F line renewal project begins, with several stops closed for repairs

Straphangers, hang on.

The Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) has begun “necessary track work” along the F line as part of a current $140 million station renewal project.

As mentioned at a Community Board 11 (CB11) meeting, the two-phase project – which started on June 7 – will commence with a six-month repair of the Coney Island-bound platforms followed by Manhattan-bound side repairs lasting six months as well.

According to the MTA, for the duration of the project, Coney Island-bound F trains will not stop at Avenue I, Bay Parkway, Avenue N, Avenue P, Avenue U or Avenue X until early 2017.

“In our district, customers will need to back ride from Kings Highway to get to Coney Island-bound trains,” explained Marnee Elias-Pavia, CB11’s district manager. “They’ll stop at Avenue P and Avenue U and from those stations, will have to take a Manhattan-bound train to Kings Highway and transfer to a Coney Island train. This will go on for six months, the back riding, and then they’ll flip to the other side.”

The long-term service changes are part of a nine-station renewal project being conducted along the Culver F subway line, according to the MTA. Once the work – slated for completion around 2018 – is finished, the line’s 27,000 daily riders can expect repaired staircases, fare control areas, walls, floors and platform girders; new platform windscreens, rubbing boards, tactile warning strips and concrete slabs; improved lighting and installed artwork.

The MTA also noted (most likely in response to commuters excited over unconfirmed F express service which circulated last month) that the work is unrelated to the F express study.

“This work is part of the MTA Capital Plan and is unrelated to the F subway express study,” the MTA writes on its website. “Any adjustments to F subway service in response to the study would occur at the conclusion of the next phase of work.”