If you want to get a strong reaction from a whole lot of people in Brooklyn, talk about F Train service and about how it can be improved. (Yes, the same holds true in most neighborhoods…and we don’t even want to get into the subject of the G Train or the L Train.) In any case, new-ish blogger Brooklyn Streets, Carroll Gardens has taken a strong interest in Ye Olde F Train and has started an online petition. The petition asks the MTA to extend the V Train to Brooklyn as a local and to run the F as an express from Coney Island. This makes an enormous amount of sense to us, which is why it’s probably going to prove so devilishly difficult to accomplish. It will certainly take a lot of pressure and some politcal allies since, astoundingly, the MTA has previously responded that because of work on the Culver Viaduct, (the elevated portion of track running next to Ninth Street and over the Gowanus) the earliest service can be expanded is 2012! The Kensington Brooklyn blog has been speaking up for F Train service improvement too. You can find the online petition here. The blogger spoke at the Carroll Gardens Neighborhood Association meeting the other night, and got a warm and interested response from residents.
Online Petition for an Express F Train
June 13th, 2007 · 5 Comments
Tags: Carroll Gardens · Subway
5 responses so far ↓
1 d // Jun 13, 2007 at 6:53 am
thanks for the link. improving the F line service is crucial, especially if congestion pricing goes into effect. folks in south bklyn will drive less if the subways are better. duh!
2 Anonymous // Jun 13, 2007 at 12:43 pm
I don’t understand why the V doesn’t go to Jay Street, or Delancy at the very least.
3 Anonymous // Jun 13, 2007 at 1:52 pm
I’m all for making an express F line but I have noticed 2 problems: 1) Something else would need to be done with the G as it uses the express tracks to turn around at 4th avenue. 2) the express track (4 tracks) only extend as far as church ave I believe. Shortly after becoming elevated there are only 3 available tracks. Unfortunately these are real hurdles to a much needed express F line 🙁
4 Adam // Jun 13, 2007 at 5:42 pm
anonymous: The V doesn’t go to Delancey because after 2nd Avenue, the line narrows to two tracks. Using the crossover after Delancey would be especially suboptimal because the train would have to leave the station, change tracks, and re-enter the station, holding up trains in *both* directions. It can’t terminate at Jay St because it’d get in the way of A and C trains. 2nd Av is pretty much the only place downtown along the original IND 6th Av line to terminate a train that’s not going to Brooklyn.
F train express service is being held up by three things:
1) There was a fire at Bergen St that damaged a control room, switches, and signals several years ago.
2) The aforementioned Culver Viaduct rehabilitation
3) The fact that the express tracks and platforms starting just before Bergen St are /really/ poorly designed. Trains routed onto the express tracks have to crawl very slowly into and out of Bergen, so it becomes a bottleneck for the whole line.
This is saying nothing, of course, of the fact that the express platforms along the Crosstown and Culver (everything after) lines are in poor repair – the entire lower level of Bergen St is abandoned and a terrible mess. Just rehabilitating the stations alone so they’re fit for revenue service would be a major job in and of itself.
Speaking as a resident of Cobble Hill who would adore more frequent and less crowded trains, I love the idea of express F/local V service in Brooklyn. But there /are/ some major engineering issues in the way that people should be aware of.
5 Anonymous // Sep 13, 2007 at 12:40 pm
Instead of extending the V how about just extending the G instead? Right now I feel its completely useless because it terminates at Court Sq, which is one stop away from Queens Plaza on one end and Smith-9th St which is one stop before 4th avenue on the other.
By doing this, it gives G riders access to the E and R trains without having to transfer to go just one extra stop. It also eliminates the problem the G would collide with if the V was extended instead. I ride this thing to work every day and it crosses my mind everytime I pass Bergen St on.