A subway bottleneck grinds trains to a halt in Brooklyn

Plus: Brooklyn Bridge pedestrian path still clogged [On The Way - from WNYC and Gothamist] Gothamist relies on your support to make local news available to all. Not yet a member? [Consider donating and join today.]( In Central Brooklyn, a dreaded subway bottleneck grinds trains to a halt By [Stephen Nessen]( and [Clayton Guse]( A subway bottleneck in Brooklyn has for decades caused headaches for hundreds of thousands of commuters on the city’s busiest subway lines. Trains on the 2, 3, 4 and 5 lines all intersect in Crown Heights beneath Eastern Parkway and Nostrand Avenue. There, trains on the 2 and 5 lines turn south to run beneath the avenue, while trains on the 3 and 4 lines continue east beneath the parkway. When a train makes a turn, others must stop for a minute or two until the track signal ahead turns from red to green. This is the Nostrand Junction. A delicate dance happens there hundreds of times per day – and it's an inconvenience familiar to all who pass through. Waiting at the junction is as frustrating an experience for subway operators as it is for riders, said Eric Loegel, who works for Transport Workers Union Local 100 and operated trains through the junction for more than five years. “I could be on a number 3 train, and I pull into Franklin Avenue and I’m sitting there. But when the leaving signal at the station is clear — meaning I can proceed — I can’t see around the curve,” said Loegel. “I’ll roll out, and then I’ll see that the signal at the junction is red. We stop and we wait for a number 5 train that is arriving on the express track to cut in front of us.” A solution to the daily dilemma is in sight, but the MTA has for years put off plans to make the fix. The agency in 1993 studied building a “flyover,” which would reconstruct the junction by building a new set of tracks underneath the turn to avoid the criss-cross. But records show the agency’s engineers found the concept infeasible. MTA spokesperson Michael Cortez said the agency is once again looking into relieving the bottleneck junction. The agency’s [20-year needs assessment released in October]( lays out the need to add new crossover tracks on lines in the area, as well as extend storage tracks to allow for more trains to run on the 2, 3, 4 and 5 lines. The project’s price tag, according to the MTA’s assessment, would be $410 million if work started in 2027. Cortez notes the work “is not currently funded and “will be considered as a part of future [capital programs]( So for the foreseeable future, commuters on central Brooklyn’s numbered lines will continue to sit — and wait — below Nostrand Avenue. What New York is reading this week [a Citi Bike electric bike]( Jakub Porzycki / NurPhoto via Getty Images [Citi Bike prices are increasing]( - Starting Thursday, annual Citi Bike membership fees will jump from $205 to $219.99 a year; fees for non-members to unlock bikes will go up 30 cents; and per-minute fees for longer rides for all users will go up slightly. [Read more](. - The number of vehicles entering New York City through tolled bridges and tunnels hit an all-time high in 2023. [Read more](. - Yoko Ono, Yayoi Kusama, Roy Lichtenstein and Chuck Close are among more than 400 artists who've been commissioned by MTA Arts & Design to create works inside the transit system. [Read more](. - Wednesday marked the first day of an enforced vendor ban on the Brooklyn Bridge pedestrian path. [Read more](. - The vendor ban didn't necessarily speed up traffic — tourists stopping to take pictures of the "no vending" signs still managed to clog up the path. ([Associated Press]( - Food delivery workers said they no longer feel compelled to ride their e-bikes at dangerous speeds now that their 2024 pay increases have taken effect. ([Streetsblog]( - The wheelchair- and suticase-friendly new fare gates that the MTA is piloting at a Queens subway station appear to make it easy for fare-beaters to "piggyback" behind people who pay. ([NBC New York]( Curious commuter “Why are there unused tracks that abruptly end above Myrtle Avenue?” - Kristen, Bushwick What Clayton says: Those tracks above Myrtle Avenue are the remnants of an old el. The above-ground train line first opened in the late 1880s. For a time, it even ran over the Brooklyn Bridge (elevated trains stopped running on the crossing in the 1940s). It offered a connection across Myrtle Avenue as far west as downtown Brooklyn until 1969, when its tracks east of Broadway were torn down and service there discontinued. The M train still runs on a stretch of the old Myrtle el from the line’s terminus in Ridgewood to the Myrtle-Broadway station, where it joins tracks shared by the J train that head over the Williamsburg Bridge. Have a question? Follow [@Gothamist on Instagram]( for special opportunities and prompts to submit questions. If you're not on Instagram, email [cguse@wnyc.org](mailto:cguse@wnyc.org ?subject=Curious%20Commuter)or [snessen@wnyc.org](mailto:snessen@wnyc.org?subject=Curious%20Commuter) with the subject line "Curious Commuter question." You must provide your first name + borough (or city if outside of NYC) to have your question considered. Don’t forget... - Friday night through Monday morning, uptown 1 trains will skip skips 50 St, 59 St-Columbus Circle, 66 St-Lincoln Center, 79 St, 86 S, t103 St, Cathedral Pkwy (110 St), 116 St, 125 St and 137 St. Downtown 1 trains will skip 28 St, 23 St, 18 St, Christopher St-Sheridan Sq, Houston St, Canal St and Franklin St. - Friday night through Monday morning, no D trains will stop between 161 St-Yankee Stadium and Norwood-205 St. - Friday night through Monday morning, Coney Island-bound F and Church Av-bound G trains will skip 4 Av-9 St, 15 St-Prospect Park and Fort Hamilton Pkwy. Additionally, G trains will not be running between Bedford-Nostrand Avs and Court Sq. - Queensboro Plaza, a highly trafficked station in Long Island City, will have not have weekend subway service for all of January. [Read more.]( - Through the first quarter of 2024 the M train will not travel above 57th street, and the F train will run on the E line between Rockefeller Center and Jackson Heights-Roosevelt Ave. These changes to the F line means there's no subway service at Roosevelt Island, but the MTA is providing shuttle buses instead. More details [here](. - Every borough currently has one free bus route. [Find yours](. This week in NYC transit history To get out of exam, Queens boy fakes elaborate subway stickup Cutting class to ride the subways is nothing new for New York City students — but one truant took that concept to a daring new level in 1945. Newspaper reports show on the afternoon of Jan. 2, a 12-year-old boy from Astoria was found tied with wire to a subway pillar, gagged with a handkerchief and missing a shoe in a tunnel south of Times Square. The Daily News reported the boy, Ronald Davis, initially told police he’d been lured there “by a strange man who promised to show me some swords.” But when officers peppered Davis with follow-ups, his story fell apart. The kid fessed up and said he’d staged the ordeal to get out of an exam at school. He told police he spotted some wire in the Times Square station, climbed down onto the tracks, and bound himself to the pillar. [Instagram]( [Instagram]( [Facebook]( [Facebook]( [YouTube]( [YouTube]( [New York Public Radio] [WNYC]( | [WQXR]( | [NJPR]( | [GOTHAMIST]( [WNYC STUDIOS]( | [THE GREENE SPACE]( Copyright © New York Public Radio. All rights reserved. 160 Varick Street, New York, NY 10013 [TERMS OF USE]( You can update your [PREFERENCES]( or [UNSUBSCRIBE]( from this list.