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By Danielle Furfaro
Brooklyn Daily
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is planning to lessen the load of the chronically-packed L train.
The public transportation agency plans to add eight more round trips every weekday and four more round trips every Saturday and Sunday to ease the load. The subway line that has seen ridership increase by one and a half times during the past decade as Williamsburg and Bushwick have become meccas for the brunch-and-art-gallery set.
The service change will shave 12 seconds from the time between trains from 8 to 9 am and 50 seconds from the gap between trains from 7 pm to 11 pm, to the relief of Williamsburg commuters who dread being packed in like sardines every day.
“The morning crush is a bit much,” said Lance Bidwell, who rides to Manhattan for work every weekday morning. “I would welcome not having to bounce off other riders.”
The hell train boasts the dubious distinction of having a second set of late-night and weekend crunch times that this paper has dubbed the hipster rush hour. The Brooklyn sidewinder retains 90 percent of ridership on Saturdays and Sundays, and sees as many people pass through the turnstiles at 1 am every day of the week as during working day peak times.
The new schedule will also add four extra round trips to Saturday and Sunday nights between 9 pm and 11 pm.
The changes, along with the previously announced boosts to the G and M trains, will take effect in June, according to the transit agency.
The boost is part of a proposed $4.3-million service boost that will also increase the number of trains on the 2, 3, 4, 5, A, E, and F lines.ç