Manhattan-Bound N Train Service Resumes At 9 Brooklyn Stations

SUNSET PARK, BROOKLYN — Manhattan-bound N train service resumed at nine Brooklyn stations on Monday after part of a nearly $400 million renovation of the Sea Beach Line was completed.

The uptown stations in Sunset Park and Bensonhurst reopened at 5 a.m. Monday after more than a year of work on stairways, platforms and lighting. The platforms were closed from Eighth Avenue to 86th Street.

The upgrades included accessibility-compliant platforms, brighter lighting, brand new stairs with improved handrails and new paint. Two of those eight stations will soon be fully compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, the MTA says.

"These stations and right-of-way opened in the 1910s and have been in heavy daily use for more than a century," Ronnie Hakim, the MTA's Interim Executive Director, said in a press release. "It’s a vital Brooklyn corridor that needs to be brought into a state of good repair with new amenities and technology such as an upgraded communications system.

"When the work is finished at all nine stations and the tracks that connect them, our customers will see brighter, cleaner and safer stations and experience a smoother, more reliable ride, while our mobility impaired customers will be able to access that part of the Sea Beach line by using new ramps and new elevators."

While Manhattan commuters in Sunset Park and Bensonhurst can finally ride the N train to work, they won't be able to take it back starting in July, when the second phase of work will begin on the Coney Island-bound platforms.

Work on the stations, which the MTA says serve nearly 53,000 people a day, is expected to cost about $396 million.

Image: R38R40, Wikimedia Commons, used under Creative Commons