As we informed you last week, the Avenue U and Neck Road train stations have reopened their Coney Island-bound platforms after more than one year.
Featuring wider platforms and wood-ish paneling, the station had its first commuters yesterday and were caught by photographer Paul Anderson.
Below you’ll see photos of the new station – a sign of things to come all along the B/Q line – which is not yet totally complete. You’ll see work is still being done on the stairwell and on the platform itself. The station’s signs appear to also be in commute, as workers temporarily placed dirty, tagged up signs from the other side of the tracks until new ones are installed.
So… we await your photos of gummed up platforms and graffiti’d walls…
And now the photos
(Photo courtesy of Ben Salomon)
Not all escapee shopping carts end up frolicking the streets of Sheepshead Bay or telling their stories to journalists. Some get pushed around, damaged, abused, hit by cars, and left for dead.
This shopping cart, now known only as Jane Doe, was found on the sidewalk under the Sheepshead Bay Road train station overpass. An eyewitness said he saw this shopping cart cahorting with the two drunken revellers from last week. Another eyewitness told us that this cart was just a hard working cafe table. If anyone is able to do a positive I.D. of this sad cart, we might be able to find her next of kin.
Community Board 15 Chairperson Theresa Scavo sent us this note about the Q train stations at Avenue U and Gravesend Neck Road:
Good word from the MTA, on Monday January 18th,2010 the southbound stations of Avenue U and Neck Road will be opened at 5am and at the same the northbound stations will be closed. This work will be completed by Fall 2010. The B service will be restored in Fall 2011.
After delays and destruction at those stations, this certainly is good news.
Just so we’re clear about this, beginning next Monday you will not be able to catch a Manhattan-bound train at Gravesend Neck Road or Avenue U, though the Brighton-bound side will be reopened. In order to go to Manhattan from those stations you will need to take a Brighton-bound train to Sheepshead Bay Road and transfer to the other side of the tracks.
Courtesy of BrooklynQ
Reports began pouring in about a week ago that the Avenue U and Gravesend Neck Road train stations were already covered in graffiti. It wasn’t very long ago that the platforms finally began to take shape after a year of work, and as soon as they had walls they got some “art.”
Seriously, Sheepshead Bay needs better street artists. These guys suck.
On a related note about things that suck – our budget. We couldn’t afford the $2.25 to go up on the platform and snap a shot, so all we’ve got is this cruddy cell phone photo from a reader. So please, send us more photos of the construction and the vandalism, and we’ll post them. Free hug for every published photo!
Send photos to nberke [at] sheepsheadbites [dot] com or upload them to your Facebook account and tag them with “Sheepshead Bites”
Photo by Arthur Borko
It’s a rare sight indeed, but construction workers at the Avenue V subway overpass were photographed working earlier today. The work at Avenue V is part of the rehabilitation projects at the Gravesend Neck Road and Avenue U train stations that started almost exactly one year ago. The work on this side was scheduled to be finished by now and construction on the Manhattan-bound tracks are next. But, unsurprisingly, work has been delayed and now the MTA says work on the Coney Island-bound side will finish by “Early 2010.”
Regarding the overall project affecting the entire line this side of Prospect Park, the MTA has not yet responded to our leaders’ requests for more information. Politicians and organizers for the area met with MTA officials in October to ask for alternatives to the work and guarantees of the timetable. MTA told them they would be in touch in a few days after they had gathered relevant data. Sheepshead Bites is offering $100,000 (in Monopoly money) to anyone who can snag a photo of an MTA executive at work.
Gothamist Newsmap is reporting that a person fell onto the tracks at the Sheepshead Bay train station. The incident occurred just before noon today. No further information is available. Please contact us if you know anything.
Just one month shy of the first-year anniversary of construction at the Avenue U and Gravesend Neck Road train stations, the sites reek of the failures soon to ail the rest of the line.
Artist's rendering of completed station rehabilitation at Neck Road. The station will have wider platforms, larger stairwells, more exits, and vision panels.
For those who don’t take the train often, above is a photo of the Avenue U train station taken from the platform. They began putting up new frames that will hold the walls here and at the Neck Road train station earlier this week. Work began on the two stations in December 2008, and the MTA said that they finish the Coney Island-bound sides by the end of 2009. Then they’d switch to the Manhattan-bound side, polishing off the project in 2010.
Well, that was the original plan. The MTA changed the Brighton Line Rehabilitation website to reflect the fact that these sites ain’t gettin’ done on time. The tentative date for completion for the Coney Island-bound side is now “Early 2010″, and the full project will be done in “Early 2011.”
If you haven’t noticed, this is the same “Two year plan” that has been extended to the rest of the local stops between Newkirk Avenue and Kings Highway. One year work on the Coney Island side, then one year on the Manhattan side. Gee, you think they’ll honor those schedules?
By the by, for anyone keeping track, the MTA has not yet responded to our leaders’ requests for more information. Politicians and organizers for the area met with MTA officials a month ago to ask for alternatives to the work and guarantees of the timetable. MTA told them they would be in touch in a few days after they had gathered relevant data. Apparently there are delays on that, too.
(Photo courtesy of Pamela Amri)
These signs went up at B/Q stations citywide on Wednesday morning. The fight isn’t over yet, though. Stay tuned…
(Photo courtesy of Daniel Cavanaugh)
We may not have cleaning crews to get rid of the garbage. We may not have agents in the booth to answer questions or keep us safe. Heck, we may not even have trains from time to time. But at least we’ll have a handful of intercoms to voice our garbled and static-infused complaints to some unsympathetic nobody on the other end. Thanks, MTA!
Straphangers should find it easier to reach transit workers in case of emergency as the agency plans to put intercoms on station platforms.
Intercoms linking platforms and token booths are now few and far between – but NYC Transit is including them in all future station rehabilitation projects, a spokesman said.
Among the first to see the communications upgrade will be riders at five Brighton line stations in Brooklyn.
Workers will install 61 of the devices, one every 200 feet, the spokesman said.
Read more from the Daily News.
We noticed some new signs posted at the B/Q train platform yesterday, indicating some early trackwork heading up to the much maligned B train express cancellation. The changes are as follows:
B Line: For three consecutive Fridays – September 11, 18, and 25 – service will terminate at 8:45 p.m.
Q Line: For the weekends of September 11 – 14, and September 18 – 21, there will be no trains between Prospect Park and Kings Highway. Service will be replaced by a free shuttle bus between stations. The weekend service changes begin Friday at 9:30 p.m. and continue until 5 a.m. on Monday.
Essentially, it means areas of Southern Brooklyn along the B/Q line are screwed for going into or coming from the city beginning Friday evenings. Thanks MTA!
