Subway Tunnel Will Be Closed Entirely in Week After Christmas

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During the effort to aggressively resuscitate New York City’s subway system, riders have encountered cars with seats removed to create extra room, new arrival countdown clocks and more frank announcements about delays, all aimed at reversing a steep decline in reliability.

Now, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates the subway, is going to take an even more drastic step to speed up repair work — the agency is going to shut down a subway tunnel.

For five days this month, the agency will close a crossing under the East River that carries the E and M lines between Manhattan and Queens, filling it with hundreds of workers who will lay new track and fix signals around the clock.

The blitzkrieg of repairs will shut down the tracks used by the E and M lines from Queens Plaza to 50th Street. The shutdown starts early on Dec. 26 and ends early on Dec. 31, a period chosen because nearly one million fewer people use the subway then than in typical periods in other weeks — five million compared with 5.9 million, according to data from the authority.

The news of yet another subway inconvenience was met with a mix of understanding and outrage from riders.

“The M.T.A. is not known for being M.I.T., but this is really pushing it,” said Michael Fisher, 56, as he traveled on an E train from Lower Manhattan to his home in Forest Hills, Queens, on Tuesday. “What genius thought of that?”

But in the same car, Tylesha Edwards, 18, who was heading to a nursing class, said she favored any steps to improve the subway’s performance, particularly during winter break, when classes will not be in session. “I’m tired of being late,” Ms. Edwards said. “That goes toward my grade.”

The repairs planned in the tunnel would typically have been completed on weekends, stretched over five weeks. Giving workers 24-hour access, the authority said, will allow the repairs to be completed in five days.

The project represents a departure for the authority, which usually undertakes such an extensive closing only for emergency repairs. It also underscores the pressure transit officials are facing to show tangible progress since Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who controls the subway, declared a state of emergency this summer.

In the period between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day, about 398,000 riders use the subway during the morning rush, compared with the roughly 713,800 riders on a typical weekday morning. During the evening rush, about 526,000 people ride the subway during the last week of the year, compared with about 644,300 riders the rest of the year.

The repairs will include laying 20,000 feet of cable to improve signals and replacing 2,000 feet of subway rails and 700 feet of track. It will also cost less to do the repairs all at once, said Phil Eng, the Transportation Authority’s chief operating officer, though he did not provide a precise amount. Weekend and night repairs, Mr. Eng said, increase the price of employing union laborers. Over 400 workers will be working in the tunnel.

“We have the opportunity to be more efficient and to make the best use of the taxpayer’s dollars,” Mr. Eng said. “These corrective repairs and maintenance will improve reliability.”

The tunnel shutdown is part of the $836 million Subway Action Plan, an ambitious overhaul being overseen by Joseph J. Lhota, the chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, since Mr. Cuomo declared the emergency in July.

“Riders understand that maintaining and upgrading the subway is going to require a certain amount of inconvenience,” said John Raskin, the executive director of the Riders Alliance, a transit advocacy group. “The trick is to minimize the disruption and to make sufficient progress in repairs.

He added, “Riders are willing to accommodate disruption in the short term if they are convinced they will have better service as a result.”

During the five days, the E train will not run on its usual track from the West Fourth Street station in Manhattan to the Roosevelt Avenue station in Queens, and instead it will run along the F line. There will be no M train service, except for shuttle trains between the Middle Village-Metropolitan Avenue station and the Myrtle-Wyckoff Avenues station in Brooklyn.

Shutting a tunnel is not without precedent, but it has usually been done for emergencies, such as to repair damage after Hurricane Sandy in 2012. A more significant shutdown will start in April, when the Canarsie Tunnel between Manhattan and Brooklyn that carries the L train will be closed for over a year to repair damage from Sandy.

On Tuesday, the Regional Plan Association, an urban research organization, issued a report providing recommendations on how the authority could make the most of the L tunnel shutdown.

“You need to show riders that they are getting something in return for the inconveniences of the service not running,” said Kate Slevin, a vice president of the association. In making repairs to the L tunnel, subway officials could, for example, add elevators to stations, she said. “Show real benefits for riders, and you’ll build some will to do these more targeted shutdowns,” Ms. Slevin said.

On Tuesday, Chhaya Parekh, 46, was waiting for the E train at the Forest Hills station to travel to work in the Diamond District in Manhattan. The shutdown will be inconvenient, she said, for workers who rely on those trains. But she did not mind. That week, she said, “I’ll be on vacation.”