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MTA Plans to Add Additional Subway Service on L, 7, 2 and M Lines

By Sybile Penhirin | April 24, 2015 3:38pm | Updated on April 27, 2015 8:49am
 The MTA wants to add additional service on the L, 7, 2 and M lines, the agency said on April 24, 2015.
The MTA wants to add additional service on the L, 7, 2 and M lines, the agency said on April 24, 2015.
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NEW YORK CITY — The MTA has proposed adding more trains on its most crowded lines to decrease waiting times, the agency said Friday. 

Additional service would be added on the 7, L, 2 and M lines, mostly during off-peak hours, which showed the highest ridership growth last year, according to the MTA. The agency plans to add the new trains in December. 

The most significant service increase would come on the L line, as it experienced the greatest ridership growth at all hours in 2014, the MTA said.

Straphangers have been complaining about the line's service for years. 

Under the MTA proposal, seven additional L train round trips would be added on weekdays between 10:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. 

The additional trips would help boost overall coverage, and would reduce the average wait time between trains to 5 minutes during the morning and evening rush hours, a spokeswoman for the MTA said.

Just last year, weekday ridership increased by 11.5 percent at the Bushwick Avenue-Aberdeen L station, the MTA said. During peak hours in 2014, an average of 27,000 people hopped on the L train at the Bedford Avenue station, making it the busiest L station last year, the agency added.

The 7 and 2 lines would also both get two additional round trips on weeknights under the plan. The new rides would be added between 8 p.m. and 10:20 p.m. on the 7 line, and between 8:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. on the 2 line.

The MTA said the Flushing Main Street 7 station moved more than 60,000 straphangers on average per weekday last year, more that the Chambers Street A/C, World Trade Center E, and and Park Place 2/3 stations combined. 

The M line would also see one more round trip added on weekdays, bringing the wait time to roughly 7 minutes between trains running from 9 a.m. and 9.30 a.m., according to the agency's press release.

The new plan would result in the cutting of two D trains, one during the morning and one during the evening rush hours, increasing the average wait time between trains to 10 minutes from 7:30 a.m. and 8 a.m. for Brooklyn-bound trains and from 5:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. for Bronx-bound trains. 

The changes, which would cost approximately $1.6 million annually, now have to be approved by the Transit Committee and the MTA board, a spokeswoman for the agency said, adding that the votes should take place in the coming weeks.