Benjamin Kabak

On December 17, 2001, the V train made its first controversial run from Queens to Manhattan. Nearly five months earlier, on July 23, 2001, the W had made its first run from Brooklyn to Astoria via the Manhattan Bridge and the BMT Broadway line. Today marks a sad day in the history of those two trains as later this evening they will each run their last route before suffering at the hands of the MTA’s planned service cuts.

On Monday morning, the rush hour will be chaotic. Subway riders in Astoria will see the Q arrive instead of the W, and while the N will make local stops in Manhattan, the Q as the W’s replacement will still run express along Broadway. Meanwhile, those in Middle Village will be even more confused when their M trains go from Essex St. to Broadway/Lafayette via the Chrystie St. Cut. Along Queens Boulevard, the V train will be a part of New York subway history, lost to a budget crisis and a lack of funding from Albany.

For many New Yorkers, the deaths of these train lines will be unnoticed. V riders will hop the M without a second thought, and while some Brooklyn riders from Bay Parkway will miss the M, most people will go about their subway-riding lives with nary a thought to it. But for others, the deaths of these subway lines means funeral.

One Astoria resident is hosting a remembrance of the W train tonight. Bill Reese is celebrating the “short, complicated and often pathetic life of our beloved W.” At 10 p.m., he and other W train riders will gather at Ditmars Boulevard to ride the last W train to Union Square. They’ll hop the return train — the ultimate W to head to Astoria — before celebrating at the beer garden. It is a wake fit for a train, and rumor has it that the organizer will be decked out in W train paraphernalia.

Reese isn’t the only one mourning the death of subway lines. In fact, some politicians are exploiting the moment to gain the spotlight as well. Peter Vallone will join Transportation Alternatives at 8:30 this morning to ostensibly call for more transit funding. I’m surprised to see Vallone lend his name and face to this campaign as he hasn’t been very transit-friendly. Later in the day at 8:15 p.m., Transportation Alternatives will rally in Astoria for better transit before also heading to the beer garden. Service cuts make for strange bedfellows.

The V train too will be feted as NYCentric and Newmindspace, the creators of the hipster-haven that is the New York City pillow fight, have organized a final V train ride. Revelers will gather at Second Ave. before 11 to ride the last V train, set to arrive in Forest Hills at 12:11 a.m. Those who join are encouraged to wear orange.

As New Yorkers celebrate these trains, though, it’s important to remember that these service cuts are going to impact everyone. Some Bronx residents can’t get to the nearest pool. Others will find their neighborhood buses unceremoniously eliminated. Others will find longer waits and crowded trains during off-peak hours. Service cuts are unpleasant business.

One day, the MTA may restore service when its finances improve. Today, though, is a sad day for the millions of New Yorkers who depend upon the subways and buses to take them to work, school and fun. In a city so dependent upon transit, these cuts show just how ineffective our state government is. Will anyone be held accountable?

After the jump, some info about the final rides of the M, V and W trains in their current configurations.

Updated (11:45 a.m.): Nearly six years ago, the MTA changed its service patterns and didn’t tell anyone. In 2004, when the Manhattan Bridge reopened, service patterns along the B, D, Q and N trains changed in parts of three boroughs, and riders ignored the warnings.

In the build-up to the services changes, the MTA tried to draw out as many people as they could. Mayor Bloomberg and the city’s politicos took a heavily-publicized ride across the Manhattan Bridge. The TA printed new maps that celebrated the system’s centennial anniversary while drawing attention to the new service patterns across the Manhattan Bridge. After two decades of construction, the publicity campaigns were tremendous.

Still, many riders were left confused. Tourists bound for one part of the city found themselves a river away from their destination, and people trying to get home ended up bound for the 4th Ave. stations instead of the Brighton Line. Despite numerous employees with new maps, a signage blitz that alerted riders to the new patterns and a lot of media attention, a good number of New Yorkers ignored the warnings.

Enter 2010. This weekend, the MTA will cut two train lines and re-route a third. These are the most significant service changes since the Manhattan Bridge reopened in 2004, and for the last month, the MTA has gone on the offensive. Posters, such as the one at right, have appeared in stations throughout the system instructing straphangers of the changes. New maps have been available since early June. The bullet decals throughout the system have been changed. It’s impossible to miss the fact that the service is going to change.

Yet, in a brief article in Metro, Carly Baldwin found people who have no idea service cuts are coming. Two-thirds of passengers polled on a rush-hour M train had no idea, says Baldwin, that the train would soon be destined for Forest Hills by way of 6th Ave. “What? Are you serious?” Jose Gonzalez said of the service change. “This sucks. The M train is right by my house. Now I’ll have to change trains.”

I couldn’t believe that people could be this ignorant of the subway service changes. Although the bus cuts have been less transparent, signs are up at every bus stop in the system where the service will change, and the subways are plastered with signs. As my girlfriend said tonight when I told her of the widespread ignorance, “What do you mean? It’s been everywhere. The signs are everywhere. The brochures are everywhere. The new maps are up.”

Beyond the MTA’s own efforts at alerting people, the service cuts have been in the news since January. It’s true that the Student MetroCards may have dominating the coverage, but the subway cuts have not gone unreported in the papers and on TV and the radio. Anyone who doesn’t know service is going to change this weekend simply hasn’t been paying attention.

And therein lies the rub. People don’t pay much attention to the MTA. They don’t read weekend service signs; they don’t listen to on-board announcements; they don’t educate themselves about transit issues. They simply ride the trains and complain. Maybe the misleading politicians drown out the MTA’s own press efforts; maybe people just don’t want to know. Whatever the reason, New Yorkers are generally woefully under-educated about transit happenings.

So on Monday, confusion will rein supreme. Wall Street-bound M riders will be surprised to find their train at Broadway and Lafayette. Those waiting for the W will be in a for a long wait. The riders will blame the MTA; the MTA will have to herd the crowds. It will be business as usual in the subways.

With the MTA’s service cuts to subway and bus service now just a handful of days away from becoming a reality, neighborhood associations are finally waking up to the reality of the situation. Although the cuts were first announced in January and the MTA hosted hearings on their plans over the winter, many have either ignored the news or been in denial. No longer, though, will a group of Brooklynites remain silent.

A group of protesters will gather this afternoon at 5 p.m. at Union St. and Smith St. in Carroll Gardens to protest the impending end of the B71. While the group’s press release claims the bus runs to Red Hook, the route in reality goes from Crown Heights to Van Brunt and Sackeet Sts. in Cobble Hill. This bus is near and dear to me because it stops around the corner from where I live, and the neighborhood association is now asking Assembly-woman Joan Millman, State Senator Daniel Squadron and City Councilman Brad Lander to do something.

“If this bus disappears, our developing neighborhood will be left completely in the lurch,” Brad Kerr of the Columbia Street Waterfront Association said. “We have no other public transportation, no subway, and the MTA is not offering any alternative. This move will hurt everyone who’ve struggled for years to rebuild this area.”

When I first received word of this rally, I raised a skeptical eyebrow. The B71 runs twice an hour, often not on time and with few people on board. Buses that run down Bergen and 9th Sts., while not as convenient, will pick up some of the slack, and the protest just seemed ill-timed to me. Why were these associations waiting until four days before the cuts are put into place to raise their voices?

I posed some of these questions to Marta Heilborn, a B71 rider who is part-organizer of these protests. She told me that she didn’t know about the MTA’s hearings or cuts sooner. Else, she would have started protesting then. She also informed me that she supported a congestion pricing plan that would have funded the MTA.

At the same time, the organization’s press release questions why the MTA has not used stimulus funds to help cover a gap. But, as I’ve said, even with stimulus funds, the MTA would still be staring down a $300 million. The cuts would go on anyway.

In 90 minutes, when residents gather, it will be too late. There is, of course, an online petition, but who will listen? The MTA doesn’t have the money to restore service, and the politicians seem content to put in perfunctory appearances at community protests without offering any legislative or economic solutions.

So protest away, I say. Get that outrage on the record. Make sure the politicians are listening, though, because this situation is just as much their faults as it is the MTA. Just don’t expect that bus line to be miraculously saved tomorrow. The cuts are coming.