Should The MTA Split The R Line?

Delays and crowding are not infrequent on the R train line.

The R, a local train that runs from Forest Hills, Queens, to Bay Ridge, Brooklyn is notoriously unreliable (and sometimes has bedbugs). I used to take the R to my first job, and it was so fickle that I came to nickname it the "Really?" train. Good, right? Feel free to use it!

Some local and state officials think the solution to the R's many troubles is to break the line up into two parts. Last week, Representative Max Rose, along with State Senator Andrew Gounardes, State Assemblywoman Mathylde Frontus and City Councilman Justin Brannan signed a letter and sent it to New York City Transit president Andy Byford, urging him to split the R line into two parts. In it, they write that the train frequently causes "inexcusable delays, poor service, and sudden schedule shifts," and that a proposed break would help ease the issues.

The move is more of a Band-Aid than a permanent fix, one that the MTA's implemented it before. In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, the underground Montague Tube, which joins Brooklyn and Manhattan, needed serious work after flooding. So the MTA split the R train in August 2013, running it from Forest Hills to Whitehall Street in Queens and Manhattan, respectively, then Court Street to Bay Ridge-95th Street in Brooklyn until September 2014.

In the letter, officials write that the previous split helped keep "the Southern Brooklyn line from traffic delays occurring earlier along the line," and that "Bay Ridge commuters were no longer being delayed due to a sick passenger up in Queens." They cite the MTA's Fast Forward Plan, which aims to implement major signal upgrades on several train lines over the next ten years. While the R line is set to receive these upgrades, the MTA will only implement them in Queens and Manhattan.

The split idea has some downsides. It would be inconvenient for straphangers from Brooklyn trying to commute into the city and beyond—particularly residents of Bay Ridge, whose only subway option to get into Manhattan is the R train. It would likely cause congestion on other trains, as it did when it was split in the past. "The best ways to fix issues with 4th Ave local service would involve either running more R trains (difficult due to interlining) or run some J/Z trains through the Montague St. Tunnel (difficult due to something MTA contractors screwed up)," writes MTA chronicler Second Avenue Sagas. "That's where lawmaker efforts should be."

The MTA did not categorically dismiss the idea, but it's not currently part of the Authority's plans for improving the R line.

“We appreciate legislators taking an active interest in improving our system and advocating for transit users in their districts and beyond," MTA spokesman Shams Tarek said in an email statement to Gothamist. "We agree that R service needs to improve, and it is something we’re very focused on—there is extensive structural rehabilitation work happening on the R line in Brooklyn right now, and we’re aggressively pursuing initiatives to improve operating procedures such as safely increasing speed limits. Regardless, we know more needs to be done.”

It Really does.