I've long wondered why the express tracks on the F line are lying dormant in Brooklyn. Every time I use the F at Carroll or Bergen, and a packed F train rolls in, it drives me a little nuts that this infrastructure is just sitting there, fallow. Similar frustration when I'm working on the east side in the fifties, and take the V towards home, only to have it end at 2nd Ave. And what about those filthy, unused platforms at Hoyt-Schermerhorn?
Like Frank Constanza at Christmastime, I think to myself "There has to be a better way!"
Via KensingtonBrooklyn, I learned of this plan from Community Consulting dating back to 2003. There's a lot of terrific ideas there for improving transit in Brooklyn. See especially pages 11,14,21.
I love the idea of extending the V out to Brooklyn and running the F as an express. It seems like an egregious waste of resources to let these tracks sit empty, when we could cheaply improve service to thousands of people in Brooklyn and Manhattan. The V is currently a ghost train in Manhattan. Let's split the F train's burden more equitably with the V.
If we're serious about getting cars off the road, and congestion pricing in Manhattan, let's take the simple (and cheap!) measures available to us to make subway commuting a more attractive option for the outer boroughs. The better we make our transit systems, the more people will get out of their cars.
1 comment:
the Brooklyn paper did a story about this issue
http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/30/8/30_08whatthef.html
Ever since i've seen an improvment in my 8' oclock train no more 12 min gap form 8:04-8:16 now two or three trains come in that time, but unfortunatlly they are so ineffecient that they end up backing up ontop of each other and we stay stalled in between stops like forever but at least i got me a seat!
The best resoultion for this is not to run the f express but to run the V express as it enters manhattan and then having it go over the A express line from west 4th st to jayst borohall and express from borohall to Church and then turn around there. Past Church ave there is no capacity to run express lines in both diretions. And they should extend the G train to church ave as well.
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