Friday, February 16, 2007

7 Train Suspensions Getting You Down?...Demand Change!

Via Straphangers, an invitation from Eric Gioia:
Dear Friend,

Please join me tomorrow, Saturday, February 17th at 11:00 A.M. at the Vernon Jackson Subway Stop in Long Island City, to send a clear message to the MTA that the continued weekend shutdown of the 7 train is unacceptable, and to ask for more relief measures for Queens residents.

As you may already know, the MTA plans to suspend service between Times Square and 74th Street in Jackson Heights on the #7 Line, for 6 weekends, which covers the end of February and the entire month of March. Last weekend, service was also suspended between Times Square and Queensboro Plaza.

Put simply, when the #7 train is not running, the people of Queens suffer. By shutting the train down for such an extended period of time, the MTA is literally erecting a barrier for the hundreds of thousands of people who are trying to get to work, visit with friends and family, buy groceries, or visit a restaurant or museum. Having grown up here and taken the #7 train all my life, I am outraged that the MTA continues to snub the people of Queens. The letter below, which I am sending to the MTA, outlines my concerns.

I look forward to seeing you on Saturday and if you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me at 718.383.9566.

Sincerely yours,
Eric Gioia

3 comments:

Harlan said...

Yeah, the service change has been handled in just about the worst possible way. Little notice, and little explanation of why they're doing this. And why they need to shut down the whole shebang for so long.

My understanding is that the work they're doing will allow them to run one-way express trains before and after Mets games and during the US Open. It should greatly reduce congestion. Apparently the current track setup doesn't allow this sort of thing.

This Subchat thread has more details...

I hope the protests cause the MTA to improve their communications strategy, and perhaps their maintenance and improvements strategy as well.

Reggie Hemingway said...

As someone that grew up taking the 7 train from Main Street, Flushing, I feel your pain. But there's really not much that can be done about it if the MTA is to keep up its policy of perpetual upkeep. The 7 line has the positive and negative of having its own track; a positive because it never fights other trains for right-of-way, and negative because when it needs repairs, alternative options are few. Add that there is only one express track, and you've got the current situation. Quite honestly, six weekends is not as tragic a schedule as most MTA projects that go on for a year or more. To decry this construction is to allow more track gaps, track fires, unsafe situations, and it is somewhat unconscionable to be so against what is really twelve days of work.

Anonymous said...

Why the service change? Political issue?




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