THE CITY OF NEW YORK

COMMUNITY BOARD SIX

Eric Adams
Borough President

Sayar Lonial
Chairperson

Craig Hammerman
District Manager

July 22, 2016

Thomas F. Prendergast
Chairman & Chief Executive Officer
Metropolitan Transit Authority
2 Broadway
New York, New York 10004

Dear Chairman Prendergast:

Upon receipt of Congresswoman Nydia Velzquezs July 19, 2016 letter, and in response to the
May 16, 2016 correspondence from President Veronique Hakim (copy attached), we are writing
to you regarding proposed F-line Express Service in Brooklyn.
In President Hakims letter she details the F Express Report recommendation which is to institute
two-way peak period express service between the Church Avenue and Jay Street-MetroTech F
stations. Furthermore, she suggests that to implement an F express service you are proposing to
schedule some of the existing rush-hour trains to run express during the morning and evening
rush hours beginning in Fall 2017. Lastly, she expressed an eagerness to receive feedback and
comments from us with respect to the findings of the report and offered to meet with us to
discuss the matter.
Within days of receiving this correspondence our District Manager invited your agency to attend
the June 16th meeting of our Transportation/Public Safety Committee to followup on President
Hakims offer to meet with us. We received a quick reply to our invitation and understood that
while your staff was otherwise pre-committed and unavailable for our June meeting that they
would be willing to attend a meeting with our committee to brief us on the F express service
proposal sometime this Fall.
In the interim we have been hearing a loud, growing chorus of voices within our community, all
of whom stand to lose a significant amount of F-train service if the proposal as it stands is
implemented. We particularly note in her correspondence Congresswoman Velzquez points out
that among the disproportionately impacted communities our Red Hook communitya former
two-fare zone community which currently has zero subway servicewould stand to lose the
most. For years we fought this economic injustice as the majority of Red Hook residents live in
public housing and at or below the poverty line. With regard to the challenge of having fairer

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access to public transit resources, what was cured with the rollout of the MetroCard may now be
eroded with F express service. Thats not progress.
While we would reserve our more thoughtful and considered observations and comments related
to your F Express Report for the promised opportunity to meet with your representatives, we felt
it was important to reiterate our invitation in the hope that you can accelerate and prioritize your
availability to attend our committee meeting. Our committee meets regularly at 6:30pm on the
third Thursday of the month and we would be happy to reserve you a spot for you on their
September 15th agenda.
To be clear, we do want to have an opportunity for meaningful, transparent dialogue prior to any
decisions being made over whether and what changes there should be in F service. It would be
helpful, therefore, if you could also explain to us what the process is from the announcement of
the proposal to the implementation phasespecifically whether this will be coming up for a vote
anytime soon, whether you have any planned hearings on the proposal, and whether we can
expect to be invited to any meetings with you on this matter.
We look forward to hearing from you at your earliest opportunity.
Sincerely,

Sayar Lonial
Chairperson

/S/
Eric McClure, Co-Chair
Transportation Committee

/S/
Thomas Miskel, Co-Chair
Transportation Committee

/S/
Matthew Silverman, Chair
Public Safety Committee

cc: Hon. Andrew Cuomo

Hon. Bill de Blasio
Hon. Eric Adams
Hon. Nydia Velzquez
Hon. Velmanette Montgomery
Hon. Daniel Squadron
Hon. Felix Ortiz
Hon. Jo Anne Simon
Hon. Steve Levin
Hon. Carlos Menchaca
Hon. Brad Lander

250 Baltic Street Brooklyn, New York 11201-6401 www.BrooklynCB6.org

t: (718) 643-3027 f: (718) 624-8410 e: info@BrooklynCB6.org