6 IRT station rehabs

Thank goodness for the Bx4 bus! New York City Transit has announced that it expects 6 IRT straphangers to use the Bx4 as a free substitute for seven months while the Morrison Avenue – Soundview and Whitlock Avenue elevated train stations are rehabilitated.

The Metropolitan Transit Agency, which runs NYC Transit, had the Bx4 on an elimination list as late as January.

The Morrison Avenue – Soundview and Whitlock Avenue stations closed on Monday, February 8 and expected to reopen on Monday, September 13. The rehab of the two stations is part of an $89 million plan to reconstruct and rehab five 6 IRT stations in the Bronx.

The stations will get brand new mezzanines, canopy roofs, track beds, platform edge tiles and public address systems. Each will also benefit from an electrical upgrade and new fluorescent lights.

NYC Transit has asked straphangers who use the Morrison Avenue – Soundview and Whitlock Avenue stations to ride the Bx4 instead of the 6 IRT. The Bx4 runs under the el on Westchester Avenue.

The bus will be free for straphangers who get on at Simpson Street, Whitlock Avenue, Elder Avenue and Morris Avenue – Soundview. From midnight to 5 a.m., the Bx4 operates every 20 minutes and only at those four stops – no stops in between.

The MTA removed the Bx4 from its elimination list, designed to bridge an enormous budget gap, in late January.

For more information, reach NYC Transit at (718) 330-1234 from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. or log onto www.mta.info.

Reach reporter Daniel Beekman at 718 742-3383 or dbeekman@cnglocal.com