L Train Scheduled to Shut Down Between Brooklyn and Manhattan for 18 Months

The MTA will announce on Monday the official timeline for the long-awaited L train shutdown, the New York Times reports. The Canarsie tube—the tunnel running under the East River, connecting Manhattan and Brooklyn—will be shut for eighteen months, beginning in January 2019.

There will be no L service in Manhattan, where it normally runs under 14th Street. In Brooklyn, the L will run from Bedford Avenue to Canarsie as usual. Shuttles will run from the Bedford L to Delancey Street-Essex Street in Manhattan, via the Marcy Avenue JMZ.

The MTA says the shutdown is necessary to complete lingering repairs to damage caused by Superstorm Sandy, in 2012, which flooded the Canarsie tube. The transit agency had considered a partial, three-year shutdown that would have allowed a few trains to continue running, but public opinion overwhelmingly favored the more disruptive but shorter-term full shutdown.

“It really came down to our wanting to pick an option that minimized inconvenience to the customer,” New York City Transit President Veronique Hakim told the Times. “This is the, ‘Get in, get done, get out,’ option.”