Revamped Bay Ridge Avenue station to reopen October 13

On track for the six-month mark, the newly remodeled Bay Ridge Avenue subway station – shuttered since April 29 – is set to reopen Friday, October 13, according to a senior MTA official.

The revamped station will feature enhanced lighting throughout, as well as improved signage to make it easier for straphangers to navigate their stops. It will also include at least one countdown clock, improved cell service, USB charging stations, new art and a real-time navigation system.

When the station closed earlier this year, it left just three points of access to the R train in Bay Ridge — 95th Street, 86th Street and 77th Street — as well as an 18-block gap between neighboring stops.

The good news for Bay Ridge was first broken to local residents by City Council candidate and aid to State Senator Marty Golden, John Quaglione, who greeted straphangers at the 77th Street station Monday morning to spread the word.

Quaglione – who, amidst the news is calling on the Department of Sanitation to suspend alternate side parking regulations to accommodate local residents for the remaining few weeks of construction – said his source was none other than MTA Chairperson Joe Lhota.

His opponent in the race for the 43rd District seat, Justin Brannan, followed suit, announcing on Facebook that, in response to a recent letter he had penned to Lhota about the need for quality service over cosmetic improvements to the city’s subways, he’d received the same good news.

The station was one of three in southern Brooklyn to close this year as part of a 31-stop overhaul announced by Governor Andrew Cuomo last summer, alongside Prospect Avenue and 53rd Street – the latter fresh off its own grand reopening, which was met with both positive and negative reviews.

“It’s gorgeous,” said one rider, whose favorite new feature was the charging stations. However, a number of riders expressed concerns about there still not being an elevator, as well as about new, leaning benches that might not be so accommodating for older residents.

There is no word yet when Prospect Avenue – the last of the trio to close – will reopen.

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