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.

Who wants to climb into this bowel bobbing in the river? With the likely L train shutdown looming in 2019—affecting 250,000 people who commute between Manhattan and Brooklyn daily—it’s time to look at possible solutions. One solution is turning parts of 14th Street into a bus, bicycle, and pedestrian only zone. And then, there’s this:

A few weeks ago, officials at New York City’s Metropolitan Transit Authority announced preliminary plans to repair and fortify the Canarsie subway tunnel beneath the East River, a job that would require temporarily shutting down L train service between Williamsburg and Manhattan (either completely for an entire year, or just on weekends for three years). The announcement was initially greeted as a joke aimed at the neighborhood’s creative residents—the L train? Shut down? Hahaha!—but now those residents have begun to register actual alarm. Gothamist has the details from a recent town hall meeting (bolding ours):

Good news for people who hate the people of Brooklyn, or at least the idea of the people of Brooklyn: Gothamist reports that forthcoming Hurricane Sandy-related repairs to the the L train, which connects Williamsburg to Manhattan, could shut the line down for at least three years.

Have u guys ever ridden the L train? What happened?

One night you're on the train and you overhear a sweet old woman tell Jay-Z she's proud of him. The next night, a strange man flashes his penis at you then chases you through a subway station. New York's a great town.

A reader sent in this video he shot of a dramatic scene on the L train in Brooklyn last night. Here's how he set it up—

It takes a lot to have a noteworthy New York City subway fight video these days—you're competing with the spaghetti fight and the berserk naked wig-out and everything else.

Catfight alert! Here's yet another NYC all-female brawl—this time filmed by Reddit user bearCatBird yesterday on the L Train platform—featuring two ladies going at it until bystanders break them up. Best part: the eye-roll at the :34 mark.

A fire at the 1st Avenue L station has halted service to and from Williamsburg, so now's our chance to pull up Manhattan's anchors and sail away from it forever. Williamsburgians stuck on the island can be put to work.

[Feel like the "mystery" of your wait time is erased by the LED displays the NYC Transit Authority is installing across the system? Thank Jason Eppink and Kevin Bracken of Newmindspace for this "spoiler alert" sign. Photo by Kristin Wardian.]

Using a very sophisticated algorithm (or something), the folks at Craigslist have figured out that, per capita and per ride rate, the L train gets more Missed Connections mentions than any other train. The Brooklyn stops are especially bumpin'.

What exactly happened on the L train—NYC's most cool subway line—today? Earlier we heard rumors of a suicide. We got a bunch of tips. And just before we went to put up this post, we saw this.

A tipster tells us that someone jumped in front of the L train at First Avenue, and that the line's been shut down. If you know more, email us. [Pic via] UPDATE: MTA's vague service alert below.

Just when you think there are no good jokes about Williamsburg left, a patriotic actress strips on the L train for art's sake, making a story for New York's foremost vagina journalist, and all is well again. [Beware! NSFW art!]

[Submit your own Gawker Stalker sightings to stalker@gawker.com] July 8 @ 9 a.m. About 99.9% sure I saw Zach Galifianakis on the L train this morning. Got on at bedford, I think.

Yesterday, Chrissie Brodigan said she was manhandled by a cop and arrested just because her pug dog threw up on the L train. But the cop says she's a raving anti-Semite! Let's explore this breathtakingly minor controversy.

All she wanted to do was get her poor little puking pug dog out of her tote bag on the L train. But then the cops arrived. And they were mean.

Heartbreaking news out of Brooklyn: Williamsburg has changed. It seems the HIP young hipster area is "no longer a neighborhood, but a destination for debauchery." And the L train to Bedford Avenue—it's no longer a seedy underground passage to hipsterdom. Now it's just a gateway to formerly desolate streets "packed with giggling outer-borough and outer-island 20- and 30-somethings on a night out." [NY Observer] Crap! When did this happen?!?