The MTA is giving south Brooklyn the shaft — again — claim straphangers who were left out in the cold last weekend when the agency decided to pull the plug on the Q train, a move many see as a slap in the face to those who have already suffered years of construction delays along the revamped Brighton line.
The MTA just spent $161.4 million renovating five stations along the 134-year-old railroad, but now it says it has to fix the Atlantic Avenue station — and that means shutting down the Q train tracks between Prospect Park and 57th Street in Manhattan every weekend until March 1, except Feb. 4-6.
That could translate into a weekend nightmare for riders.
According to the MTA, the Seventh Avenue station will shut down completely, and Manhattan-bound travelers must get off at Prospect Park and take a shuttle bus to Atlantic Avenue for the N and other trains. Coney Island-bound riders can access the shuttle at Atlantic and then connect to a train at Prospect Park.
That’s hardly a help to loyal Brooklyn commuters, charged senior Joann Davis, who said she had to lug her cart onto a shuttle bus and then a train after shopping in Manhattan.
“I’m disabled, and this is very inconvenient for me!” she said. “All the stairs from walking in and out of stations to get on the shuttle has been killing me!”
Other passengers are coping with the inconvenience — but they’re not happy about it.
Flatbush resident Karen Yancu said she preferred the long slog from her home to the number trains at Newkirk Avenue over having to wait for the shuttle bus.
“Those buses are very inconvenient,” she said. “It’s a hassle for us who live out here.”
The MTA insists that weekends are the only time it can chip away the old tracks and lay new ones in concrete — a job that takes 50 hours to set. Spokeswoman Deirdre Parker said her agency didn’t have enough tracks to keep the Q train running while the concrete dried.
“If we tried to run the Q to Atlantic Avenue on the weekends, we would be restricted to one track which means a train would come every 20-30 minutes,” she said.
Parker added that the MTA was bridging the gap for commuters by running a train every 10 minutes to Prospect Park — and a shuttle bus every minute or two.
“[That way] no one has wait 20-30 minutes,” she said.
But urbanites who live on the south side of Prospect Park viewed the suspension as another headache brought on by the MTA.
“As usual, city services to our area of Brooklyn are sub-par,” said Madeleine Fix-Hansen, who lives near the Parkside train station. “It’s a major inconvenience, and I wish they’d do the work at night.”
Reach reporter Eli Rosenberg at erosenberg@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260-2531. And follow him at twitter.com/emrosenberg.
