NYC subway riders rip MTA over L train weekend shutdowns: ‘I’m numb to it now’

The MTA will halt traffic between Manhattan and Brooklyn on the L line for two weekends next month — leaving already-frustrated commuters even more peeved at the transit agency.

The L train will not run between Lorimer Street and Eighth Avenue in both directions from 11:15 p.m. Friday through 5 a.m. Monday on Oct. 2-5 and Oct. 9-12. 

“We are installing new communications equipment and taking advantage of the outage to complete additional routine track maintenance work,” an MTA spokesperson told The Post Friday.

The L will not run between Lorimer Street and Eighth Avenue from 11:15 p.m. Friday through 5 a.m. Monday on Oct. 2-5 and Oct. 9-12.  Paul Martinka

For April Diaz, 34, who takes the L from Bushwick to Eighth Avenue in Manhattan for her job at a discount store, the closure means lost time or even a late arrival.

“What if I take the bus and it gets stuck in traffic? I am going to be late,” Diaz said. “I don’t like going to work late.”

Diaz, a mother of two, said she had not seen the station notices and now has to figure out a new route.

“I have to get to work,” she said. “I have two daughters to take care of.”

The MTA wouldn’t say how much the construction work will cost, the number of riders affected, or whether more shutdown weekends could follow — but riders like 65-year-old John Smith said they have come to expect frequent service disruptions.

“I’m numb to it now. I’m pretty used to it but I don’t like it, I don’t like it at all,” said Smith, a postal worker who normally rides the L from Myrtle-Wyckoff Avenue to Eighth Avenue. 


carlos marte
Carlos Marte, who makes home visits across the city for his health care job, said he switched to only working half days on Saturdays because of the MTA’s frequent weekend disruptions. Georgette Roberts for NY Post

During the shutdown, he expects to have to take three different trains on his route to work.

“I do have to get up earlier because I got all these different trains to take,” Smith said. “I’m paying all this money and getting lousy service.”

Carlos Marte, who makes home visits across the city for his health care job, said he switched to only working half days on Saturdays because of the MTA’s frequent weekend disruptions.

“It’s every weekend!” Marte said. “If it’s not the L train, it’s going to be some other train that’s disrupted or changed on the weekends.”

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