M Train Service Suspended 3 Weekends In June

BUSHWICK, BROOKLYN — The MTA will offer Brooklynites opportunities to practice living without the M train for ten months when it suspends service three weekends in June.

There will be no M train service between Myrtle Avenue-Broadway and Middle Village-Metropolitan Avenue from 11:45 p.m. Friday, June 2 to 5 a.m. Monday, June 5, so that the MTA can prepare for a ten-month shutdown slated to begin in July.

Two additional weekend-long shutdowns are scheduled to run on the same schedule and in the same location from June 16 to June 19 and from June 23 to June 26, according to the MTA website.

M trains will run between Essex Street and Myrtle Avenue then continue on the J line to Broadway Junction. Free shuttle buses will provide supplemental service between Myrtle Avenue and Middle Village-Metropolitan Avenue.

The three weekend shutdowns will allow the MTA to prepare for the bigger shutdown — slated to begin July 1, 2017 and last until April 30, 2018 — so that workers can put cranes and necessary materials in location, the agency said.

Queens Courier reported that cranes will be put in location at the following streets, which will be closed between 6 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Fridays, and between 5 a.m. and 9 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays:

• Near the Gates Avenue Station:
• St. Nicholas Avenue between Gates Avenue and Palmetto Street
• Cypress Avenue between Gates Avenue and Palmetto Street.
• Near the Forest Avenue Station:
• Forest Avenue between Putnam and 67th avenues
• Madison Street between Fairview and Woodward avenues
• Woodward Avenue between Woodbine and Madison streets
• Woodbine Street between Woodward and Onderdonk avenues

The longer shutdown on the M Line will enable the MTA to demolish and rebuild the 104-year-old Myrtle Viaduct in Bushwick and the Fresh Pond Bridge in Ridgewood, both of which have infrastructure that has aged and begun to crumble.

M trains service will be suspend between Myrtle Avenue-Broadway and Metropolitan Avenue from July through September and between Myrtle-Wyckoff Avenues and Metropolitan Avenue from September through April.

Photo via Kathleen Culliton