Ride the Jerome Ave. Express

On Monday, June 8, the MTA launched a Jerome Avenue el pilot program. Until June 26 at least, four Manhattan-bound 4-trains will run express between Woodlawn and E. 149th Street. Express trains leaving Woodlawn at 7:15 a.m., 7:30 a.m., 7:45 a.m. and 8:00 a.m. will stop at Mosholu Parkway, Burnside Avenue and E. 149th Street only, Monday through Friday.

The pilot program will shave almost four minutes off the Woodlawn to E. 149th Street commute. If the express is a success, it could become permanent. On June 8, the express drew mixed reviews.

“I want to try it out,” said Emily O’Connor of Woodlawn, 32. “I commute to Grand Central.”

The express service surprised some Woodlawn straphangers. A handful rushed to board the 7:30 a.m. train, discovered it was express, and hopped off.

“I don’t like [the express service],” Danelia Dillion, 17, said. “I need to get off at Bedford Park [Boulevard]. The express train skips Bedford Park.”

The express service is designed to speed the Bronx-Manhattan commute.

But Dillion is a student at Lehman College. She rides a bus from her home in Wakefield to the Woodlawn 4-train.

When Catherine Diab of Woodlawn encountered an express train sitting in the station and no local train in sight, she lambasted the station superintendent.

“I’m pissed off,” Diab said. “I commute from Woodlawn to Fordham Road. During rush hour you get up here and expect to board a train. I don’t see a train, do you?”

Four fewer local trains will serve Jerome Avenue between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m., Monday through Friday. Some local trains will originate at the MTA yard near Burnside Avenue.

“The 4-train will be less crowded than before,” the superintendent, who didn’t give his name, said. “People at E. 176th Street will get a seat.”

Lisa Smith, 37, works at E. 161st Street, the borough’s civic center. The express train should stop at E. 161st, Smith said.