Brooklyn has the least — and most — reliable subway routes: MTA

December 1, 2023 Raanan Geberer

The F train in Brooklyn. Photo: Bebeto Matthews/AP

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The most delayed subway line in the city and the most on-time line both go through Brooklyn, according to analyses of recent MTA data.

Figures made public by both the New York Post and Eyewitness News say that only 71 percent of F trains, which travel between Coney Island and 179th Street in Jamaica, Queens, are on time. However, 93 percent of L trains, which ride between Canarsie and 14th Street-8th Avenue in Manhattan, are on time.

One reason that the F train often runs late might be found in how many other lines it shares tracks with. The F train has its tracks all to itself from Coney Island to Church Avenue, where it is joined briefly by the G train. Once it gets to Manhattan, however, it goes onto the Sixth Avenue Line, which is also used by the M, B and D lines.

In addition, according to Riders Alliance, a grassroots organization, the frequency of F service was cut back during COVID, but wasn’t returned to full strength. “C and F service were reduced nearly a year ago during the time we were running [only] essential service, and we never brought them back to full service due to low ridership,” and MTA spokesperson told the alliance in 2021. Later the same year, the lines were finally brought back to pre-pandemic frequency.

On the other hand, the L train, over its entire route, doesn’t share the tracks with any other line. This means that it doesn’t have to deal with a situation in which it has to wait until a train entering from another direction merges onto the tracks.

The L, informally known as the “hipster’s express” due to heavy ridership at its stops within Williamsburg and Bushwick, has also has benefited from modernization. In the early 2000s, it was converted to communications-based train control (CBTC), in which a computer on board helps control the trains.

In addition, the L’s tunnels between Manhattan and Brooklyn were rebuilt in 2019-20 to repair damage wrought by Hurricane Sandy back in 2012. This gave the L the benefit of new, up-to-date signal equipment.

In the category of trains that are the least reliable, the A and C lines, both of which run on the underground Fulton Street line in Central Brooklyn, follow the F train. They were both on time only 72 percent of the time, according to the Post.

The most probable explanation for the A train’s poor on-time performance is very simple: It’s the longest line in the transit system. It begins in Rockaway, heads west below Pitkin Avenue and Fulton Street in Brooklyn, joins up with the Eighth Avenue line in Manhattan, and goes all the way up to 207th Street at the tip of Manhattan. All in all, each run of the A takes 31 miles.

While the A is an express most of the time, every once in awhile it runs as a local, making its travels even longer. The C train, which shares most of its route with the A, is sort of a junior A train. It starts at Euclid Avenue in Brooklyn and ends not at 207th Street but at 168th Street.

According to the Post, the N train, which runs between Bay Ridge and Astoria, came in right behind the A and the C (which some people, probably not native New Yorkers, lump together as “the A-C”), with an on-time performance rate of only 73 percent.

Three months ago, Eyewitness News announced, the MTA announced that it would add more service on the N line, so its numbers will hopefully improve in the future. Incidentally, the newscaster referred to the N as the “never train.”

In the Post article, Bernie, an N-train commuter, called the N reliable when it’s going to Queens, but added that it’s “super-sketchy” heading toward Brooklyn.

Ongoing or temporary construction work frequently is to blame for delays on the city’s subway lines, as can be seen on the MTA’s website