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View from Underground

An end to the Yanks’ Great Subway Race controversy

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on April 6, 2011

The Yanks' own subway trains are going the way of the dodo. (Photo by Benjamin Kabak)

For the baseball fans among us, the subways often play an integral part in our enjoyment of the sport. If I’m heading to see my Yankees play in the Bronx, I’ll always take the B, D or 4 train, and if I’m venturing out to Coney Island for a Cyclones game or Flushing to see the Mets, the subways are always the way to go. In the Bronx, the Yankees have long embraced the subway by featuring the Great City Subway Race on the jumbotron, and although I’ve bemoaned the inaccuracies of the scoreboard entertainment in the past, the subway race is a quintessential Noo Yawk part of the Yankee Stadium experience.

Imagine my surprise then when, during the fourth inning of Opening Day, the subway race no longer featured MTA trains. Instead of the B, D and 4 trains, the Yanks were using three trains labeled Road Gray, Midnight Blue and Pinstripes. The animated contest still started at Herald Square and Grand Central, but the trains weren’t a part of New York’s subway system.

Once I got home from the game and thawed off from the cold, I got on the horn with the MTA, and authority sources told me the change seemed to stem from a misunderstanding. As I reported over at River Ave. Blues, when the Yankees first started the subway race, they asked the MTA for permission to use the transit agency’s intellectual property. The subway bullets, after all, are MTA trademarks, and the authority granted that permission, for free, as long as the Yankees did not attach a sponsor to the race. Here, the story gets a little fuzzy. The Yankees had long had Dunkin Donuts sponsoring the race; the 4 train was frequently slowed by a jelly donut in the tracks. The MTA though didn’t seem to notice a sponsor had signed on until last year when Subway took over.

Following the 2010 season, MTA sources tell me, the authority attempted to reach out to the Yankees to discuss the subway race sponsorship. At no point did the MTA ask the Yankees for money, and one person with whom I spoke said the MTA had no plans to do so. Rather, they were going to ask the Yankees to append a public service announcement to the subway race urging fans to take mass transit to the game. The Yankees though never returned the MTA’s calls, and the authority never had the chance to make this offer.

For its part, the MTA was disappointed. “The video race was considered a method to promote taking mass transit to games,” Kevin Ortiz said. ” We are disappointed the Yankees decided to change the look of the trains.”

Yet, this story has a happy ending as the Yanks and the MTA resolved their differences. The trains, as I noted at RAB, will return to the scoreboard tonight, and while the Yanks’ sponsorship will remain, the race will now conclude with a public service announcement concerning mass transit. “The Subway Race,” the authority said in a statement, “will continue to remind fans that taking the train to the game remains the quickest and least expensive way to get to the game.”

For the subways, all’s well that ends well. Yet, I wonder how the company running the South Bronx’s ridiculous $35-per-car parking lots feels about the whole thing. If the Yanks and the MTA are making a more vocal push to promote mass transit at the stadium, those parking lots, which shouldn’t have been built in the first place, will continue to remain empty.

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Buses

Video of the Day: Trike vs. M42 bus

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on April 6, 2011

Here’s a silly little stunt that makes a fairly obvious point: Mark Malkoff, a Queens filmmaker, raced an M42 bus from 10th Ave. to Madison Ave. and won. That’s not so much of an accomplishment until you realize that he did so on a child’s Big Wheel tricycle.

The Daily News has more on the race:

The 5-foot-7, 131-pound Malkoff set out at 1:18 p.m on Feb. 17 to test his pedal power against the MTA behemoth. Riding a Razor Rip Rider 360 he ordered off Amazon for $80, Malkoff waited for his unsuspecting opponent at the traffic light at 10th Ave. and 42nd St. “Once the green light went, the bus was destroying me,” Malkoff said. “Then we were neck and neck for a while, and suddenly I was able to propel myself faster.”

Wearing a bicycle helmet, he made sure to obey all traffic signals as he rode in the street. “I was nervous about what the police would think, but … they just kind of smiled,” he said.

He mounted a flip-camera to the handlebars and had a team of camera operators following him as he reached speeds of 4.7 mph. Malkoff made it to Madison Ave. in 12 minutes and 42 seconds. The bus took 15 minutes and 20 seconds to cover the same distance at an average of 3.9 mph.

Those who watch the buses for a living weren’t surprised. “It’s a fact of New York life, but it’s awful,” Gene Ruissianoff said. “That bus is actually slower than a running chicken.” In fact, the Straphangers Campaign had given the M42 its Pokey Award in 2010. Between the surface congestion and the dwell times as stations as passengers dip their MetroCards, the M42 is a bus fit for a snail.

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Subway Security

A few months late, Help Point pilot debuts

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on April 6, 2011

Created specifically for the subway environment, the Help Point is designed to be an easily recognizable communications tool for customers who need to either report an emergency or ask for travel directions. Photo by Felix Candelaria for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Once upon a time, back in 2005, a shop called Antenna Design built a prototype for an in-system intercom that would provide an immediately recognizable beacon for emergency communications. Termed Help Point, the intercom system won a Bronze medal at the 2006 IDEA Awards and has been a part of the Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection since 2006. It was also included in an exhibit at MoMA in 2005 entitled SAFE: Design Takes on Risk. For a device that hadn’t yet seen the light of day, it had an impressive pedigree.

Last fall, in an effort to ensure a safer subway system amidst personnel cuts, the MTA announced a Help Point Intercom pilot program. By the end of 2010, two stations would be outfitted with these intercoms in an effort to determine whether or not the design worked and how feasible it would be to bring the blue-light beacons to the system’s remaining 466 stations.

Yesterday, a few months late, the MTA unveiled the pilot. At both 23rd St. and Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall along the Lexington Ave. IRT line, these Help Point Intercoms have gone live. With their blue lights, they are evocative of safety features often highlighted on tours of college campuses, and the MTA has high hopes for the design.

“These Help Points will make our subway system safer and easier to use, expanding access to assistance throughout stations in a way that wasn’t possible before,” MTA Chairman & CEO Jay H. Walder said. “This is just another step in our efforts to bring new technology to customers in ways that make using the transit system better every day.”

These intercoms, a far cry from the ones currently in use that are so easy to ignore and hardly ever work, are designed to be “highly visible and easy to use.” Nine of them are in place at 23rd St., and another ten have been put along the platform at the Brooklyn Bridge stop. As part of the pilot, the MTA is also working to determine whether wireless communications or a hard-wired line will better fit their needs.

In terms of functionality, the new ADA-compliant devices have both an emergency call button and a green information button that will connect straphangers with the station agent on duty. As Transportation Nation’s Jim O’Grady notes in covering what he aptly calls new subway emergency thingies, the audio quality will be digital and much improved over the current intercom system. “The older devices,” he writes, “did not have digital audio, which sometimes made it hard to hear and be heard. They also had an indistinct design that made them blend with their surroundings–few riders knew where they were or what to do with them.”

Transit head Thomas Prendergast highlighted these improvements as well. “These units have a fresh new appearance that will make the Help Points easy to identify. The sound will be crisp, clear and easy to understand which is an important feature especially in the subway environment,” he said. “As designed, the Help Points are major step beyond the Customer Assistance Intercoms now in our stations.”

As the pilot is beginning, the MTA is vague on future plans. The authority says that “the plan calls for the installation of the Help Points in all of the system’s 468 subway stations.” Early estimates put the per-station cost at $300,000, and the MTA would have to purchase 5000 intercoms to place one every 150 feet on station platforms. Total installation costs for the entire system then would reach $139,800,000. Maintenance costs would be substantial as well, and the MTA doesn’t exactly have the cash on hand right now. Can the MTA makes us safer without spending the dollars?

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7 Line Extension

Photo of the Day: Inside the 7 line extension

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on April 5, 2011

Progress of station cavern construction for No. 7 Extension as of April 2011. Photo by Clayton Price for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

As progress underneath the Far West Side proceeds apace, the MTA sent its photographer Clayton Price underground to snap some photos of the 7 line extension. The photos focus on the excavation of a three-block-long station cavern at 34th St. and 11th Ave. that is 85 percent finished and on target for a September 2012 completion date.

As the extension stretches toward its December 2013 revenue service date, the MTA’s contractors have completed the concrete pours that create the main cavern arches. A systems contract, which will cover rail track, all mechanical, electrical and related systems throughout the tunnels, station, ventilation buildings and the main subway entrance at 34th Street, will be awarded this July. This is the final contract for 7 line extension as the secondary station entrance is, in the words of the MTA, “not necessary” for the 7 to start serving the Hudson Yards area.

Unfortunately, the station at 41st and 10th Ave. seems to be a lost cause right now. It’s no longer part of the dialogue and attempts to secure funding for a feasibility study failed. While this one-stop, $2.1-billion extension will bring subway service to an area of the city badly in need of it, failing to include that other station near Hell’s Kitchen will go down in city history as yet another missed transit opportunity.

For more photos from the station cavern, check out the MTA’s flickr photoset.

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Buses

Recommended Reading: What future NYC BRT?

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on April 5, 2011

This great idea remains alive only on paper. (Image via NYC DOT)

In the wake of the death of the 34th St. Transitway, transit advocates have been down on the state of citywide bus improvements. Everyone in New York admits that buses are too slow, but an ambitious plan to bring physically separated bus lanes with dedicated rights-of-way to Midtown has been replaced by another half-hearted proposal to paint some stripes on the street and call it a bus lane.

With the demise of the Transitway, none of the Mayor’s plans to slowly bring bus improvements to the five boroughs will include a “best practices” approach to BRT. While pre-boarding fare payment plans will speed up bus dwell times, the vehicles won’t enjoy the benefits of a dedicate ROW. To improve bus service then will require stringent bus lane enforcement efforts and true signal prioritization efforts.

Over at Streetsblog, Noah Kazis took a few minutes to wonder about the future of BRT. He writes, in part:

It seems likely that without physical separation on 34th Street, there won’t be physical separation on any bus lanes implemented before the end of the Bloomberg Administration. The remaining routes in the city’s first phase of BRT rollout — on the Nostrand Avenue corridor in Brooklyn and Hylan Boulevard in Staten Island — are scheduled to debut in the next two years and do not include physically separated lanes…

“A number of the environmental and transportation groups are starting to recognize that the next administration after Bloomberg is going to have to answer to us on where they stand on these issues that have been wildly popular for New Yorkers,” said Kate Slevin of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign.

Though a new physically separated busway is unlikely to be constructed in the next three years, said Joan Byron of the Pratt Center for Community Development, “Planning can happen and dialogue with stakeholders can happen that make it a lot more likely that the next phase is gets built and has those features.” Byron said she hopes that the BRT team at DOT can assemble a coalition along its next routes that can politically lock in full-featured bus improvements. “There are workers and residents and employers in the outer boroughs who would love to have this problem of a Select Bus route running by their door,” she said.

To get dedicated busways, the city will have to change its outreach approach. It’s going to have engage folks like Joan Byron of the Pratt Center and work with Community Boards to explain why dedicated lanes are necessary. It’s not enough to propose these improvements by fiat, but rather, DOT must educate New Yorkers who aren’t familiar with the rationale behind transitway improvements.

For now, the 34th St. changes are a set-back, but their ramifications echo into the future. It’s not too late to bring dedicated bus lanes to the city, but it will require stronger and more inclusive leadership than what we have seen so far. To improve the buses, we’ll need it.

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CTA

From Chicago, a glimpse at the subway real estate future

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on April 5, 2011

The MTA has frequently come under fire for its real estate holdings. Politicians and advocates believe that the authority doesn’t make proper use of the space it both rents and owns, and underground, commercial opportunities are decidedly low rent. It is a problem the MTA is trying to solve in order to generate more money.

A few weeks ago, news broke that the authority may try to offload some real estate holdings as part of the overall overhaul of the way the MTA works. Meanwhile, back in November, MTA CEO and Chairman Jay Walder spoke to me about the need to find a more diverse and appealing group of businesses willing to take out space underground. It’s a process.

In Chicago, the CTA is engaged in a similar process, and the Windy City’s Tribune profiled that authority’s real estate overhaul. Jon Hilkevitch reports:

The Chicago Transit Authority, which has its hands full running trains and buses, concedes it has no business managing the retail concessions on its properties. Sixty-six of the 137 concession spaces at CTA rail stations are vacant, according to the transit agency. Commuters aren’t exactly missing their trains to buy the snacks and refreshments available at the open concession stands either.

The grimy appearance of CTA subway tunnels extends up the escalators to many of the vendor stalls, which haven’t been overhauled in decades. A campaign is beginning to upgrade the selection of offerings to commuters and boost CTA rental income by attracting new retail tenants, including national chains that would operate rail station stores in multiple CTA stations, officials said…

Commuters may soon be able to drop off their dry cleaning, conduct other business or just buy a cup of coffee right inside or next door to their “L” stop. The two newest leases are with Maui Wowi Hawaiian, a coffee and smoothie shop that will open at the CTA Belmont station serving the Red, Brown and Purple/Evanston Express lines; and Lupito’s juice bar at the Damen station on the Pink Line, officials said. Both businesses are scheduled to open this spring.

Upscale merchandise could become part of the mix too. Vending machines that feature iPods and digital cameras are deployed at increasing numbers of airports, and they may turn up at CTA rail stations as well. The CTA is considering vending machines that dispense DVDs and electronics at select rail stations, CTA President Richard Rodriguez has said.

There’s more than a little amount of common sense involved in the CTA’s thinking. While many of their stations have a more visible ground-level component than New York’s do, the simple idea of placing vending machines in stations could be one that tips. Why shouldn’t I be able to grab a DVD from a Redbox machine at Grand Army Plaza? If the MTA can maintain its MetroCard Vending Machines and if my local Key Food can keep in better working order than its credit card readers, convenience would demand one in the subway.

Of course, the idea that the subway is for anything other than commuting is tough sell. Other than concession stands, businesses aren’t drawn to the subways because of its negative connotations. It’s dirty; it’s dark; it’s delayed. I prefer my dry cleaners to inhabit a clean building with some modicum of proper venting instead of the dirt- and rat-infested subway system.

Still, money is tight. Transit agencies have to get creative with their rent-seeking efforts, and perhaps Chicago is on to something. As New York searches for a similar solution, they could do far worse than to take a cue from our neighbors to the west.

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Subway Advertising

Photo of the Day: Ad-covered turnstile arms

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on April 4, 2011

Photo by Benjamin Kabak

For the past few years, the MTA has decorated its turnstile arms at Herald Square with a variety of advertisements. Other transit agencies across the country had eked out some dollars selling sponsorships on their entry gates, and the authority had hoped to do the same in New York. The early ads never really spread beyond the busy 34th St. station though.

Over the last few days, however, I’ve seen the ads creep southward. Last week, when I arrived at West 4th St., I noticed blue wraps on the southern turnstiles. The ads — supporting New York’s anti-smoking campaign — are on the three turnstile arms on each of the entry gates at the West 3rd St. entrance to the station, and it’s a part of the MTA’s attempts to squeeze dry its advertising potential.

I posted the photo to my Twitter account earlier today, and one reader questioned the wisdom of these ads. Should the MTA be hosting advertisements that will make straphangers slow down to reach the ad info or jot down a phone number as they swipe through at a busy and hectic station? I’ll leave that one up to you, dear reader, to decide.

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MTA Politics

MTA to restore WEP program

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on April 4, 2011

From the mid-1990s through the mid-2000s, the MTA took part in a welfare-related work experience program that required a certain number of welfare recipients to work as station cleaners underground. The authority used the WEP program to promote station cleanliness without the costs associated with unionized labor, and while Roger Toussaint’s TWU had long objected, Willie James, the one-team president of Local 100, had ushered in the program back in 1996.

Now, amidst employee cuts and complaints of dirtier stations, the MTA is going to bring back the program. “This is a program that has a proven track record of doing three things: providing low-cost cleaning help for the subway; providing job training to people who need it, and leading directly to full-time employment for many of the people who participate in the program,” MTA spokesman Jeremy Soffin said to the Daily News last week.

Even as over the years, WEP workers moved into union positions with full-time wages and benefits, New Yorkers seem mixed on this program. I can’t fathom why anyone would complain about the potential for cleaner trains or stations, but Pete Donohue sums up the thinking in his column today.

News that welfare recipients will be given mops and brooms to earn their benefits by cleaning the subways elicited strong reactions last week. Some readers viewed it as a further erosion of unions because the MTA would be getting free labor instead of having to pay a decent wage with benefits.

Others thought it a novel idea that could give welfare recipients useful work experience and riders a more palatable environment. Still others – prejudging all welfare recipients as lazy layabouts who would finally have to do something for their handouts – considered it a measure of justice.

Basically, those reactions run the gamut, but if the WEP workers bring even a modicum of cleanliness or order to a system overwhelmed by trash, I can’t see too many people complaining for much longer.

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Buses

For Long Island Bus, a temporary reprieve

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on April 4, 2011

Nassau County has not invested in its own bus system. (Graph via TSTC)

Thanks to last-minute action by the New York State Senate, Nassau County bus riders will be spared a slate of cuts that would have decimated Long Island Bus service. On Friday, the MTA, Nassau County and Senator Republicans led by Charles Fuschillo (R, Merrick) and Jack Martins (R-C-I, Mineola) announced an $8.6 million compromise that will see the MTA receive half of the money it wanted in exchange for a commitment to keep service alive through December 31. It’s a start but only that.

“We have heard from many of our constituents that depend on Long Island Bus services to get to work, school or go shopping,” Senate Majority Leader Dean G. Skelos said in a statement. “They are very concerned that if these cuts go through, they will have no other way to get around. Fortunately, we were able to reach an agreement to avert the cuts and prevent any disruption in service. I want to thank Senator Fuschillo and Senator Martins for their leadership in responding to this issue.”

Essentially, the Senate has made $8.6 million in capital money available to the MTA for LI Bus operations. This will be added to the $52.4 million appropriate by the 2011-2012 budget for the service, and the 27 route cuts will be off the table. Nassau County though says it will still seek to remove the MTA as the service’s operator by the end of the year.

“I applaud the efforts of our Nassau County State Senators for working with me to come together in support of our residents that rely on Long Island Bus for their transportation needs,” Nassau County Executive Edward Mangano, who has called for MTA CEO and Chairman Jay Walder’s resignation over the conflict, said. “Their assistance ensures that all current bus routes will remain intact. I remain committed to fostering communication and working with the MTA to ensure a smooth transition as we enter a public-private partnership starting January 2012. This public-private partnership will enable us to provide comparable bus routes at a much more affordable rate to Nassau County taxpayers.”

Transit advocates though were less than thrilled with the news simply because Mangano’s insistence on attempting to privatize the service seems to be utterly failing. “Over the coming months, Nassau County will have to show the same type of leadership,” the Tri-State Transportation Campaign said in a statement. “The deal gives Nassau County Executive Mangano more time to come up with a workable proposal for a local transit system. None of the privatization schemes released by the county so far appear to qualify. Affordable transit that maintains access to jobs, education, and social services is critical to the county’s economy and quality of life.”

It’s tough to see where this debacle goes from here. As Jim O’Grady at Transportation Nation noted this weekend, “Nassau County is one of the richest counties in the nation, but has, over the years, run its finances into the ground.”

The county is going to have to figure out a way to either work with the MTA or find a better solution. Privatization, in the model Mangano envisions, isn’t feasible. The County will likely have to pay more for transit under a privatized solution, and it can’t continue to expect the state to bail it out when its executive starts behaving like a spoiled child who doesn’t understand his constituents’ needs or demands. For now, the bus service has been saved, and while politicians are slapping themselves on the back, this is hardly a great cause for celebration.

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Service Advisories

Weekend work impacting 12 subway lines

by Benjamin Kabak
written by Benjamin Kabak on April 2, 2011

It’s Friday, Friday, gotta get the service advisories published on Friday. Subway Weekender has the map. Otherwise, you know the drill.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, April 2 to 5 a.m. Monday, April 4, Bronx-bound 2 trains skip Bronx Park East, Pelham Parkway, Allerton and Burke Avenues due to track circuit work at Bronx Park East.


From 4 a.m. Saturday, April 2 to 10 p.m. Sunday April 3, Bronx-bound 2 trains skip Jackson Avenue, Prospect Avenue, Intervale Avenue, Simpson Street, Freeman Street, 174th Street and East Tremont Avenue due to track panel installation at Freeman Street and 174th Street. Customers traveling to these stations should take the 2 to East 180th Street and transfer to a Manhattan-bound 2.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, April 2 to 5 a.m. Monday, April 4, 4 trains run local between 125th Street and Brooklyn Bridge in both directions due to track work at Grand Central-42nd Street and gap filler replacement at 14th Street-Union Square.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, April 2 to 5 a.m. Monday, April 4, Manhattan-bound 4 trains run local from Utica Avenue to Atlantic Avenue due to platform edge rehabilitation and/or replacement at Franklin Avenue.


From 1 a.m. Saturday, April 2 to 5 a.m. Monday, April 4, 4 trains skip Fulton Street in both directions due to work at the Fulton Street Transit Center. Customers traveling to or from this station should take the 2, 3, A, C or J shuttle instead. Note: J shuttle trains run between Chambers Street/Brooklyn Bridge and Fulton Street.


From 6 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. Saturday, April 2 and from 8 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. Sunday, April 3, 5 trains:

  • Run every 20 minutes between 149th Street-Grand Concourse and Bowling Green.
  • Skip Fulton Street in both directions.
  • Run local between 125th Street and Brooklyn Bridge in both directions.

These changes are due to track work at Grand Central-42nd Street, gap filler replacement at 14th Street-Union Square and work at the Fulton Street Transit Center.


From 11:30 p.m. Friday, April 1 to 5 a.m. Monday, April 4, 5 service is suspended between Dyre Avenue and 149 Street-Grand Concourse due to work on track signals north of East 180th Street. Customers should take the 2 between East 180th Street and 149th Street-Grand Concourse. Free shuttle buses are available between East 180th Street and Dyre Avenue.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, April 2 to 5 a.m. Monday, April 4, Bronx-bound 6 trains skip Whitlock Avenue and Morrison Avenue-Soundview due to station rehabilitation at Elder Avenue and St. Lawrence Avenue.


From 4 .m. Saturday, April 2 to 10 p.m. Sunday, April 3, free shuttle buses replace 7 trains between Flushing-Main Street and Mets-Willets Point due to switch renewal work south of Mets-Willets Point. Customers may transfer between the 7 and free shuttle bus at Mets-Willets Point.


From 10:30 p.m. Friday, April 1 to 5 a.m. Monday, April 4, free shuttle buses replace A trains between Beach 90th Street and Far Rockaway due to station rehabilitations. Note: At all times until early summer, Manhattan-bound A platforms at Beach 36th and Beach 60th Streets are closed for station rehabilitation.


From 6:30 a.m. to midnight, Saturday, April 2 and Sunday, April 3, downtown C trains skip 50th, 23rd, and Spring Streets due to work on the Broadway/Lafayette-to-Bleecker Street transfer construction.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, April 2 to 5 a.m. Monday, April 4, Brooklyn-bound D trains run on the N line from 36th Street to Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue due to structural repair and station rehabilitations. There are no Brooklyn-bound D trains between 9th Avenue and Bay 50th Street stations.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, April 2 to 5 a.m. Monday, April 4, Brooklyn-bound D trains run local from 42nd Street to West 4th Street due to platform edge rehabilitation at 34th Street.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, April 2 to 5 a.m. Monday, April 4, Queens-bound F trains run on the M line from 47th-50th Sts. to Queens Plaza due to track replacement south of 57th Street-6th Avenue.


From 12:01 a.m. Saturday, April 2 to Monday, April 4, Brooklyn-bound F trains run on the A line from West 4th Street to Jay Street-MetroTech due to work on the Broadway/ Lafayette-to-Bleecker Street transfer construction.


From 3:30 a.m. Saturday, April 2 to 10 p.m. Sunday, April 3, J service is suspended between Jamaica Center and Crescent Street due to track work between Woodhaven Blvd. and 111th Street. Customers should take the E to Jamaica-Van Wyck. Free shuttle buses are available between Jamaica-Van Wyck E station and the Crescent Street J station.


From 12:15 a.m. to 6 a.m., Saturday, April 2, from 12:15 a.m. to 7 a.m., Sunday. April 3 and from 12:12 a.m. to 5 a.m., Monday, April 4, Q service is suspended between 57th Street-7th Avenue and Atlantic Avenue due to track work. Customers should take the N instead. Q trains run every 30 minutes between Atlantic Avenue and Coney Island-Stillwell Avenue.


From 11 p.m. Friday, April 1 to 5 a.m. Monday, April 4, A trains replace the Rockaway Park S shuttle between Broad Channel and Rockaway Park due to station rehabilitations.

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