With the closure of R train service from Brooklyn to Manhattan, Bay Ridge residents face the prospect of daily headache-inducing transfers onto overcrowded trains. However, lawmakers and activists are making efforts to ease the pains that commuters will feel for the next 14 months.
The Montague Street Tunnel closure for repairs from damage that occurred during Superstorm Sandy will split R train service into two routes, one within Brooklyn and one through Manhattan and Queens, until October 2014. Since the R is the only train that has stops in Bay Ridge, neighborhood commuters need assistance.
The most important transportation addition is the re-opening of the 58th Street Ferry Service from Southwest Brooklyn to Wall Street and Midtown, announced in a recent press release from the offices of Councilman Vincent Gentile and Council Speaker Christine Quinn. The ferry service is being provided by the New York City Economic Development Corp. and will charge riders $2 a ride.
“I am pleased to have worked with the Mayor’s Office, Speaker Quinn and the New York City Economic Development Corp. to make this possible. Having this temporary ferry will ease commutes for those who use the R train, so I encourage people to skip the train crowds and use the ferry which will get you to Wall Street in 15 minutes and then to midtown thereafter,” Councilman Gentile said in the press release.
The MTA also granted the request for an increase in X27 express-bus service from Brooklyn to Downtown Manhattan. According to Straphangers Campaign Coordinator Cate Contino, the number of X27 buses is increasing by 25 percent. However, the cost of the ride will remain at $6 instead of going down to the fare of a local bus, as the working group requested.
These requests and many others that have yet to be fulfilled were made by The Riders Alliance, one of the groups participating in finding solutions. In a letter written in June to Mayor Bloomberg and Tom Prendergast, chairman of the MTA, it requested specific measures to be taken to “accommodate riders during this extraordinary period of construction.” The alliance has since worked with lawmakers and other groups such as the Straphangers Campaign to make some of these requests a reality.
The Riders Alliance also requested an increase in train service on lines that R riders can transfer to such as the D, N, 4, and 5 trains. Although the city has reached its limit on the number of trains that can continually take riders for most routes, Councilman Gentile’s office and Contino both confirmed that the city will add something known as gap trains that wait nearby in case there are delays on certain trains.
The Straphangers alliance is leading the working group in talks with the city on expanding bike-share service in Brooklyn for R train riders. The Riders Alliance also suggested this idea in their letter.
One thing that all parties involved certainly agree on is the necessity of these repairs. Council Member Domenic M. Recchia, Jr., chair of the Finance Committee, said that the MTA was making “needed repairs” on the Montague St. Tunnel in the press release on ferry service. The letter from the Riders Alliance stated members of the organization “fully understand the need for extensive construction to repair damage from Superstorm Sandy.”
“No one disputes these are absolutely necessary repairs,” said Contino. She insisted that completely shutting the tunnel for 14 months was a better solution than the MTA’s alternative of closing the R every weekend until 2017.
Contino also mentioned that the working group was to meet with the MTA again on August 2. The hope is that the MTA, lawmakers, and activists will continue meeting to find more alternatives for R train commuters.