BUSHWICK — The MTA will attempt to soothe anxieties over upcoming L and M train repairs at a public meeting Thursday night.
MTA officials will address the public at the Achievement First Bushwick Middle School on the next five years of transit change, starting with the prolonged M train shutdown at all stops north of Myrtle-Broadway which is set to begin in the summer of 2017.
Dozens of residents who live within feet of the M train viaduct will be forced to leave their homes during the construction to allow repair crews to demolish and rebuild two sections of the aboveground M train tracks. Crews have to remove a metal bridge between the Fresh Pond Road and Middle Village stops as well as a crumbling, concrete viaduct just north of Broadway.
By next fall, shuttle train service will reopen along the northern-most section of the M line reconnecting the severed link between Middle Village and the Myrtle-Wyckoff stop. Service between Broadway and Wyckoff won't be back up again for around another seven months, according to MTA officials.
In addition to #Mtrainproblems, the MTA will inform commuters about the @Lpocalypse, as critics have dubbed it, which will cut off all L train service between North Brooklyn and Manhattan beginning in 2019 to allow for repairs on the Sandy-damaged Canarsie tube that runs beneath the East River.
The M train repairs need to be completed before the Canarsie Tube shuts down for repairs so that it can absorb many of the additional riders, officials said.
MTA officials say they'll decide by August whether or not to choose a full or partial shutdown of the L train tunnel. A full shutdown would take 18 months, while a partial shutdown could last for up to three years.
Two possible glimmers of light at the end of the Canarsie Tunnel are that the MTA has said it plans to double the length of G trains during the L train shutdown, using cars from the then-halted L train line.
MTA officials are adding noise dampeners to the M train tracks near Broadway where the train turns north, making it less squeaky once construction is complete.
The public meeting is scheduled to happen on Thursday July 7, 5:30 p.m. at Achievement First Bushwick Middle School located at 1300 Greene Ave. (Inside I.S. 383 building)
