L yeah!
The MTA will beef up L-train service on weekends next year to meet a ridership that has skyrocketed 141 percent over the past decade.
An MTA source said that the authority would add one to two trains on weekends by mid-2012, pending approval of a new transit contract.
The added trains are expected to alleviate congestion in Williamsburg, Bushwick and Canarsie.
Though the changes were not finalized, they were already being hailed by State Sen. Daniel Squadron (D–Brooklyn Heights), who had urged the agency to add more trains in July, after an MTA report showed that stations along the L-train retained 90 percent of their ridership on Saturdays and Sundays.
“The MTA deserves credit for heeding our call to increase weekend,” said Squadron. “As ridership and our communities change and grow, our transit system cannot be stuck on the nine-to-five clock.”
Last year, an average of 95,280 riders took the L train on Saturdays and 74,972 riders used the line on Sundays — more than double the number of riders in 1998, according to an MTA study.
It’s not just a weekend rush. Last year, an average of 22,912 riders passed through just one station — Bedford Avenue — during the morning commute, when the L train runs at its 17-train-per-hour capacity.
