City Officials Want F Train Express Service To Return To Coney Island

Amid what appears to be a renaissance in Coney Island, southern Brooklyn’s elected officials are calling on the MTA to restore F train express service to speed more visitors to the shorefront amusement park, News 12 Brooklyn reports.

In a letter to Mayor Bill de Blasio and MTA Chairman Tom Prendergast, local politicians argued the express service was needed to accommodate the surge in ridership.

“The ridership on the F-train continues to grow, yet service has not improved. The platforms are crowded, and so are the train cars, while the commute is cumbersome. We are calling for the return of an express train on the F-Line. The middle track is still there. What we need now is the will from government leaders to make it happen,” read the letter.

The statement was signed by Councilman Mark Treyger, Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, Borough President Eric Adams, Senator Diane Savino, Assemblyman William Colton, Councilman David Greenfield, and Councilman Chaim Deutsch.

De Blasio and Governor Andrew Cuomo came to an agreement this month on a $26.1 billion program to maintain and expand the MTA’s transit system for the next four years, New York 1 reports.

However, many of southern Brooklyn’s leaders felt slighted that the plan offered few improvements for their neighborhoods.

“In light of the recent agreement regarding the MTA Capital Program, the time has come to restore the transportation options that our communities lost during the 2010 cuts. Southern Brooklyn deserves its fair share,” read the letter.

Among the other improvements included in the letter: the return of the x29 and x28 bus lines, which were cut from the MTA’s 2010 budget, as well as faster service for the B1 and B82 buses.

An MTA spokesperson told News 12 they are studying the feasibility of F train express service in Brooklyn. However, the agency said they had determined the highest ridership on the F line “is at local stations, and express trains would have to merge at Jay Street into local tracks that are already at capacity.”