New York's busiest subway line to be closed for repairs: when and how much

MTA was notified of the large-scale closure of the busiest metro line in just five days. The newspaper writes about which section will be closed, when and for what period, as well as about alternative routes for passengers. Daily News.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) will temporarily close a key section of New York's busiest subway line. The closing will take place from 21:30 every evening for three weeks. The company was notified of such a large-scale event in just five days.

This work will begin on Monday 10 August and will continue until 31 August. Transit officials only announced the change on Wednesday evening, August 5.

In particular, service will be discontinued on lines 4, 5 and 6 south of the Grand Central Terminal. This section will be closed in order to complete the renovation work. The closure of the section will allow construction work to be completed more quickly, including replacing track switches in the Union Square area, installing new rails in the Canal Street and Borough Hall area, and structural repairs along Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn, MTA noted.

Before the quarantine began, the Lexington Avenue line (routes 4, 5, 6) in Manhattan served more passengers daily than all transit systems in Chicago, Boston or San Francisco.

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Metro is already closed to passengers from 5 a.m. to 6 a.m. every day from May XNUMX. During this period of time, metro workers thoroughly disinfect carriages and aprons.

However, MTA explained that workers of the capital's transport department need an additional 3,5 hours to equip and clear construction sites.

As an alternative to these routes, MTA representatives advised passengers to travel on local trains # 2 and # 3 in Brooklyn. Due to the upcoming closings, the company has not offered any additional bus routes to its customers.

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MTA executives said they notified officials of the night closure as early as early July. But they did not inform the agency's council and did not notify the passengers themselves of the changes until August 5.

MTA noted that they carry out repair work at a time when the passenger traffic is traditionally the lowest in the year. In addition to this, there is now the lowest passenger traffic in history due to the pandemic, said MTA spokesman Ken Lovett.

Passengers can also use the Times Square shuttle to travel to Grand Central Station. They had this opportunity in April, when the MTA temporarily shut down the metro due to the outbreak of COVID-19 among the staff.

However, this is not enough as this shuttle does not service passengers after 21:30. So it’s unclear how the city’s life support workers will be able to reach their destination, said Lisa Daglian, executive director of the Permanent Citizen Advisory Committee at MTA. “The number of trips in August is small, but key workers still have to get where they go,” Daglian said. "New Yorkers know how painful a subway closure is, so providing as much notification and information as possible is critical, at least to provide insight into the critical work that needs to be done."