RIOC representatives recently shared that their contacts within the MTA expected the F Train fixation project to end in April. Now, confirmation may have come publicly from the MTA itself.
by David Stone
The Roosevelt Island Daily News
Before Labor Day, The MTA’s large-scale Track Fixation Project shut down regular subway service to and from Roosevelt Island. It was dreaded but also inevitable. The rails were bad and must be repaired. No good time for doing it was possible.
Could it have been run better? Cleaner? With more trains? Sure, but all in all, it wasn’t as bad as many – including The Daily – feared.
Since August, Roosevelt Islanders have coped, putting up with much longer commute times and overloaded Tram cabins. Too many stayed home because the alternatives of bus connections, limited NYC Ferry destinations and unpredictable subway connections were too daunting.
RIOC, of course, should’ve done more to help, but residents managed. It’s a New York City thing with a Roosevelt Island twist.
But all that may be over shortly. Here’s what we found.
An End in Sight for the Track Fixation Project?
It’s by no means definitive, but it’s certainly suggestive.
Following up on RIOC’s tentative information on the project, we checked in with the MTA’s Planned Service Changes Page. As you’d expect, it shows F Train Shuttle service running every weekend throughout March, but when you check for April, it goes away.
Other projects, like the endless L Train work, show up for April, but not the F Train Track Fixation Project. Starting Saturday, April 6th, no service changes appear for the F Train.
While the MTA may still adjust its report and show a continuation, that’s less likely by the day. We’re just a couple of weeks out now, and you’d expect the agency to have a pretty good handle on it by now.
Work schedules, tests and so forth must be arranged well in advance, and as of today, finishing up at 5:00 a.m. on April 1st seems the most likely result.
But there’s one more thing to worry about.
A Total Shutdown for the Last Weekend in March?
It’s only two weeks away with little time for planning, but one careful reader noticed something we missed. F Train Shuttles do not appear as options for the last weekend in March, the one apparently set for a wrap-up.
The implication is a total, as yet announced subway shutdown for those days. It would allow for less restricted cleanup work before schedules return to normal. Troubling as it is that the routinely unreliable MTA hasn’t announced anything, we’re digging deeper in hopes of getting better information.
We will update as the facts come in.
You Can FOIL* It
On April 15, at the Steam Plant Demolition Town Hall, a simple exchange revealed something far more consequential than anything formally presented that evening.
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