M train riders have something to cheer for this week.
Gov. Cuomo and Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials announced on Monday that the MTA’s recently updated financial plan includes extending M line service on weekends with trains running from Queens to the Delancey Street-Essex Street stop in Manhattan. Currently, the train terminates at Myrtle Avenue in Brooklyn.
The expansion will reduce transfers and shorten waits for about 37,000 weekend customers, according to Cuomo.
The governor and MTA representatives also announced improvements to the G train, which will operate every eight minutes, instead of the current 10 minutes, from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays. Additionally, weekend service will be restored on the Q31 bus through eastern Queens, and Sunday service will be established on the Q77 bus through eastern Queens.
“For the second year in a row, the state has invested in significant enhancements and expansions to our state’s transit system that will improve the experience of the eight million commuters who use the MTA,” Cuomo said in a prepared statement. “In the last two and a half years, our administration has made real improvements to the nation’s largest public transit system, implementing reforms that have improved services and made the MTA more efficient by reducing costs, cutting waste and putting the needs of straphangers and commuters first.”
The investments announced this week stem from an increase in state aid first proposed in Cuomo’s 2013 budget. MTA Chairman and CEO Thomas Prendergast also praised the upcoming improvements.
“We are committed to aggressively reducing our costs, and to strengthening service whenever we have sustainable resources to do so,” Prendergast said. “But our financial plan remains fragile, and our financial challenges, both short and long term, are numerous. The revised financial plan puts our customer needs first while also allocating resources to longer-term challenges like reducing pension liabilities, lowering retiree health care costs and providing initial funding for our next capital program.”
