L Train Shutdown Over Memorial Day Weekend Will Give Brooklyn A 2019 Preview

BUSHWICK, BROOKLYN — Think of it as practice — the L train is going to shut down for Memorial Day weekend, the MTA has announced.

No L trains will run between Eighth Avenue in Manhattan and Broadway Junction in Brooklyn from 11:30 p.m. Friday and 5 a.m. Tuesday.

The MTA suggested straphangers stranded in Bushwick and Williamsburg take the J, M and G trains which are running with regular service with a few exceptions — the M train will be rerouted to the Second Avenue Q line at 63rd Street in Manhattan and two J train stations 104th and 121st streets will be closed.

The MTA will also provide free shuttle buses service which will run in the following three sections:

• Between the Marcy Avenue J, M train station on Broadway and the Lorimer Street-Metropolitan Avenue G train station
• Between the Lorimer Street-Metropolitan Avenue G train station and the Myrtle-Wyckoff avenues M train station
• Between the Myrtle-Wyckoff avenues M train station and Broadway Junction A, C, J train station.

For alternate service in Manhattan, the MTA suggested the M14 bus, which travels across 14th Street.

News that the L train would close for the holiday weekend was not warmly received. Brooklynites took to Twitter to vent their frustration.

Wtf @MTA why would you chose #MemorialDayWeekend to close down the L train?
— Christian Hartman (@MyNameIs_X) May 26, 2017

no L train for the weekend so I'm forced to increase my poverty tourism
— noh (@tendernoah) May 26, 2017

So glad the L train is not running this whole weekend, you know, while I have to get to work for 8am..... thanks @MTA
— Margot Judge (@margotlily) May 26, 2017

This will be just a small taste of the 15-month shutdown of the Canarsie tunnel — slated to start in April 2019 — which will cut L train service between Brooklyn and Manhattan so that the MTA can complete Superstorm Sandy-related repairs.

Image via Kathleen Culliton