MTA will roll out temporary bus route in Canarsie during L train shutdown

With the L train shutdown less than a year away, city officials and the MTA have been working to get things in order to make the ordeal less painful. Yesterday, City Council passed legislation that will allow for the creation of community information centers in Brooklyn and Manhattan regarding the status of reconstruction on the Canarsie Tunnel, expedition of an electric bus fleet, and an ombudsperson who will receive and investigate complaints in connection with shutdown.

Today, the MTA announced plans, developed in collaboration with the city’s Department of Transportation and elected officials, to introduce a new, temporary bus service to Canarsie, as well as permanent improvements to the Canarsie-Rockaway Parkway subway station that will make it fully ADA compliant and include new public bathrooms. The plans are an extension of a previous plan that called for additional service options during the 15-month shutdown.

The new bus service will be called the L5 and will operate as a peak hour, limited-stop bus route along parts of the existing B42 bus route, as well as on the northern half of the B17 route, while bringing riders to the 3 and 4 line’s Crown Heights-Utica Avenue station. It will run every 20 minutes from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. and from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. during weekdays. “It will make a limited number of existing B42 stops on Rockaway Parkway south of Flatlands Avenue in both directions, one stop on Flatlands Avenue at Remsen Avenue, then continue without stopping to the stop on Utica Avenue, nearside, of Eastern Parkway,” say an MTA press release.

The shutdown is scheduled to begin in April 2019 but riders will have to contend with 15 weekend closures on the L line between Manhattan and Brooklyn before the actual shutdown begins.

• L train riders will contend with 15 weekend closures ahead of April shutdown [Curbed]
• All the L train shutdown coverage [Curbed]