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More transit troubles for Brooklyn: The 2/3 train will shut down on weekends starting this spring

By Alanna Schubach  | December 14, 2016 - 1:59PM

The hits keep on coming for the borough of Kings: DNAInfo reports that 2 and 3 train service between Brooklyn and Manhattan will be cut on weekends starting this spring. As with the L train, which in 2019 will shut down between the two boroughs for 18 months, the 2 and 3 will stop running so that the MTA can make repairs to a tunnel under the East River that was damaged during Hurricane Sandy. 

In a press release, the MTA explained that the repair work will take 56 weekends, meaning 2/3 riders will have to find new travel routes on Saturdays and Sundays for over a year. Downtown 2s will terminate at the South Ferry station, and downtown 3s will stop at 14th Street. Uptown 2/3 trains, meanwhile, will end at Nevins Street in Brooklyn. On weekends, there will be no 2/3 train service at the Park Place, Fulton Street, Wall Street, Clark Street, Borough Hall, and Hoyt Street stations. 

Those who live or work in the Financial District and Brooklyn Heights stand to be the most inconvenienced, as are riders who live in neighborhoods that are served only by the 2/3, like East New York and Brownsville. It's a headache for those in Flatbush and Crown Heights, too, but they at least have the alternative of the 4/5 line. 

To accommodate passengers who rely on this train line, the MTA says it will be extending the 4 train to New Lots Avenue and the 5 to Flatbush Avenue/Brooklyn College. The agency is making other changes in the Bronx and Manhattan to ease the strain caused by the shutdown; check the MTA for more details. 

The impending L train shutdown is expected to make waves in the real estate markets along 14th Street in Manhattan and the L corridor in Brooklyn. Might there be a similar effect in the areas served by the 2 and 3 trains? 

Doug Perlson, founder of Real Direct, doesn't think so: "While this will be a significant inconvenience for many riders, I don't think it will have much of an impact on the real estate market due to the weekend nature of the interruption and the relatively short duration of the work," he says. "That said, those that work on weekends—in retail and health care, or child care workers—will be the most impacted." 

Furthermore, locals in the neighborhoods served by this line are not as dependent upon it as residents of places like Williamsburg, Bushwick, and Canarsie are upon the L, which should help ease the pressure. "Neighborhoods like Brooklyn Heights and Park Slope are served by other lines too, so the impact is not as large as Williamsburg," Perlson points out. 

However, he adds that all the transit woes in Brooklyn could further boost people's interest in the borough to the north. "I do think that Queens continues to rise over the next few years, but it's more of a 7 line versus L line issue than Queens versus Brooklyn," Perlson says.

One attractive aspect of the 7 line, which runs from Long Island City to Flushing? It's almost entirely above ground, meaning no flood risk—and no long stretches of time repairing damaged tunnels and stations. 

 

Alanna Schubach

Contributing writer

Contributing editor Alanna Schubach has over a decade of experience as a New York City-based freelance journalist.

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