Subway riders were fuming after the MTA announced it was swapping the and M and F routes between Manhattan and Queens \u2014 in a move that will affect about 1.2 million straphangers.<\/p>\n
The routes will be permanently swapped on weekdays from 6 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. at 8 stations starting Monday, according to the MTA.<\/p>\n
Commuters told The Post they expect their commute times would increase and trains would be more crowded under the new plan, but MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber claimed the switch would only be beneficial.<\/p>\n
\u201cNobody here is being hurt by this. Everybody benefits,\u201d Lieber said from the 21 St-Queensbridge station Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Lieber described the switch as a data-driven fix for backups at Queens Plaza. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is something we\u2019ve thought about internally for a while, and now by using data we\u2019ve determined that this will not only reduce delays but it will benefit customers,\u201d Lieber said.<\/p>\n
Starting Dec. 8 some riders will ride the F train stead of the M train or the M train instead of the F train. Christopher Sadowski<\/p>\n
During the swap, F trains will stop at Queens Plaza, Court Sq-23 St, Lexington Av\/53 St, and 5 Av\/53 St stations, and M trains will stop at 21 St-Queensbridge, Roosevelt Island, Lexington Av\/63 St, and 57 St stations.<\/p>\n
The changes mean the M train won\u2019t have to cross other lines to reach certain subway stations, which was causing delays for the E, F, M and R trains, according to the MTA.<\/p>\n
Riders switching from the F to the M train can expect less frequent service, Lieber said Wednesday. James Keivom<\/p>\n
Riders switching from the F to the M train can expect less frequent service, Lieber admitted Wednesday. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a tiny bit of difference in terms of frequency,\u201d Lieber said.<\/p>\n
Gabriela Vidella, 49, works in a bank in Manhattan and commutes from Queens. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe lines are okay like that, the way they run,\u201d Vidella told The Post Thursday. \u201cI think they should worry about other things,\u201d she said and mentioned subway safety.<\/p>\n
Vidella will have to take the F train instead of the M train when the swap takes effect. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve never had a problem with the M. The F is a little bit more crowded all the time,\u201d Vidella said. \u201cIt\u2019s pointless, but I guess let\u2019s see what happens next week.\u201d<\/p>\n
Balian Fahan, 19, lives in Queens and commutes to Manhattan for school. He said come Monday when he is forced to take the F train instead of the M train, his commute will increase by 15 minutes.<\/p>\n
\u201cFifteen minutes means everything when you\u2019re a commuter,\u201d Fahan said. <\/p>\n
Fahan said he is also worried about overcrowding on the F train. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe F is definitely unreliable. It\u2019s already crowded, like super, really bad,\u201d Fahan said. \u201cI go downtown always for school, usually it\u2019s packed to like the brim.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, the MTA head tried to paint a rosy picture of the changes. <\/p>\n
The MTA head said the track swap will help keep trains running on time. REUTERS<\/p>\n
Speaking Wednesday, Lieber said inconvenienced riders just don\u2019t want to change routines. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re all New Yorkers, and we all know we have our set routines. Nobody likes change,\u201d Lieber said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Subway riders were fuming after the MTA announced it was swapping the and M and F routes between…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61268,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[57,141,9,24,63,87,122,124,123,13663,615,19147,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-61267","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-queens","8":"tag-metro","9":"tag-mta","10":"tag-new-york","11":"tag-new-york-city","12":"tag-nyc","13":"tag-politics","14":"tag-queens","15":"tag-queens-headlines","16":"tag-queens-news","17":"tag-service","18":"tag-subway","19":"tag-trains","20":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61267\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}