MTA seeks federal funds for Canarsie L Line infrastructure improvements

Written by Jenifer Nunez, assistant editor

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) in New York is seeking federal funding toward approximately $300 million in infrastructure improvements for the Canarsie L Line, which runs from Manhattan to the Canarsie section of Brooklyn through neighborhoods that have seen the largest increases in population in New York City.

 

More than 300,000 customers use the Canarsie L Line on an average weekday, an increase of 98 percent since 1998. Average weekday entries at the Bedford Av station, the busiest station on the line, have increased by 250 percent. The line has experienced a 27% percent increase in ridership since New York City Transit installed Communication-Based Train Control (CBTC) in 2007.

Proposed infrastructure improvements include adding three power substations to allow for two additional trains per hour, a 10 percent increase in service, which could carry 2,200 additional customers per hour. Other elements include installing elevators at the 1 Av and Bedford Av stations to make them fully compliant with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act and adding new street-level entrances at both stations to make it easier for customers to enter or exit the stations and alleviate platform crowding that can delay trains.

“More than 49,000 customers use the 1 Av and Bedford Av stations on an average weekday and the stations experience overcrowding during peak periods. The area around the Bedford Av station has been rezoned to allow for almost 10,000 new residential units and ridership is expected to continue to rise,” said New York City Transit President Carmen Bianco. “We have to increase capacity on the Canarsie Line and improve customer flow at stations to meet this increasing demand and securing federal funding for a project of this magnitude will go a long way toward achieving that goal.”

At Bedford Av, plans call for two new seven-foot-wide street stairs on the east side of Bedford Avenue. This would be a 138 percent increase over current street stair capacity at the station, which currently consists of two five-foot-wide street stairs. Platform stair capacity at Bedford Av would increase by 38 percent, with two seven-foot, six-inch stairs replacing an existing single 12-foot-wide stair.

To advance the improvements, MTA will be requesting funding through the Federal Transit Administration’s new Core Capacity grant program. Work on the Canarsie improvements is expected to take several years, with construction on the new station entrance at 1 Av to start first. Work on the infrastructure improvements will be coordinated with planned repairs to the Canarsie Tube, which was flooded during Superstorm Sandy. Those repairs include work on tracks, signals, tunnel lighting, cables, pump facilities, duct banks and other equipment required for reliable service through the tube. A schedule for Sandy-related repairs to the tunnel, which connects Manhattan and Brooklyn under the East River, will be determined at a later time.

Partial funding for the Canarsie improvements has been included in the MTA’s proposed 2015-2019 Capital Program. Fifty million dollars for the development of the project was previously included in the 2010-2014 Capital Program. The MTA’s request for Core Capacity funds is limited to power and vertical circulation improvements that will increase capacity on the L line. The application for federal funds is expected to take several years and additional reviews will be needed from the Federal Transit Administration before a funding recommendation can be made.

 

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