NEW YORK (WABC) — Starting today, the F and M subway lines will swap routes — but only on weekdays.
The change will affect eight stations between Jackson Heights and Midtown, including 63rd and Lexington and 53rd and 5th Avenue.
F trains will now stop at Queens Plaza, Court Sq-23 St, Lexington Av/53 St, and 5 Av/53 St. These stations are currently served by the M.
M trains will now stop at 21 St-Queensbridge, Roosevelt Island, Lexington Av/63 St, and 57 St. These stations are currently served by the F.
The MTA says the goal is to cut down on overcrowding and delays on the Queens Boulevard line.
“There’s a merge at Queens Plaza, which is a chokepoint which creates all kinds of crossing and throughput problems, and which actually causes a ton of delays,” said MTA Chairman and CEO Janno Lieber.
Delays that tend to happen right at Queens Plaza.
“If you’ve been on an E train at Queens Plaza going to Manhattan, and you see the M across the platform leaving first, you’re waiting for that train to go ahead of you before you can proceed,” said VP of Subways NYC Transit William Amarosa.
In theory the switch alleviates that congestion below ground.
“We love that. We love that, man. Less transportation. Less minutes on the train. We love that – maybe we can get home faster,” said subway rider Naim Bansfield.
There were no F or M trains running at Queens Plaza on Sunday night ahead of the change. There were signs and announcements.
Sonia Rincon has the details from Long Island City.
“You have to pay attention to the audio that comes across. A lot of times we ignore it, like I just did. And you have to look at the signs,” said subway rider Ken Green.
The change was still news to some riders, who predict there will be confused commuters on Monday morning — and skeptical ones.
“You have to se how it plays out, and then you can criticize it later if it didn’t work,” adds Green.
The good news is, if riders make a mistake and get on the wrong train and happen to be going to one of the eight affected stops, is that they will never be more than a few blocks away from where they needed to go. The M and the F lines never actually get too far apart from each other before they meet up again.
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