First Monday Of L Train Slowdown Gets Off To A Slow Start

At Bedford Avenue, some riders had to wait 36 minutes for a train at around 6:30 a.m.

On Monday at 5 a.m, L train service was supposed to return to normal after the first weekend of construction, just in time for the morning rush hour. And it did—for an hour. Then at 6 a.m. an L train with mechanical issues caused delays that rippled to Bedford Avenue, where headways jumped from 9 minutes to 24 minutes.

"The idea of getting here after 6 was the trains would be running on a normal schedule," frustrated commuter Stefan Smith told Gothamist/WNYC. "I get that they're doing things, and that's fine, but ...I'll stay in bed another hour or start working at home. Just tell the truth."

Others on the platform, like commuter Susy Jordan, said she would have taken the J/M at Marcy if she knew there were delays. "I checked my phone and said it was normal, so that's why I came this early, it's 6:20 in the morning, so I figured it’s okay," she said. "Tomorrow I won't be on this platform."

By 6:40 a.m. an L train with door issues had been taken out of service and trains were arriving at Bedford Avenue again. New York City Transit President Andy Byford, who had been on the mezzanine level greeting commuters, stood on the platform, marveling at how close trains were running together at that point.

"This is beautiful, this is what I like to see," he said. "That's what I want every line to be like; that's what I want the 4 ,5, 6, to be like; the A, B, C, 1, 2, 3. I really want to see this across the whole of New York: relentless service on each line, that's what we have to get to."

Now in its third full day, the much-dreaded L train slowdown has been a decidedly mixed bag so far. After eye-popping wait times and several technical challenges on Friday night, the curtailed L service seemed to find its footing for most of the weekend, with few major disruptions or instances of excessive crowding.

The story was a bit different above ground on 14th Street, where the MTA is encouraging crosstown commuters to make use of the additional M14A/D buses. But without a dedicated bus lane and car restrictions, congestion continues to reign supreme. On Saturday afternoon, it took us 47 minutes to get from Grand Street on the Lower East Side to 8th Avenue and 14th Street.

The Williamsburg Link buses, which provide free transfers between the Bedford and Lorimer L stops and the Marcy and Hewes J/M stops, had their own share of setbacks. A few of the new electric buses reportedly needed to be returned to the depot to be recharged; a city traffic manager apparently didn’t show up to work on Saturday, causing chaos for left-turning buses on Metropolitan Ave; and bus bunching continues to be a stubborn problem.

Still, the MTA has continued to tout the bus as a preferable option to the L train, while also noting on Monday that "this was the first weekend of a long project," and would likely necessitate "tweaking our operations."

Looking forward, a spokesperson for the MTA says they are continuing to monitor the air quality inside the tunnel, and will be posting the results of those readings to their website at the end of each week. On Friday, a transit employee wearing a face mask warned us that things were going to "get dusty," and potentially dangerous—claims which the MTA has called "outrageous and false."

"We are continuously monitoring the air and dust levels which were far below standards for both safety and customer comfort, as we would expect with the vastly reduced demolition that we are doing under this project and with our robust dust mitigation plan," the spokesperson added on Monday.

Meanwhile, transit advocates and watchdog groups are pushing the MTA to disclose the full cost of the repair plan, as well as other details reached under an agreement signed with contractors Judlau and TC Electric. "This is transparency 101," said Ben Fried of the Transit Center. "The public should be able to assess what the MTA’s getting for its money and whether the contractors are hitting their marks, but right now we’re in the dark."

The authority said the current agreement with the contractors—signed as an update to the original full shutdown plan—will result in $10 million savings. A spokesperson for the MTA said a formal contract would be signed in the coming weeks, but could not say whether it will be made public.