Evening and late-night subway riders who take A, C or E trains should plan an alternate route this week.
Service on the A train between 59th Street-Columbus Circle and Jay Street-MetroTech will be suspended from 9:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. Trains will be rerouted to make stops at stations along the D and F lines in Manhattan and Brooklyn instead, the MTA said. During that same time frame, E trains will make stops at stations on the M and F lines in Manhattan and C service will end early.
The overnight shutdown began on Monday and will last through Friday morning.
The service changes were planned as part of New York City Transit’s Fastrack program, according to the MTA. The suspensions are needed in order to execute critical maintenance, cleaning and repair work as part of its Subway Action Plan, the agency added.
The multipronged plan to improve subway service was introduced by MTA chairman Joe Lhota in July in response to growing delays and service changes that led Gov. Andrew Cuomo to declare a state of emergency for the state-run agency. The plan, which includes short-term and long-term agendas, aims to stabilize and improve the subway system’s crumbling infrastructure while setting the stage for modernization.
This is the second week of overnight repairs on the A, C and E lines. The same sections of track also were suspended from Jan. 15 to 19.
Lhota said the MTA chose to complete the work overnight in order to minimize the impact on riders and maximize worker efficiency with repairs.
“We are on an urgent path to stabilizing and modernizing the subway system, and intensive overnight work will help us get there,” he said in a news release.
The MTA suggested the following transit alternatives during the shutdown:
- A and E trains will run along Sixth Avenue, making stops at D and F train stations.
- A trains will make D line stops between 59th Street-Columbus Circle and 34th Street-Herald Square, then switch to F train stations between Herald Square and Jay Street-MetroTech.
- E trains will make M line stops between Fifth Avenue-53rd Street and Broadway-Lafayette Street, then run along the F line to and from Second Avenue.
- When C train service ends early, A trains will make local stops.
- For service in Manhattan, use 1 or 2 trains on the Seventh Avenue line or N, Q, R and W trains on the Broadway line.
Correction: An earlier version of this article had an incorrect terminus for the E line. Service runs between Queens and Manhattan.
