More trains added to packed L line

June 8, 2012 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

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By Eric Goldschein

Brooklyn Daily Eagle

The popular L train subway line is adding additional runs to ease overcrowding that’s been mounting for over a decade.

Effective yesterday, seven more trains will run on Sundays, 11 more on Saturdays, and there will be 16 more peak and off-peak roundtrips on weekdays.

Ridership on the L has grown three times faster than ridership on the rest of the system since 1998. This popularity has led to overcrowding — a study by the MTA New York City Transit last year reported that the average morning rush-hour train at Bedford Avenue was riding at 116 percent capacity. But the MTA only added a single train last winter in an attempt to lessen the commuter crush.

Now the line, which travels from Eigth Avenue in Manhattan to Canarsie, will see approximately 100 additional trains a week.

“Our work to improve signals continues to bear fruit and improve service for our customers,” MTA spokesman Kevin Ortiz said on Thursday. “This should ease overcrowding on a line that serves continuously growing populations in Williamsburg, Bushwick and Canarsie.”

State Senator Daniel Squadron, who had been lobbying for increased service to the L and G lines, praised the MTA for tackling the issue.

“The MTA deserves real credit for responding to the communtiy and to my office and increasing service around the need, not around an old set of assumptions,” he said.

Squadron, along with local community and business leaders, plans to appear at the Bedford Avenue stop at 10:30 a.m. today to cheer the improved service.