MTA Spurns Resident’s Solutions for Rush-Hour

Letter from Reuter of MTA

The MTA has rejected a resident’s proposal for increasing subway service through Roosevelt Island.

The proposal, put forward by Residents Association Common Council member Frank Farance, suggested that Q service be extended to 21st/Queensbridge in Long Island City as a supplement to F service, which is overcrowded during the morning rush. Unlike the F, which picks up passengers across Queens, the Q trains would have only 21st/Queensbridge before Roosevelt Island, and would arrive only lightly loaded.

A letter from MTA New York City Transit President Lawrence G. Reuter to City Councilmember Jessica Lappin, who had relayed Farance’s suggestion, said, "Mr. Farance’s proposal to extend Q line service to the 21st Street-Queensbridge station is not feasible because frequent train service of every four to six minutes runs in both directions through this station... Trains cannot be turned around at this location without causing delays on the through trains."

The Reuter letter says, "Our recent ridership surveys indicate that, on average, this line operates within our passenger loading guidelines." It goes on to promise that, "We will continue to monitor ridership trends on the F line and population shifts on Roosevelt Island, and subway schedules will be adjusted as necessary in accordance with our service guidelines." Reuter’s letter, written in August of 2006, became available only recently. The full Reuter letter is on line with this issue of The WIRE at nyc10044.com.

Farance countered Reuter’s letter in an e-mail to The WIRE. "The idea that the F train operates within ‘passenger loading guidelines’ is a misunderstanding of the problem," he wrote. "The problem is the crowding and wait time on the platform, which is not assessed in [those] guidelines." Farance said that having a train arrive, then turn around, is not unusual, and that the MTA has done it at 34th Street on the Sixth Avenue line.

Islanders have regularly complained over the past year about F trains arriving fully loaded, unable to add Roosevelt Island passengers. Reports of having to wait as two or three trains go through are not unusual.

Nothing in Reuter’s letter indicates the MTA is planning the population of six additional Southtown buildings, nor has RIOC indicated that any such planning is under way. An MTA spokesman, Charles Seaton, was unable to describe any planning for increased population beyond the monitoring described in Reuter’s letter. Islanders, some of whom already wait as full trains pass through during the morning rush, are concerned about what will happen when there is additional commuting population in Southtown within the next few years. The F-train line through the Island has been described as "at capacity" by the MTA in the past.

Seaton was to call back before The WIRE’s press deadline, but did not.