Go Green BK has been chronicling the wild journey of the L-Train shutdown plan for a while now, and last Thursday, New Yorkers got a shocking announcement from Governor Cuomo: the L-Train will not shut down for 15 months!!!
Apparently, the technology is new, from Europe, and has never been tested in the US. Instead of taking out, rebuilding, and replacing the cables in the tunnel’s bench walls, Cuomo’s plan is now to just mount new cables with something called a “racking system” on the tunnel walls. This type of system has been used in London, Hong Kong, and Saudi Arabia. The original plan was supposed to fix the tunnel for 50+ years, and it is unclear how long this fix is supposed to last.
John Raskin, Executive Director of the Riders Alliance, said, “At the end of the day, what riders care about is whether the L train is repaired for the long term, and how much disruption it will take to get there… We need a full public release of the details of Governor Cuomo’s idea, as well as the mitigation plans that will allow hundreds of thousands of L train riders to get around during the inevitable shutdowns and slowdowns in service.”
Cuomo said of the proposed plan, “It would not require the tunnels to be closed because the scope of work is less. One tunnel would be closed weekends and nighttime, but the other tunnel would be operational so that they service seven days a week, 24 hours a day.”
Initial elation at this wonderful news was quickly tempered with classic NYC skepticism. After almost three years of planning to shut down the L Train, we suddenly have a better solution three months before the closure is meant to happen? Is this too good to be true? Also, the L Train is a very active line during late-night hours…what will happen to the midnight rush of people who need to get home?
As our friends at the L Train Coalition said, “This is basically good news, but we are still cautious, remain concerned, and are obviously upset…because many individuals have already made life-changing decisions… The transportation remediations should still be put in place and efforts must be made to help the businesses and workers who will still be adversely affected by the nights and weekend closures.”
And truly, people did decide not to renew their home and business leases in preparation for this impending shutdown. One such example is a store in the Union Square subway station, which used to blast Top-40 music and sell expensive headphones and other small items. A few months ago, they put up a sign saying they were closed because so much of their clientele came from the L-Train. Now it’s just an empty store.
Councilman Stephen Levin is on the same page as the transit activists. “Community leaders and public officials…deserve a thorough evaluation that includes a commitment to real transportation improvements for the long term. Furthermore, a nights and weekends approach in place of a full months-long closure could disproportionately inconvenience many North Brooklyn businesses and workers and must be taken into consideration in planning.”
“If what the Governor has proposed is achievable as the experts say it is, then it is good news for my community,” said Assemblyman Joe Lentol. “There must be a full vetting of the new proposals so that my community can understand them and feel comfortable. Remember that for over three years, straphangers and business owners have worked tirelessly to prevent what everyone thought would be a catastrophe to neighborhoods in Brooklyn. I call upon the MTA and the expert panel to come into my district and answer questions from riders and businesses.”
According to an article in the Gothamist, Cuomo’s decision to look into alternatives to the L-Train shutdown came from an interaction with an angry Brooklynite who grabbed his lapels and demanded the governor do everything he possibly could to look for alternatives to the shutdown.
Quoting the stressed out business owner, Cuomo relayed the story. “He [the upset citizen] said, ‘Will you give me your word that you will check into this L train tunnel?’ I said, ‘I will give you my word, I will check into the L train tunnel.’ He said ‘OK, I’m taking you at your word.’”
A press conference was held Sunday, January 6, at the Lorimer Street Station, where elected officials including state senators and borough presidents gathered to address this new idea. According to an article by WNYC, lack of confidence in the MTA was one of the issues brought up. Regarding an MTA meeting about the plan on Thursday, Borough President Eric Adams was not convinced the people there could answer his questions. “We didn’t have the engineers in the room and we didn’t have the Department of Transportation in the room.”
Another concern, voiced by Representative Carolyn Maloney, is that the start time on the project might be delayed far past April because the federal government will have to pay for and approve this plan whilst we are in the middle of a government shutdown. It has been speculated that this new plan will cost less than the old plan, and a suggestion has been made that any savings from choosing the new plan should go towards making the subway stations ADA-accessible.
Who knows? Maybe this new technology will be our last-minute subway savior. The MTA has accepted the proposal. There is no word on a date and time for a public MTA meeting to discuss all the issues, yet.
We at GoGreen BK are interested to see how this new plan, if approved, will actually work out. Will keeping the L Train open while completing the work just result in an elongated time of delayed train service? Are we really still getting better G, 7, and M Train service and longer trains (please), and those expanded bike lanes that were talked about? We shall see. And we will keep you updated as new information keeps rolling in. Meanwhile, ride on, and take the arrival times on the screen with a grain of salt!