This is the third post (Post 1|Post 2) in a series of posts about completely split subway service (Map for the Day) with no service through blackout stricken Manhattan south of about 30th Street after Superstorm Sandy. I decided I had to see how navigating the city would be heading to Brooklyn to visit a friend. Governor Cuomo also announced a transit emergency making all Bus, Subway, LIRR and Metro-North Service Fare Free!
Arriving at Atlantic Terminal on the free LIRR hourly Shuttle from Jamaica we go up to street level and notice tons of police, the emergency bus bridge shuttle buses to Manhattan but relatively minimal lines for them going around the Barclay’s Center and that entrance–(10 Photos).
There is no tape around the entrance to the B,Q Brighton Line–(4 Photos) platform from the Barclays Center so we venture down it and enter that completely deserted platform. It has though been plastered with Shuttle Bus signs pointing towards the Barclays Center exit. We go back up to the main connecting underpass–(2 Photos) beneath the LIRR and IRT platforms and are on the wrong side of not just one set but two sets of orange do not enter tape. This has happened once before in this very location, after the blizzard at the end of 2010 when it took a few days to bring the Brighton Line back.
The next place we venture underground via the upper mezzanine–(5 Photos), where that exit to Pacific Street has been divided into an Exit only side and Entry side using the two emergency exit gates it has (and also dividing the staircases), enforced by cops to the Pacific Street, 4th Avenue Subway–(1 Photo) end of the station to see what rolling stock the Brooklyn-half of the D is using (I’m thinking R160s because there might not be any of its usual R68s in the Brooklyn portion of the subway system). It’s using the usual R68s so there seems to reason to head out towards Bay Parkway for photographs (something I later regret doing, seeing a photo of a very long train of R160s finding high ground on the middle track of the West End elevated). I next want to see what the R train is doing and a Jay Street-bound R46 enters, its destination signs simply saying “Shuttle” (these photos are all prominently on my main Superstorm Sandy page).
We take the R ‘Shuttle’ train to Jay Street-MetroTech–(2 Photos) (one stop who’s name change has stuck, I don’t think of it as Lawrence Street anymore) and head up the escalator to the main IND station to check in on the Brooklyn-half’s of the A and F trains, their running the usual R46s on the A and R160s on the F. The F’s R160s signs are correct. The Shuttle Buses here don’t seem too bad.
It seems like the most interesting Brooklyn only branch to take a ride on (I realize I’m missing the L and M Shuttles but the M shuttle runs every weekend and the L shuttle is common when track work is taking place) is the 4 train that is using the 3 train’s R62s still with 148 St-Lenox Terminal as the northern destination from the only Brooklyn IRT Yard, the Livonia Yard with the 5 using the R142s stored there (it stores some cars from all the IRT Express Lines). We walk over to Borough Hall and enter in front of the Greenmarket that is already back (but seems smaller). At the turnstiles are descriptive signs as we go via the Manhattan-bound 2,3 Platform–(7 Photos) to the 4,5 platform where the only trains are running, only to New Lots Avenue from this station terminating just beyond it at the beginning of the Joralemon Street Tunnel. We just catch a R62A 4 train as its about to leave.
We take the 4 train to the first elevated station Sutter Avenue-Rutland Road–(17 Photos) for a few rare R62s on the 4 photos and on the Livonia el no less! A R142 4 train passes through the station as were there, correctly signed for Borough Hall.
We take the 4 train back to Nostrand Avenue–(6 Photos) where this countdown clock sums up the Brooklyn half of the 4 train and really all subway service today.
We walk the two blocks (yes the stops are that close to each other on different lines, I’m sure some locals heading home just take whichever train comes first) to President Street–(11 Photos) to ride the 5 train back. There all the countdown clocks are calling Flatbush Avenue-bound 5 trains diamond 5s:
A 5 train comes in and much to my surprise the destination signs are all correct saying “Atlantic-Barclays” the only issue is that the automated announcements can’t say this is a Atlantic Avenue-Barclays Center-bound 5 Express train and are saying Manhattan-bound. The train dumps us off, terminating back on the island platform.
There is one more R160 Subway Line I want to investigate, hearing if the F can say Jay Street-bound. We walk back over to the Pacific Street platforms and take the R train two stops to 9 Street–(4 Photos)
We head upstairs via the street (why not? the subway is free!) and take a R160 F train that indeed is saying “This is a Jay Street-MetroTech bound F Local Train” with the correct destination signs, we take it to Bergen Street–(3 Photos) where I go and have dinner at my friends house.
I’m happy I have now investigated the limited service of the 5 subway lines terminating in Downtown Brooklyn and providing extremely limited Subway Service to the Borough.