MTA plan to boost weekend subway service under Hochul’s budget deal
It’s a B/F/D.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is plotting a dramatic expansion of subway service that will have some lines run as frequently as every six to eight minutes on weekends, The Post has learned.
No, it’s not April 1.
The changes are tentatively set to roll out in three waves over the next twelve months beginning this summer, sources say.
The first wave is expected to begin in July and will boost weekend service frequency on the G, J and M trains to every 8 minutes, up from the current 10 minutes.
Beginning in August, the MTA plans to add more trains to the midday Monday-Friday service on the C, N and R — pushing frequencies on those lines to every 8 minutes from every 10 minutes as well.
The 1 and 6 lines will also get additional service for the midday Saturday and Sunday schedules, with trains expected to run every 6 minutes.
The second wave of improvements is expected to roll out in December.
It calls for increasing weekday evening service on the C, N and R trains to every 8 minutes, up from every 10-12 minutes; the G, meanwhile, would see trains arrive every 8 minutes during its midday Monday-Friday service.
Officials also expect to expand the weekend six-minute schedules on the 1 and 6 trains to cover more hours on Saturdays and Sundays.
The third tranche is expected by summer 2024, when the MTA plans to up Monday-Friday midday and evening service on the B, D, J and M lines by running trains every 8 minutes.
The 3 and 5 lines would see their weekend service increased, too, with trains running every 10 minutes instead of every 12.
The service boosts do not come with route extensions for lines that are truncated during the evenings or on weekends: The M would still terminate at Delancey-Essex Streets and the 5 would continue to turn back at Bowling Green.
Sources caution the plans are not finalized and that weekend service will still face disruptions due maintenance and the multi-billion dollar program to replace the MTA’s century-old and failure prone stoplight signals with a new computerized system.
A person familiar with the plan added that the MTA is also seeking to increase the speed at which trains can travel through work zones — which commonly disrupt weekend service — by 5 mph in order to fit the new schedule. Trains currently crawl underground at speeds of fewer than 10 mph.
Despite the caveats, transit activists and progressive politicians hailed the plan, seeing it as vindication of their hard lobbying of Gov. Hochul to include funding for improved service as part of the MTA rescue package in the newly unveiled state budget.
“This is a huge victory for riders,” said Danny Pearlstein, the top spokesman for Riders Alliance, which campaigned hard for the service increases. “It’s a renewed public investment in a basic service.”
“It’s going to make our city much better,” Pearlstein added. “More frequent service cuts travel times for essential workers, makes it easier for all of us to visit our friends and family and it ties the whole city closer together.”
“Our campaign to ‘Fix The MTA’ has won important victories that will make a real material difference in the lives of working-class New Yorkers,” said Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani (D-Queens), one of the most active boosters of the effort to expand service.
Advocates have argue the bolstered schedules are essential to the MTA’s post-pandemic future — a future in which fewer workers commute to the office while long waits during off-peak hours lead potential riders to hire a car rather than take the train.
Officials, meanwhile, hope the increased regularity will better align train schedules with post-COVID ridership trends, which have seen straphangers return at around 80% of pre-pandemic levels on weekends. They also are banking on silencing long-standing complaints about infrequent service and crowded conditions during off-peak hours.
The stepped-up service will be funded by a $35 million deal struck by Hochul and state lawmakers in the recently concluded budget talks.
The MTA bailout is primarily funded by a $1.1 billion hike in payroll taxes for major companies based in the Big Apple, while City Hall is being forced to contribute another $165 million to the MTA to pay for a greater share of the para-transit costs.
