MTA to swap F, M subway routes between Manhattan and Queens

"This will completely isolate local service from express service, so this will be much less prone to delays,"

"We always figure it out, it's always a way,"

"There's got to be at least three ways to get to where you're going."

The F and M trains will swap East River tunnels between Manhattan and Queens starting Dec. 8. M trains will stop at 21st Street–Queensbridge and Roosevelt Island and run under East 63rd Street toward Sixth Avenue, while F trains will cross via the 53rd Street tunnel shared with the E line. Routing both express lines through the same tunnel isolates express and local service, addressing a bottleneck that causes 15–20% of rush-hour delays at Queens Plaza. The change is expected to save at least one minute for roughly 47,000 weekday morning riders, cost about $1 million annually, and the F will revert to the 63rd Street tunnel nights and weekends. Signage at eight affected stations will be updated and riders will receive advance notice.

Read at Gothamist