Letter to Therese McMillan, Acting Administratot of the Federal Transit Administrator - On Providing Infrastructure Upgrades

Letter

Dear Acting Administrator McMillan:

I write to urge you to include the New York Metropolitan Transportation Administration's (MTA) Canarsie L Train improvements project in your Fiscal Year 2017 budget recommendation to Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Foxx. This critical project would increase capacity and reduce overcrowding on the L Train, which runs through neighborhoods that have seen the largest increases in population in New York City, and add entrances and elevators at the 1 Ave and Bedford Ave stations.

The L Train travels through a number of heavily populated Brooklyn neighborhoods, like Starrett City, Canarsie, East New York, Brownsville, Bushwick, and Williamsburg, and has grown increasingly overcrowded in recent years. The L also serves Stuyvesant Town, the East Village, Chelsea and the Meatpacking District, several of which are increasingly popular destinations for workers, shoppers, tourists, and more. More than 300,000 customers use the L Train on an average weekday, which is an increase of 98% since 1998. The L Train has experienced a ridership increase of 27% since Communication-Based Train Control (CBTC), a signal system that allowed New York City Transit to run more trains per hour, was installed in 2007. The MTA's L Train improvement project would include adding three power substations to allow for two additional trains per hour, a ten percent increase in service, which could carry an additional 2,200 passengers per hour.

The L Train improvement project would also add entrances and elevators at the 1 Ave and Bedford Ave stations. The Bedford Ave station is the busiest station on the line, and more than 49,000 customers use the two stations on an average weekday. The MTA would install elevators at the two stations to make them fully compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, and add new street-level entrances at both stations to make it easier to enter and exit the stations. Specifically, the MTA would construct two new seven-foot-wide street stairs on the east side of Bedford Avenue, which would be a 138% increase over current street stair capacity at the station. At the 1 Ave station, new fare control areas at Avenue A would double capacity up to the street from each platform.

Thank you in advance for your consideration of this request. These improvements will increase capacity on a subway line that has experienced marked ridership increases, and is expected to continue seeing increasing demand, and benefit thousands of commuters.

Sincerely,

Charles E. Schumer

United States Senator

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