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This month, the MTA Transit Committee will be asked to authorize at least one public hearing on the proposal before it goes before the full board for a vote. Graphic: PROPOSED SUBWAY CHANGESChanges that could go intoeffect in August: F train would use the 63rd St. tunnel at all times. Would no longer stop at Queens Plaza. Would make the following new stops: 21st St./ Queensbridge in Long Island City, Queens; Roosevelt Island; 63rd St. and Lexington Ave., 57th St. and Sixth Ave. Would follow current route under Sixth Ave. and out to Coney Island.New V line would make local stops now made by G train in Queens, go through 53rd St. tunnel, stop at 51st St. and Lexington Ave., 53rd St. and Fifth Ave., and all local Sixth Ave. stops, ending at Second Ave. and Houston St. Northern terminal for G trains would be Court Square in Long Island City. Transfers available there to local V and R trains. Access to No. 7 trains possible by walking from Court Square station to nearby depot at 45th Road/Court House Square.Interim plan: From January through August, the Transit Authority would do off- peak, late-night and weekend work on the 53rd St. tunnel and related signal work. During those hours, E and F trains would be rerouted. Some of those changes: E and F trains would run through the 63rd St. connector, stopping at Lexington Ave./63rd St. They would not stop at two regular Manhattan stations along 53rd St.: Fifth Ave. and Lexington Ave.E trains would not stop at Queens Plaza.
Make way for the V train.
The first new subway line in more than a decade - part of a major revision of subway routes across the city - will soon be proposed by the Transit Authority, the Daily News has learned.
The new line would go from Manhattan's lower East Side to Forest Hills, Queens, running along Sixth Ave. in Manhattan, through the 53rd St. tunnel into Queens and under the Queens Blvd. corridor, according to a TA document reviewed by The News.
The proposed V line - along with other planned service changes by the TA - is designed to alleviate longstanding overcrowding on E and F trains, which carry about 900,000 people on an average weekday.
The key to the proposals, which are likely to be brought before the TA's parent agency, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, this month, is a recently completed extension of the 63rd St. tunnel.
The 1,500-foot extension connects the tunnel - which for years dead-ended at the 21st St./Queensbridge station in Long Island City - to the E, F, G and R lines on the Queens Blvd. corridor.
The proposals, slated to go into effect full time as early as August, include: Running F trains through the 63rd St. connector and under the East River through the 63rd St. tunnel, instead of the 53rd St. tunnel.
F trains would make several new or different stops - 63rd St. and Lexington Ave., for example, instead of 53rd and Lexington.
Shortening the G line by 13 stops in Queens. It would run from Smith and Ninth Sts. in Brooklyn to Court Square in Long Island City, where transfers to other lines would be available.
"This is a big deal," said Gene Russianoff, staff attorney with the Straphangers Campaign. "This is the most significant change in transit routing since the late 1960s. Given the fact the the E and F lines are about the most heavily used in the system, this affects a lot of people."
Transit historians said the V would be the first new line since at least the 1980s, when the Q line was created from what had been the QB line.
Russianoff said the TA is clearly trying "to make the most" of the $645 million 63rd St. connector, but he wondered how many riders would use the V line because it would run as a local.
Russianoff also questioned how many riders would use the new F train route, since they would no longer be able to transfer to the Lexington Ave. line.
According to the TA document, use of the tunnel extension and the V line would increase morning peak service from the Queens Blvd. corridor into Manhattan by more than 20%. Initially, nine more Manhattan-bound trains would run between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m.
Planners project that Queens straphangers would save more than 1.5 million hours of travel time annually, according to the document.
TA spokesman Al O'Leary refused to comment on the proposed changes.
This month, the MTA Transit Committee will be asked to authorize at least one public hearing on the proposal before it goes before the full board for a vote. Graphic: PROPOSED SUBWAY CHANGESChanges that could go intoeffect in August: F train would use the 63rd St. tunnel at all times. Would no longer stop at Queens Plaza. Would make the following new stops: 21st St./ Queensbridge in Long Island City, Queens; Roosevelt Island; 63rd St. and Lexington Ave., 57th St. and Sixth Ave. Would follow current route under Sixth Ave. and out to Coney Island.New V line would make local stops now made by G train in Queens, go through 53rd St. tunnel, stop at 51st St. and Lexington Ave., 53rd St. and Fifth Ave., and all local Sixth Ave. stops, ending at Second Ave. and Houston St. Northern terminal for G trains would be Court Square in Long Island City. Transfers available there to local V and R trains. Access to No. 7 trains possible by walking from Court Square station to nearby depot at 45th Road/Court House Square.Interim plan: From January through August, the Transit Authority would do off- peak, late-night and weekend work on the 53rd St. tunnel and related signal work. During those hours, E and F trains would be rerouted. Some of those changes: E and F trains would run through the 63rd St. connector, stopping at Lexington Ave./63rd St. They would not stop at two regular Manhattan stations along 53rd St.: Fifth Ave. and Lexington Ave.E trains would not stop at Queens Plaza. Trains would stop at 21st St. in Long Island City, Roosevelt Ave., and 63rd and Lexington, and could turn south beneath Sixth Ave. (instead of Eighth Ave.) before rejoining its normal route at W. Fourth St.F trains would run under the August plan (detailed above).
Caption: The sardines who hang from the straps of the E and F trains should ride in less cramped surroundings when V line comes in.
Copyright Daily News, L.P. Dec 1, 2000