Feb. 8, 2016 By Christian Murray
Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer and the transit advocacy group Access Queens will hold a rally under the 40th Street subway station Tuesday morning to call on the MTA to improve 7 train service.
The rally, which will take place at 8 a.m., comes as a result of riders facing almost daily delays, Van Bramer said, often leading to overcrowding and unsafe platforms.
He said he constantly hears about the problems from his constituents—whether they be signal problems or stalled trains—via Twitter and Facebook, and he wants the MTA to be held accountable.
“I just don’t want these delays to go on without a response,” Van Bramer said. “People’s lives are being affected so I want to join with #7trainBlues [Access Queens] and let it be known.”
Van Bramer is calling on the MTA to conduct a “full-line review” of the 7 train, which would involve a top-to-bottom study of the subway line’s operations. The MTA has been conducting these “full line reviews” since 2009, and they have yielded results on other subway lines including improved customer communication, customer access, station improvements, service reliability and service frequency.
Melissa Orlando, who is the founder of Access Queens (formerly known as #7TrainBlues), said that last week 7 train service was particularly poor.
She said that the MTA needs to be held accountable and that they need to communicate with riders better and have back-up plans.
“It’s all so unreliable, it’s working and then not working,” she said, adding that they “never communicate with anyone what’s going on.”
