Weekend 7 Line Shutdown Devastates Queens

Vinny DuPre Two City Councilmembers voiced concern at the MTA's announcement that the No. 7 train line, also known as the "International Express", would be shut down on nine consecutive weekends starting January 3 and lasting to the beginning of March, to carry out signal and track work. The No. 7 line runs from Times Square in Manhattan to Main Street, Flushing and is the major means of transportation for millions of Queens residents.

On Sunday, January 3, Councilmember Eric Gioia (D-Queens), community leaders, business owners and Queens residents protested the MTA's decision. "The elimination of weekend service cuts off entire swaths of Queens from the rest of New York City, and seriously hampers businesses and residents," Gioia declared in a statement. "[The] MTA is telling residents of Queens: 'You're on your own' this winter."

"'Happy New Year, your train is hereby out of service!' is once again what the MTA is telling people who rely on the No. 7 subway," Councilmember John Liu, chairman of the council Transportation Committee, added. "Year after year, for as long as anyone can remember, Queens residents and entrepreneurs wake up after the New Year's revelry to sobering--and infuriating--news that the 7 train will be out of service on weekends. And, like deja vu all over again, the reason is for signal and track work to be completed."

In order to get from Queens to Manhattan, 7 train riders over the next nine weekends will need to take a circuitous route that quadruples their commute and adds rides to already burdened subway lines, Gioia's statement continued. A route from Times Square to the Vernon-Jackson Boulevard station in Long Island City that typically takes approximately 10 minutes can take anywhere between 30 to 45 minutes, meaning a round trip that used to take 20 minutes could be nearly two hours.

Closing the 7 train line from Queens to Manhattan will have a negative impact on businesses in Queens, Gioia pointed out. "In tough economic times, the MTA is actually making things worse. Queens businesses and many attractions will suffer because people will simply not be able to get to them. Cutting off the 7 train from the rest of the city will mean that many of Queens' great cultural institutions like P.S.1 and the Queens Museum of Art, along with many restaurants and stores, will be extremely difficult to reach by mass transit. Also, businesses have reported sharp drops in foot traffic and profits when the 7 train has not operated. Additionally, apartments being shown in developing neighborhoods like Jackson Heights and Long Island City will have tougher times attracting potential tenants during weekend open houses, when many New Yorkers look for new apartments."

"It is simply unacceptable for the MTA to keep shutting down vital subway lines without any accounting of the actual work being done," Liu pointed out. "They always give the same reason, 'signal and track work', a meaningless explanation which amounts to nothing more than a black hole of an excuse for mismanagement and in- competence. And it's become truly deplorable, with news that the MTA Inspector General is now examining evidence that track crews often work no more than two hours a day. The MTA must immediately accelerate their work schedule to reduce the number of outages. And they must provide a full report on the work that has actually been completed so that next year they don't shut the train down with the same old excuses again."

"The MTA is only operating buses in Queens, and only to Queensboro Plaza, not Manhattan," Gioia noted, bus service that Liu called "slow and confusing". "[The MTA] must immediately implement convenient bus service to replicate the subway line being shut down in order to help ease the burden on the strained subway lines and create a more convenient, seamless commute for riders," Liu added.

"In other cities, such as Boston, when track work is being done and the trains are shut down, shuttle buses run between stops and pick up riders," Gioia said. "Shuttle buses could pick up passengers at the closed stops, and then proceed through the Queens Midtown Tunnel between Manhattan and Queens, cutting the commute time nearly in half, from 40 minutes to approximately 20."

Gioia called for the MTA to:

• Run shuttle buses from Grand Central Station to the shuttered stops in Long Island City.

• Expand existing buses to prevent typically long waits in the cold.

• Offer a reduced fare for Queens residents who use the Long Island Rail Road on weekends as a substitute for the subway.

"The 7 train is a lifeline in Queens. Cutting off Queens residents in the dead of winter from the rest of the city is simply a bad idea," Gioia concluded.