an e-mail:

The Culver Viaduct Rehabilitation project requires the reconstruction of the viaduct and all four tracks on the viaduct. During the project, two of the four tracks will be taken out of service at any given time for a period of four years, precluding the implementation of any express service on this segment of the F line. The project is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2012. As part of this project, G service, which currently terminates at Smith-9 Sts, will be extended to Church Av Station.

It’s my understanding that crews will be working not only on the tracks but around and underneath them too. With the recent attention to track worker safety, the MTA isn’t, rightly so, about to start screwing around with train bottlenecks on a large viaduct. With the current F and G trains relying on just two tracks for their routes and turnarounds, the tracks simply cannot support adding more trains.

To me, it sounds like the folks along the Culver Line are in for a rough ride.

One can read the MTA response any way one wishes, but Mr. Soffin’s statement about the four-year rehab makes it sound like there will be an F Train Gowanus Crawl blog and people will be circulating petitions to demand the F Train move at more than 5MPH during rush hour by this time next year.

One certainly hopes the 2012 explanation is an exaggeration and that the F Train isn’t about to go from simply sucking to sucking in a major, major way. Depressing news and, hopefully, still subject to change.

"Brooklyn’s Thoughts on the F Train"

Here’s a vid posted in the last few days to the YouTube that deals with the subject of the F Train and a possible Express. We do wish that music hadn’t been put underneath the person speaking so that it makes her harder to understand.

Gowanus Lounge Photo Du Jour: Service on Opposite Track

Park Slope, Brooklyn

Is F Train Express Idea Moving to Fast Track?

If we were to bet on one idea that’s risen through the grassroots that may have a shot at seeing the light of day in a reasonable amount of time, at this point we’d be putting some money on the idea of restoring express service to Brooklyn’s F Line. Not only has the idea made the jump from being covered by Brooklyn blogs to the print media, it’s getting some political support. The latest officials to jump on the F Express are Council Members Bill de Blasio (D-Park Slope, Carroll Gardens, Kensington), Simcha Felder (D-Midwood, Bensonhurst and Boro Park) and Domenic Recchia (D-Coney Island, Gravesend, Bensonhurst). They’ll be part of an F Express rally today (6/28) with the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership and Transportation Alternatives.

An online petition for F Express service launched by Gary Reilly of Brooklyn Streets got 2,500 signatures (including ours) in two weeks. Mr. Reilly presented the petition at the MTA’s board meeting yesterday and says the idea has support on the board. The MTA has already said it would restore some express service on the F line in 2012; the push is to get it done much sooner.

The rally is at 2PM at the Church Avenue F station at Church and McDonald Avenues.

F Train Express Idea Garners Support, Needs More

That petition calling for express F Train service in Brooklyn that started by the blogger behind Brooklyn Streets, Carroll Gardens has gotten 1,300 signatures in about five days. That certainly seems to indicate there’s some support in the community for the idea. The MTA has indicated, however, that the earliest an express train could be started is 2012 because of work on the Culver Viaduct over the Gowanus Canal. On Friday, Brooklyn Streets reported that the MTA is looking at ways to create express service before 2012. (The issue was broached with the MTA about a decade ago, as well.) The Brooklyn Eagle has a story on the petition drive here. Nonetheless, the petition campaign could use signatures from everyone that supports the idea. If you’re interested, go to the petition here and sign it.

F Express Petition Gets 760 Signatures; Idea Faces Obstacles

The online petition to create an express F Train and extend the V Train to Brooklyn as a local got more than 750 signatures in little more than a day, which would seem to indicate the idea being pushed by the blog Brooklyn Streets has some support among residents that use the line. In the meantime, blogger Second Ave. Sagas indicates there are practical obstacles to the plan including track switches that no longer exist after Kings Highway to scheduling problems with extending the V and having it share tracks with the F between Second Avenue and Jay Street. He offers another solution to full express services:

Run the F as an express train from Jay St./Borough Hall to Church Ave. The F would stop at York St., Jay St., 7th Avenue and Church Ave. before running local to Coney Island. Meanwhile, extend the V to Church Ave. as the local. Church Ave. is the last four-track stop on the Culver Line and provides for a switch so that the V can turn around and head back to Manhattan.

With this plan, the stations with the highest number of riders would see staggered service. Carroll Gardens riders wouldn’t have to shove Park Slope residents into already-crammed trains in the morning. The V would become a more viable line in Manhattan, and everyone in Brooklyn would be happy.

You can sign the petition here.