The A train is a lifeline for so many Brooklyn residents but beginning this week, they'll have to find other ways of getting around on the weekend as the MTA finally gets around to making nearly $1 billion worth of Sandy repairs, nearly three years after the storm.
The Cranberry tubes, where the A and C trains travel from Manhattan to Brooklyn under the East River, were soaked with 1.5 billions of gallons of salt water water during the storm, and the floods damaged tracks, signals, pumping equipment, and electrical and switching equipment.
"After the storm, we worked really hard to get service back as quickly as possible by making temporary repairs," said MTA spokesman Kevin Ortiz. Now, he said, it's time for the $96 million permanent fix, which includes new signals and power lines.
The MTA is aiming to have the repairs "substantially" completed by March 2017. In total, there will be 40 weekends of service outages on the lines.
Ortiz said Lower Manhattan passengers have options that minimize their pain, including alternatives on the R line and alternatives on the 1, 2 and 3 lines.
But Brooklyn-bound passengers can expect longer trips as the A train detours along the F line.
When Komal Kaur of Brooklyn Heights noticed signs at her A train station Friday stamped with the five dreaded words -- "no trains at this station" -- she calculated she would have to walk from the F, a 15-minute longer walk, for the next several months, adding up to an extra 10 hours of walking.
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"It's going to be hard," she said. "It's not going to be convenient as it is right now."
Victoria Chase and her family aren't happy, either, even though they understand the MTA has to make the repairs.
"I think they need to do the repairs, but I think it's gonna cause a major traffic hassle. Especially on the weekends, people do most of their shopping and errands with kids," she said.
