The MTA is set to approve the revival of the W train.
After the Transit committee passed the proposal Monday, the MTA’s full board is scheduled to vote on a restoration at its meeting on Wednesday.
The short-lived W would ride again in November as part of service reconfiguration around the Second Avenue subway. W trains would run local, providing weekday service from Whitehall St. to Astoria-Ditmars Boulevard.
W service will supplant the Q, which will temporarily terminate at 57th street. Once the Second Avenue line opens, slated for the end of 2016, Q trains will run from 57th Street up to the new 96th Street and 2nd Avenue station. With W service in place, the MTA will begin running N trains express in Manhattan on weekdays during peak hours, mid-day and evenings.
“I’m really happy to see this service plan,” said MTA Board Member Andrew Albert. “It will allow the N to run express along Broadway and many Astoria and Brooklyn riders love when that’s there.”
At Monday’s committee meeting, Albert pitched extending the W train during rush hour, past Whitehall Street, to serve local stops down to the N train’s Bay Parkway station. This he said, could provide better service to rapidly growing Brooklyn neighborhoods.
“Having the R the only train along local stations on Fourth Avenue, rapidly developing areas of Brooklyn, is just not enough,” he said.
The MTA said they don’t have enough subway cars and didn’t see the ridership need for the service.
One public speaker requested that the W be restored in September, not November, to align with the start of the school year. But the MTA says a November roll out aligns with the agency’s Fall Pick, the next opportunity for crews to pick their schedules.
