MTA eyes more Canarsie Line capacity

New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) seeks federal funds to add infrastructure and increase capacity on its Canarsie "L" line linking Brooklyn and Manhattan, currently handling huge increases in passenger traffic.

The line was the first (and to date, still the only) to implement Communications-Based Train Control (CBTC), increasing potential capacity, and sits astride rapidly redeveloping portions of both Brooklyn and Manhattan. Passenger demand transcends the traditional “nine-to-five” patterns of decades past, often resulting in crowded conditions on weekends and late at night.

MTA says ridership has increased 98% since 1998, and is up 27% since CBTC was activated in 2007. In June 2012 MTA added 16 additional round trips on weekdays, 11 on Saturdays, and seven on Sundays.

MTA now seeks to add three power substations to allow for two additional trains per hour, or a 10% increase in service, which could carry 2,200 additional customers per hour. Other elements include installing elevators at the 1st Avenue (Manhattan) and Bedford Ave. (Brooklyn) stations to make them fully compliant with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), 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 1st Avenue and Bedford Avenue stations on an average weekday, and the stations experience overcrowding during peak periods. The area around the Bedford Avenue 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,” Bianco said.

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. Work on the infrastructure improvements will be coordinated with planned repairs to the Canarsie Tube, which was flooded during Superstorm Sandy in late October 2014. 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.

MTA notes partial funding for the Canarsie improvements has been included in the MTA’s proposed 2015-2019 Capital Program. 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, MTA says