Dec. 17, 2014 By Christian Murray
Get ready for the latest round of No. 7 train weekend service cuts.
The MTA released its schedule for the first five months of 2015 and the No. 7 train will be out of service between Times Square and Queensboro Plaza for nine weekends. Five of those weekend will see cuts between Queensboro Plaza and 74th Street.
In addition, there will be weekend service cuts between Willets Point and Flushing-Main Street on three other weekends.
The first weekend of the Times Square/Queensboro Plaza cuts is scheduled to take place January 17-19, which will be the first of four weekends in a row that it will be down.
The MTA says that the cuts are in order for it to install a new Communications-Based Train Control (CBTC) signal system; replace elevated tracks; and for the reconstruction and fortification of the Steinway Tubes (which connects Queens to Manhattan).
The MTA, which is a state-run agency, claims that majority of this work has been scheduled over weekends when ridership is lower than normal.
Van Bramer said that it was unacceptable that the MTA would close service for several weekends in a row in January and February—during the coldest month of the year.
He said that residents might be a little more forgiving about the closures if they had seen improved service as promised. However, “the truth is that over the past few months No. 7 train regular service has been poor and there have been lots of delays.”
He said that on December 11 the delays were so bad that the overcrowded subway platforms put commuters at risk.
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31 Comments
Q32 buses cover a lot of the 7 train route but don’t run frequently on weekends and not at all in the early AM – why can’t the MTA add more of the buses when the subway line is shut down?
FYI the MTA released an update to service changes. The March 14, 21, and 28 weekend changes are now only between Times Square and Hunters Point.
Updated schedule here: http://web.mta.info/nyct/service/7Line2015/MakingProgressin2015.htm
While this is a drag, everyone’s reaction seems to be a bit much. Transferring at Queensboro Plaza isn’t that big of a deal and the other weekends there is the shuttle bus that seemed to work good enough in the fall.
I do agree though that the repairs seem to be very slow and it’s very seldom that I see anyone actually working on the tracks. Maybe they are efficient in their repairs, but we will never know because the MTA isn’t very good at communicating.
You clearly don’t make that transfer at Queensboro Plaza when the 7 train isn’t running, do you? If you had, you’d know what a total nightmare it is. The platform is packed with people trying to make the transfer to the N/Q or people trying to get on the 7. The N/Q line is slowed down significantly due to the massive increase in riders getting off the 7 and piling onto the N/Q at Queensboro Plaza. A couple of years ago, a friend and I made the transfer to the N/Q on a weekend that the 7 wasn’t running into Manhattan. The N train was so incredibly packed that both of us began to feel ill. The N train got delayed underground in the tunnel under the East River and the car was so packed and overheated that my friend began to faint. We had to get off at Lexington Avenue (not our intended stop) in order to prevent her from becoming a medical emergency. I felt incredibly ill myself. Nobody on the train cared to help and the MTA treats us like cattle. That treatment contiunes… The Q32 and Q60 are of little to no help during these weekends because the increase in vehicular traffic over the bridge makes it approximately a one hour journey from Sunnyside to the Manhattan side of the bridge, no exaggeration.
Hey Jimmy Van
Thats all we get is a one line comment from you???
We pay you a salary to do a job for us?
Not to appease MTA
Sunnyside residents have been dealing with this BS for many years
How much longer do we have to except this??
People have done a entire career working on the 7 train
Why does this work have to be done during the day?
Can’t the MTA work on it at night?
i am so for JUMPING THE TURNSTILE!!
that’s the only way they will feel the outrage we feel–when it hits their pockets!
i’ve lived in Sunnyside for 10 years and this has been happening EVERY winter for the last 10 years–and i do not see ANY service changes!!
It has been going on since the 80s. I remember throwing my hands up and buying a car about ’83.
Look at the bright side, Everyone can now stay in Sunnyside and spend their money at the local mom and pop stores during the weekends……..
I’m sure your family will be thrilled with all the gifts you bought them from South Pole.
I just buy my family dvd’s from the bootleg ladies for the holidays, that way I don’t have to shop at any of the crappy discount stores in Sunnyside and my family doesn’t have to go to the “neighborhood treasure” movie theater that hasn’t even upgraded to accepting credit/debit cards… A win for everyone..
But you won’t be able to go to the movies! How about a demonstration in front of 49th street station re: 7 train service!
Why a car is needed…
They have been upgrading the signals on the 7 since the 1980s. Attention number 7 riders BOHICA
Bend
Over
Here
It
Comes
Again
This is absolute BS! This is so unacceptable, the 7 was down for most of the summer weekends and now we have to freeze to death too? FU MTA. This kind of thing doesn’t happen in other places. In England, assholes like the MTA (or London Underground in London, obvs) are fined if the work takes this long. But no, the MTA are allowed to do what the hell they want. I blame backroom pays and the union workers that work an hour per day and stand around for the rest! MTA sort it out.
These people have the nerve to start raising their prices when service continuously gets worse? I feel like I’m not even getting what I pay for now, now I have to pay even more for shoddy service.
Been in Sunnyside for a long time, this weekend disruption of service is decades old and has lead to zero improvements on our line.
Who is doing the work? The 3 Stooges? Laurel and Hardy? Abbott and Costello?
Unions..
This is ridiculous. They have been doing this now for 2 years and service has not
Improved the slightest. And if there truly is no train between from Times Square to 74th that leaves the entire neighbor hood of Sunnyside stranded with literally no alternative train service available in the bitter cold of January.
They’ve been doing it for at least 8 years…not just the past 2.
really looking forward to getting hit with that -20 windchill on top of queensboro plaza for the entire months of jan/feb when waiting 25 minutes for a 7 train… this is totally clueless on their part…
These upgrades/repairs/whathaveyous take so long and are endless. Sheesh.. should have another train line built in this amount of time.
hey whats up
Every time I see track crews, there are usually about six or seven guys standing around chewing the fat while maybe one guy does anything that looks like work. No wonder these things take ages.
Oh no.. but May 2, 1000 evacuated and 19 injured in woodside on the F due to basically old infrastructure, so MTA yes fix our 7, the sooner the better. thank u, sunnysidepost for putting up this complete reference.
(pls note this non-“epic” post 🙂
Hey Pat:
Are u a transit authority rubber stamp? I’ve lived in Sunnyside for 25 years and have seen non-stop fixing if that line. Is any one watching the billions that have been spent? When will it ever end?!
No trains between Times Square and 74th Street broadway? How the hell will anyone get anywhere for that month?!
this is totally unacceptable — esp when you do ride the train — you see no one working
platforms and trains are packed – no extra trains and I pity the people who need to ride the train on weekends to get to work.
THIS deserves a petition.
Actually this deserves a protest! Everyone should meet up and jump the turnstile in defiant of the MTA stealing from the People and companies! The MTA double dips because they get money from riders AND money from advertisements. It should be privatized like a website! It would be free because of ads.
Most of the costs go to the pensions… disgusting.
Let Jean Claude Van Brammer know here: http://council.nyc.gov/d26/html/members/home.shtml
I’m pissed.
i am so for JUMPING THE TURNSTILE!!
that’s the only way they will feel the outrage we feel–when it hits their pockets!
i’ve lived in Sunnyside for 10 years and this has been happening EVERY winter for the last 10 years–and i do not see ANY service changes!!