L Train: Crowded For the Foreseeable Future

L train riders, your patience, as well as personal space, will be tested for at least another three years. The NY Times reports that an additional 64 train cars that would take advantage of the "high-tech signal system" the MTA spent so much time installing . Which means that you'll have to make do with waiting for now!

Currently, rush hour trains are scheduled to arrive every four minutes (15 trains every hour). The MTA tells the Times that once the new trains are added, trains will arrive every 2 minutes 18 seconds. But for 2007, the MTA will bump up the number of trains to 17 trains an hour - you'll shave your waiting time by 30 seconds.

If you can even get on the train that comes in. We found this anecdote depressing and familiar:

“I hate standing on a crowded platform, and I hate the sardine train,” said Traci Tullius, 30, a Williamsburg resident who commutes to work at Yeshiva University in Manhattan, where she teaches art.
Ms.

Tullius lives closest to the Graham Avenue stop, but she said that during the morning rush the trains stopping there were so crowded that she has to let several pass before she can board. Instead, she regularly rides her bicycle three stops farther into Brooklyn, to the Morgan Avenue station, which is less heavily used.
“I ride my bike three stops in order to avoid the crunch,” she said.

“It’s gross. You have to wait for four trains to go there. It’s insanity.

”

How many trains do you typically wait for an L?
Only last year did the MTA admit the L . We imagine the MTA will consider improving service to the and G by 2012 and 2015.

And be look out for the report cards where riders .
Stupid question: The new signaling systems appear to permit the L to run at almost *double* capacity given that enough trains are available to do so.
If they did the same thing to the Lex Ave Line, would it be a viable alternative to the 2nd ave subway?

Granted, it does nothing to add coverage to that last bit of downtown that has no subway coverage, but from what I hear, those bits might not get built anyway.
As for the luxury condos, everybody knows they're going to be filled with coke-addled trust fund hipsters.
As for the L, I get on at Lorimer around 7:40-7:50 and it sucks sometimes, but other times it's fine.

It's a total crap shoot, really. There have been times when I've waited for 45 minutes to watch *only* four super-packed trains stop and leave. Other times, like today, it will actually stop every two minutes, and it will be downright spacious.

I really do get the impression that these trains are spending too much damn time sitting at 8th Ave. Who the hell are they waiting for at 8th Ave. during the morning rush?

The trains shouldn't spend any more time there than they do at any other station.
why would the condos be filled with cokehead trust fund hipsters??

think about it...

itd be like hipsters walking around with giant diamond studded clothes and gold bars. a conspicuous embarrassing display of wealth!
everyone around there thinks the condos are ridiculous, dont belong there, are overpriced for rich idiots that dont know any better, pushed polish/native people out of their houses.

so if they were hipsters, the other regular hipsters would make fun of them too much, secretly
Holy shit! A crowded train! CALL THE PRESS!

Seriously folks, wtf? Why is the L train being crowded news?
The E at Rush hour, the 4,6,5 2 during most of the day, and don't even get me started on the A are crowded more often than not.

Why does the L get special attention?
Eva, the R160s on the N are the newer technology trains. Putting them on the L and moving the older equipment from the L to the N would help solve the problem.

Also, many people use the L as a Manhattan cross town line, as it is much quicker than the M14 bus. OK, walking is usually much quicker then the M14 bus. Still, the L can be the quickest way across town.

I also agree with #34.
the computer system for tracking the trains is not 100 years old (the subway system itself is) and yes it is very capable of tracking trains throughout the system..

. especially since most train stops are less than a mile apart from each other on any given line.
the L used to be a shitty train.

if any of you knuckleheads from the midwest were here in the early 1990's (at least when i first moved into the city) the L was the forbidden train. No one except artists lived in williamsburg or greenpoint and even then yoiu were hard pressed to find an artist.
The L, IMHO has been upgraded supremely over any of the train lines the MTA manages in this city.

It seems to be the "testing" line for most of the new advanced trains as well as siginal technology, sound system and arrival/departure monitors.
the very fact that an enormous number of hipsters/bankers/celebrities and trust fund babies have moved out to the Burg and Greenpoint is the very reason the trains are overpacked.
You blame the MTA?

How can you? perhaps if you were a leader, you'd find that any number of other options to live near or in the city are around you, not just the hip-ass burg. Try LIC or Washington Heights.

Perhaps you're familair with Prospect Heights and West Hell's Kitchen. Maybe you're not and you feel the Burg is your home..

. well, if that's the case, suck it up and deal with the over populated hood. I feel to pain nor should anyone else about your plight.

I also find it hilarious that the very people who live in Williamsburg (newbies) are the same ones who cry when developers come in to redevelop the waterfront or streets. Where were you 10-15 years ago when all the planning was being conceived?