More ‘L’ Trains Coming to Ease Overcrowding

The ‘L’ line will get more trains, announced the MTA, starting on Sunday, June 10.
More ‘L’ Trains Coming to Ease Overcrowding
Zachary Stieber
6/9/2012
Updated:
6/9/2012

NEW YORK—Commuters on the L subway line can look forward to less overcrowding, starting this weekend, the MTA announced Friday.

Now more trains are coming for L line riders. From this Sunday, 98 weekly round trips will be added to the line’s current schedule, an additional 16 each weekday, 11 more each Saturday, and 7 more each Sunday.

During the week, the line often becomes so crowded that waiting riders can’t all fit on the train and are left waiting for the next one—or sometimes can’t fit into several trains in succession—based on observations over the past year.

Now during weekday mornings a train will come every three minutes. During midday trains will come every six minutes.

Ridership on the L line, running between Canarsie in Brooklyn and Manhattan, has grown rapidly since the 1990s, according to the MTA. Average weekday L train ridership grew 93 percent between 1998 and 2010, and weekend ridership grew 141 percent over the same period. 

“This is a perfect example of how our commitment of capital dollars to improve our signal system directly impacts the safety and quality of our service,” MTA NYCT President Thomas F. Prendergast said in a release. 

“As a result of fully integrating Communications-Based Train Control (CBTC) on the L line, customers will have the added benefit of more trains that will help to ease overcrowding on a line that serves continuously growing populations in Brooklyn.” 

The L line is the first to receive the new signal systems (CBTC), which use signals from both the train and tracks to continuously determine the exact position of each train. The upgrade has meant improved communications and better train-tracking technology. The 7 train will soon follow suit and adopt the new technology.

The MTA has previously added trains to the L line to deal with overcrowding. Between 1998 and 2010, the number of one-way weekday trips made by L trains increased from 292 to 444. Yet daily weekday rides by passengers for the same period jumped from an average of 68,104 to 131,637 customers. Ridership on weekends increased even more.

State Senator Daniel Squadron has been asking the MTA for more trains on the line since last July. Squadron said in a release he will celebrate the “great news for transit riders,” and invites the public to join him, at the Bedford Avenue L station (corner of Bedford Avenue and N. 7th Street) this Sunday, June 10, at 10:30 a.m.