'MTA bungled it:' Brooklyn pols lash out against N and R 'improvements'

Straphangers are waiting as long as 14 minutes for trains after promised improvements to the system

Service improvements on the N and R lines are … wait for it … keep waiting … not going as planned.

Last week, the MTA bolstered the number of trains on the two lines, both of which service Brooklyn, and said they were reducing the wait time between trains to eight minutes instead of 10 minutes between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. on weekdays.

It hasn’t been going well. State Senator Andrew Gounardes says he’s hearing complaints from his Brooklyn constituents that riders are actually waiting longer — “upwards of 12-14 minute wait times” and lashed the MTA for the “supposed implementation” of the new service. “Tl;dr: the MTA bungled it. Big time,” he wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

Responding to pressure, the MTA adjusted the initial press release to state that the improved service now begins at 11:30 a.m. on the R line due of track work. The agency didn’t provide a timeline of when that will be completed, but when it finally finishes, increased service will resume at 10 a.m.

Gounardes said he was “shocked and frustrated that the MTA would misrepresent these service upgrades to the riding public,” in a statement. “I urge the MTA to deliver on these upgrades as quickly as possible, and as a daily R train commuter myself, I promise riders I will hold them accountable until they do.”

Another Brooklyn pol, City Councilman Justin Brannan, smirked: “Who was it that said the MTA is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of New York, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money?”

Commuters are indeed displeased. “They raised the fares two weeks ago and basically started providing worse service. It’s infuriating that on a daily basis our commute is a crap shoot,” tweeted (X’ed?) one.

They raised the fares two weeks ago and basically started providing worse service. It’s infuriating that on a daily basis our commute is a crap shoot.

— alex borriello (@itsme_abee) September 7, 2023

As of Thursday midday, Brooklyn Magazine’s small network of in-house straphangers noticed wait times between eight and 10 minutes on the R and as long as 14 minutes on the N at some Brooklyn stops. No delays were posted on the MTA’s website.

Update: The MTA said in a statement to Brooklyn Magazine that an “inadvertent editing error” in the agency’s original press release miscommunicated service changes. It since has been corrected, per the MTA:

Due to an inadvertent editing error, a sentence in a press release dated August 22 explaining that increased service on the R line would be implemented on weekdays initially from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. – with increased service expanding later to 10:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. following completion of track restoration work on the F line—was omitted. The online version of that press release has been updated.