Fun Vid: Brooklyn From the F Train

Here's a short vid taken out the window of the F Train as it goes from Smith-9th Street to Fourth Avenue, on the new flickr video.

Reminder: G Train Hearing Today

Normally, the promise of a City Council hearing is not something that gets the juices flowing. When the hearing is a Transportation Committee oversight hearing on G Train service. We posted about this in late March and it's worth noting again that the hearing will take place today at 1PM in the City Council Chambers at City Hall. For whatever it's worth, there is a City Council resolultion calling on the MTA to immediately improve G Train service and not implement any cuts. There should be info from the MTA about ridership data and plans for the future as well as some interesting public testimony. For more info on the G, as always, there's the Save the G blog. Also, the wonderful Brooklyn Based site recently put up a post with everything you'd ever want to know about the G Train. It's a must read for anyone interested in all things G.

Disconnected in Brooklyn on Craigslist: I Jumped on the Tracks

Ah, Sunday, the day we turn to our Craigslist Brooklyn Missed Connection. Once again, the Missed Connections take us to the subway as they so often do, but this one is not like the other MC's about passing glances traded from seats on the train or on the platform:

Thurs your phone flew on to the tracks at the 25th st R station - m4w - 32 (Brooklyn)

Hey there,

I'm the guys who jumped down to grab your phone for you. I didn't think to chat with you at the time only because it seemed, for whatever reason, like I would have been trying to take advantage of the situation. Well, I hope you see this. I'd love to chat with you over a cup of coffee or tea sometime if you're ever up for it.

Please email the guy.

Another Fun F Train Weekend: the Running of the Shuttle Buses

Ah, another weekend of insane service changes on the F line, from Park Slope to Jay Street-Borough Hall, and the Running of the Shuttle Buses. We caught the monthly Running of the Buses at Ninth Street and Seventh Avenue in Park Slope, where people were staring slack jawed at the mindboggling set of directions from the MTA attempting to explain the disruptions and how to get from one place to another. Rumors that the MTA is offering a free unlimited monthly Metrocard to the first person actually able to explain how to get from 15th Street/Prospect Park to Dumbo that doesn't involve walking, bicycling, driving or taking a car service, are completely untrue. If any readers had experiences with the mess yesterday or today and wish to share, please do so below or via email at thegowanuslounge (at) gmail (dot) com.

F Train Weekend Cluster...Complex Series of Service Changes

If you depend on the F train to get places and you normally catch the train between Jay Street-Borough Hall and Seventh Avenue in Park Slope, be prepared to take shuttle buses this weekend or walk. The same set of disruptions that occurred a few weeks ago are happening again and the instructions are so complex that we watched people stop and stare at the notices for long periods of time. Here is the rundown, from the MTA Service Advisory page:

Free shuttle buses replace F G trains between Hoyt-Schermerhorn Sts and 7 Av
Weekend, Apr 5 – 7, 12:01 AM Sat to 5 AM Mon

• Transfer between the A, F, G trains and shuttle buses at Hoyt-Schermerhorn Sts.

• For service to/from Bergen, Carroll, and Smith-9 Sts, transfer between the F G trains and local shuttle bus at Hoyt-Schermerhorn Sts or transfer between F trains and local shuttle bus at 7 Av, southbound, or 4 Av, northbound.

• F trains run between 179 and Jay Sts and then replace the C to Euclid Av; the F also runs from 7 Av to Stillwell Av, southbound and from Stillwell Av to 4 Av,
northbound.

• D trains run on the R track between Pacific and 36 Sts.

Best way to Manhattan: Take the F to 4 Av and transfer to a Manhattan-bound D on the local track to West 4 St and transfer back to the F.

Best way to Brooklyn: Take the F to West 4 St and transfer to a Brooklyn-bound D to 4 Av. Transfer to a shuttle bus to 7 Av where F service to Coney Island is available.

Note: Coney Island-bound F trains leaving 7 Av skip 15 St-Prospect Park and Fort Hamilton Pkwy. A shuttle train at 7 Av will serve 15 St-Prospect Park and Fort Hamilton Pkwy, southbound.

Simple, right?

The View of a Brooklyn Crime from Wellesley, Mass.

Yesterday, a teenager was charged with a hate crime for allegedly taking a yarmulke from someone's head at the Fourth Avenue Station in Park Slope back on March 18 The Daily News had some details, but the story that captured our attention was the one on Wicked Local Wellesley. The victim is a rabbinical assistant there:

A New York teenager is being charged with aggravated harassment as a hate crime after allegedly stealing a Wellesley rabbi’s yarmulke in a Brooklyn subway station last week. Rabbi Uria Ohana, 25, a rabbinical assistant at the Wellesley-Weston Chabad Center, had just entered a Park Slope subway station at 4th Avenue and 9th street at 6:20 p.m. on March 18 when he felt someone grab his yarmulke.

Turning around, he said, he saw an Arab teenager running down the stairs, and decided to chase him to get his yarmulke back. Running through the station, they passed a group of the boy’s friends who began chasing Ohana and screaming, “Allahu Akhbar!”

Ohana chased the boy, identified as Ali Hussein, 18, of Queens, outside, where he ran into the street and was hit by a car. Hussein’s friends caught up with Ohana and began shouting, “you see what you do?” punching him in the head, and screaming “Allahu Akhbar.”...There were numerous witnesses outside the crowded subway station, he said, and many of them pulled out cell phones to call 911. Before police arrived, a black SUV pulled up, and two of Ohana’s attackers jumped in the car and drove away, leaving Hussein at the scene...

The rabbi, who has been in the States for two years and spends half his time studying in Brooklyn, and the other half working at the Chabad center in Wellesley, wants to draw attention to the case “for the police to see that it’s something serious,” he said. “Attacking a Jew just for being a Jew — it’s important that this doesn’t happen. This kind of hate crime, it’s important to me that it doesn’t occur.”

The "Yarmulke Theft Teen," in the Daily News' words, could face seven years in prison.

Disconnected in Brooklyn on Craigslist: I Got You Busted

We've picked to items for our weekly Brooklyn Craigslist Missed Connection. They are oddly related in a first or second cousins kind of way. One involves an odd arrest at the Jay Street station and the other has as its focus a kumquat thief at Union Market in Park Slope:

You got arrested Jay St F train for helping me 1:45 am - w4m

I hope you are OK I am really sorry I just don't understand the cops. I never figured the doors closing on you would qualify for an arrest, I tried to fix it and explain to them that you were just helping me find the right train, I'm sorry, really truly sorry. Guess thats what you get for being a nice person, its pretty unbelievable, guess i won't dare ask anyone for directions again.

We also like the kumquat thief:

Union Market near the kumquats - w4m - 27

You were pocketing kumquats from the little cartons, and I was not-so-subtly having a dinner of olive samples, but I didn't report you because I have a criminal record myself and know the system is against people like us. What's a little petty crime? It's all culinary, baby.

The guy got arrested for getting stuck in the door?

Renovated Fourth Avenue F Station Rendering

This is the way the Fourth Avenue Station will look after the MTA is finished renovating it sometime between 2010 and 2012. The renovation will include the replacement of opaque panels with glass, providing views up and down Fourth Avenue from the elevated bridge structure. The rendering is in the latest edition of the Brooklyn Paper. The bad news is that the mess at the Smith-9th Street Station will be even worse that has been previously noted. Last week, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported on the MTA's recent presentation to Community Board 6: The station will close for nine months in 2010, but it will not be fully returned to service for 27 months, as construction will alternate between northbound and southbound platforms for 18 months after the closure. It's been previously noted that the Fourth Ave. station renovation will include the use of temporary platforms. If there's a silver lining to all this, it's that the G Train is being extended "permanently" to Church Avenue, easing travel between Kensington and Park Slope and Greenpoint.

L Train Report Card: A Lot of "C"s

The L Train, which is the lifeline of an awful lot of people living in North Brooklyn got a mixed set of marks in the latest NYC Transit report cards filled out by riders. While they're far from stellar grades, they're a lot better than you'd think, given service disruptions, overcrowding and the like. Here's a bit from the story in today's Daily News:

Riders who filled out NYC Transit report cards have graded the line a C. More than 4,000 straphangers completed the report cards, rating the line in 21 categories, including room at rush hour, lack of graffiti in subway cars and sense of security on trains...

"The line has also seen unprecedented ridership growth, growth we didn't fully anticipate and have been unable to respond to as quickly as we would have liked," Roberts added.

Riders didn't give top marks to the line in any category but gave it a B-minus rating in five areas: onboard signs that help riders find their way; lack of graffiti inside trains; comfortable temperature in subway cars; ease of use of subway turnstiles and the availability of MetroCard vending machines.

No F grades were issued, but the line did receive a D for lack of room onboard trains at rush hour.

Straphangers doled out C, C-plus and C-minus grades in the bulk of the categories, including sense of security on trains and in stations, working escalators, station announcements and helpfulness of staff.

Only a D for lack of room at rush hour?

Subway "Potty Time" on the Way to the Park Slope Food Coop

This blog item manages to blend two hot button topics--the Park Slope Food Coop and having one's child "go potty" on the subway. (We've previously covered the topic of them going potty on trees in Park Slope.) This blog post was written by an Upper West Side mom taking her son with her to the Park Slope Food Coop. It is on her blog, Diaper Free Adventures. We present key excerpts:

On Thursdays I take my son to the food co-op. This is an hour train ride from the Upper West Side of Manhattan to Park Slope, Brooklyn. This past Thursday I left my apartment early in the morning with my son sleeping quietly in his carrier and a rickety shopping cart in tow.

There were about six other people on the train, all of whom were nodding off or playing Solitare or Tetris on the cell phones. I was sitting in the corner comfortably taking up two seats...I took his potty out of the plastic bag hanging from my bookbag, put it on my lap and took off his diaper. There he was...my son half naked on the 2 train speeding beneath Brooklyn streets. A far cry from being in at home or in a park. I sat him on the potty and made my cueing sound, "pssssss."

I looked to my right, not one person was looking at us. "Psssssss," I said into his hear.

He leaned forward, bounced his right leg up and down against the potty and after a few minutes did a good sized pee-pee. Again, I looked to see if anyone was looking, but not one person stirred. I later told my hudband that in New York you have to rely on the fact that many people are too self-absorbed to notice you...even if your 5 month old son is peeing in a bright red potty just a few feet away!

Okay, so it's really cute that he's only five months and doing this, but would going pee-pee in his diedy on the train have been a better option? We don't know the answer, but it's an interesting question, indeed.

F Express Update: (Temporarily) Next Year or By 2012 or 2013

Brooklynites that have been pushing for an F Train may get some short-term relief in the form of a temporary F Express if work on the Culver Viaduct project falls behind schedule, but otherwise, the New York City Transit says that express service on the F won't be possible until 2012 or early 2013. Andrew Inglesby, the MTA's Assistant Director of Government and Community Relations, gave a long update on the status of F Train service at the Carroll Gardens Neighborhood Association meeting last night.

Mr. Inglesby reiterated that work on the Culver Viaduct, which runs above-ground between the Carroll Street Station and the Fourth Avenue Station, is a critical capital project and that work must be completed before an F Express can be put in place. He said the viaduct is "in extreme need of repair." Netting and tarp have surrounded the viaduct for about five years to keep chunks of concrete from falling. The MTA expects to award contracts for the work next year. "F Express service just can't happen until the end of that period." He said the work will result in "an automatic elimination of any F Express."

The transit official did offer possibility that if work on the viaduct project is "significantly delayed" by a year or more, then the Transit Authority "will go ahead and examine the possibility of putting in an F Express." Express service would depend on the availability of cars and funding. So, an F Express could make an appearance for a year or 18 months, if there is a delay in the big repair project.

The bad news for residents of Carroll Gardens, from whence much of the push for F Express service has come, is that an express train would likely stop at Jay Street, Seventh Avenue and Church Avenue; it would bypass Bergen Street, Carroll Street, Smith-9th Street, 15th Street and Fort Hamilton Parkway.

Residents that use the local stops, however, were assured their trains would become less crowded. Gary Reilly, who started the F Train Express petition drive that got a great deal of press attention, said that "It wouldn't just be a zero-sum game for the neighborhoods" and that the changes would "free up some excess capacity."

There is also a push to extended the V Train to Brooklyn to provide local service. G Train service is slated to be extended to Church Avenue in 2009. (Mr. Inglesby said the extension of the V isn't "a complete dead issue.")

The MTA and New York City Transit are still examining options. "Nothing is set in stone," Mr. Inglsby told residents.

Is F Train Express Idea Dead Until 2012?

Don't look now, but even some supporters are starting to suggest that the F Train Express idea, which has gotten much play in the media, may have died at the starting gate. That's because the MTA is sticking to its guns and continuing to say that there's no way they can do it until 2012. Work on the Culver Viaduct (the big very tall structure that crosses the Gowanus Canal) sounds like it will make life on the F Train--regular F Trains--awful in coming years. According to Second Ave. Sagas, one of the blogs that has been pushing the concept:

I’ve been in touch with Jeremy Soffin, the MTA’s deputy director of media relations, in an effort to get the bottom of the Culver Viaduct Rehabilitation project and its effects on the express tracks. Here’s what Soffin said to me in an e-mail:

The Culver Viaduct Rehabilitation project requires the reconstruction of the viaduct and all four tracks on the viaduct. During the project, two of the four tracks will be taken out of service at any given time for a period of four years, precluding the implementation of any express service on this segment of the F line. The project is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2012. As part of this project, G service, which currently terminates at Smith-9 Sts, will be extended to Church Av Station.

It’s my understanding that crews will be working not only on the tracks but around and underneath them too. With the recent attention to track worker safety, the MTA isn’t, rightly so, about to start screwing around with train bottlenecks on a large viaduct. With the current F and G trains relying on just two tracks for their routes and turnarounds, the tracks simply cannot support adding more trains.

To me, it sounds like the folks along the Culver Line are in for a rough ride.

One can read the MTA response any way one wishes, but Mr. Soffin's statement about the four-year rehab makes it sound like there will be an F Train Gowanus Crawl blog and people will be circulating petitions to demand the F Train move at more than 5MPH during rush hour by this time next year.

One certainly hopes the 2012 explanation is an exaggeration and that the F Train isn't about to go from simply sucking to sucking in a major, major way. Depressing news and, hopefully, still subject to change.

"Brooklyn's Thoughts on the F Train"

Here's a vid posted in the last few days to the YouTube that deals with the subject of the F Train and a possible Express. We do wish that music hadn't been put underneath the person speaking so that it makes her harder to understand.

Gowanus Lounge Photo Du Jour: Service on Opposite Track

Park Slope, Brooklyn

Is F Train Express Idea Moving to Fast Track?

If we were to bet on one idea that's risen through the grassroots that may have a shot at seeing the light of day in a reasonable amount of time, at this point we'd be putting some money on the idea of restoring express service to Brooklyn's F Line. Not only has the idea made the jump from being covered by Brooklyn blogs to the print media, it's getting some political support. The latest officials to jump on the F Express are Council Members Bill de Blasio (D-Park Slope, Carroll Gardens, Kensington), Simcha Felder (D-Midwood, Bensonhurst and Boro Park) and Domenic Recchia (D-Coney Island, Gravesend, Bensonhurst). They'll be part of an F Express rally today (6/28) with the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership and Transportation Alternatives.

An online petition for F Express service launched by Gary Reilly of Brooklyn Streets got 2,500 signatures (including ours) in two weeks. Mr. Reilly presented the petition at the MTA's board meeting yesterday and says the idea has support on the board. The MTA has already said it would restore some express service on the F line in 2012; the push is to get it done much sooner.

The rally is at 2PM at the Church Avenue F station at Church and McDonald Avenues.

F Train Express Idea Garners Support, Needs More

That petition calling for express F Train service in Brooklyn that started by the blogger behind Brooklyn Streets, Carroll Gardens has gotten 1,300 signatures in about five days. That certainly seems to indicate there's some support in the community for the idea. The MTA has indicated, however, that the earliest an express train could be started is 2012 because of work on the Culver Viaduct over the Gowanus Canal. On Friday, Brooklyn Streets reported that the MTA is looking at ways to create express service before 2012. (The issue was broached with the MTA about a decade ago, as well.) The Brooklyn Eagle has a story on the petition drive here. Nonetheless, the petition campaign could use signatures from everyone that supports the idea. If you're interested, go to the petition here and sign it.

F Express Petition Gets 760 Signatures; Idea Faces Obstacles

The online petition to create an express F Train and extend the V Train to Brooklyn as a local got more than 750 signatures in little more than a day, which would seem to indicate the idea being pushed by the blog Brooklyn Streets has some support among residents that use the line. In the meantime, blogger Second Ave. Sagas indicates there are practical obstacles to the plan including track switches that no longer exist after Kings Highway to scheduling problems with extending the V and having it share tracks with the F between Second Avenue and Jay Street. He offers another solution to full express services:

Run the F as an express train from Jay St./Borough Hall to Church Ave. The F would stop at York St., Jay St., 7th Avenue and Church Ave. before running local to Coney Island. Meanwhile, extend the V to Church Ave. as the local. Church Ave. is the last four-track stop on the Culver Line and provides for a switch so that the V can turn around and head back to Manhattan.

With this plan, the stations with the highest number of riders would see staggered service. Carroll Gardens riders wouldn’t have to shove Park Slope residents into already-crammed trains in the morning. The V would become a more viable line in Manhattan, and everyone in Brooklyn would be happy.

You can sign the petition here.

Online Petition for an Express F Train

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.

Gowanus Lounge Photo Du Jour:16,000,00015,999,999 Eyes

G Train, Around Marcy Avenue, Brooklyn

It's Official: L Train to Suck Through 2010

There's good news and bad news about the L Train from the MTA. The good news is that, eventually, there will be more trains and your life will become slightly less unpleasant. The bad news is that there won't be any relief until 2010. At which point, thousands of additional residents along the L corridor could render the service improvements moot. The New York Times reports on a report given to the MTA yesterday that said:

an additional 64 specially equipped subway cars cannot be fully up and running before January 2010. The additional cars would allow fuller use of a new high-tech signal system intended to increase the line’s capacity.

The crosstown L line, which stretches from Eighth Avenue and 14th Street in Manhattan to Rockaway Parkway in Canarsie, Brooklyn, currently runs with 15 trains an hour during the morning and evening rush, or one every four minutes.

Once more of the computerized trains are added, the authority will be able to run as many as 26 trains an hour on the line during the rush...That works out to one every 2 minutes 18 seconds. Mr. Fleuranges said the agency expected to have the new cars up and running by mid-2009. But a consulting engineers’ report to the authority’s board said the system was not likely to be fully operational with the new cars until January 2010. He said that in the interim some conventional trains will be added to the line later this year to increase peak capacity to 17 trains an hour...

The L line has added riders at a faster pace than the subway system as a whole, according to data from New York City Transit. The busiest station on the Brooklyn part of the line is Bedford Avenue, in Williamsburg, which had 4.99 million riders pass through the turnstiles last year, the agency reported. That was a 139 percent increase from 1995, when 2.09 million riders entered the station. Over all, subway ridership increased 46 percent in the same period.

Hey, 2010 is right around the corner.