Major Service Changes Coming To 7-Train For 13 Weekends
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Listen up, commuters.
Starting Friday night, service will be suspended on the Number 7 line between Queens and Manhattan for the next 13 weekends.
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There will be no service on the 7 line between Queensboro Plaza and Times Square from 11:45 p.m. on Friday through 5 a.m. Monday.
The suspension will allow for a new signal system to be installed.
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Riders should use the E, F, N and Q lines and free shuttle buses as an alternative.
City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer is calling on the Metropolitan Transit Authority to change their plans.
"Thirteen weekends in a row is too long a stretch, break it up," Bramer said. "We are asking them to go back to the drawing board and to say to us when they can do it in the summer."
Bramer said the service changes threaten businesses around the area and could cause some business owners to close down.
"What we fear is the reason they do it in the winter is because they don't want to interfere with the Mets," Bramer said. "The truth is the waitress at Manducatis Rustica or the dancer at The Chocolate Factory are just as important to keep employed as David Wright."
The MTA said the work requires service changes that will continue for several years.
"We understand this is an inconvenience and changes the way you travel, but the work is necessary for the modernization and improvement in the 7 line's service reliability," the MTA said.
The $2.4 billion project is expected to be completed in June 2014.
