Brooklyn commuters will greet the new workweek with a new free transfer — but the $164-million question is whether anyone really needs it.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority unveiled on Friday afternoon its new passageway between the R train at Lawrence Street and the A/C and F trains at Jay Street-Borough Hall — rechristening the new complex “Jay Street-Metrotech” after its $164-million sprucing up.
The agency said that 35,000 customers would use the new transfer every day, though few straphangers actually need the new connection.
The new transfer seems to benefit only R riders who are headed to Manhattan’s Lower East Side but get on the train north of the existing Ninth Street transfer to the F train in Park Slope. Making the one-block underground transfer from the R to the A or C doesn’t help much in Lower Manhattan, as the R, A and C are so close together down there.
But politicians and MTA officials were looking at the bigger picture: The renovation of the Jay Street complex is finally complete after three years.
“This station was a black eye on our Downtown,” said Borough President Markowitz. “The rehabilitation has turned blight into something that is befitting the city’s third-largest commercial district. We finally have a station that is worthy of Brooklyn and Brooklynites.”
A portion of the renovation costs were taken up by the installation of elevators to make the station handicapped accessible. Plus, one percent was set aside as part of the “Arts for Transit” program to install tiles featuring animal species that have migrated to Brooklyn over the years.
