Working on President's Day? The Q and B Trains Won't Be

If you're working on President's Day this year and planning to take the Q or the B, you'll need to find a new route.

Citing traditionally low ridership on that holiday Monday, the MTA is extending its weekend track work through Monday this weekend, meaning there will be no Q trains north of Prospect Park between 12:01 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 18 through 5 a.m. Tuesday Feb. 21, according to the MTA. 

Trains will be running on a Saturday schedule, so that means no B train either. 

You can get a shuttle bus at the Seventh Avenue station that will take you to Atlantic Avenue, where you can get the N or R to the city, (or you can take the 2/3 to Atlantic). For those going Southbound, you can take the shuttle bus (or the Franklin Avenue shuttle) to Prospect Park and get the Q.

Asked why the MTA was canceling the Q Train on a day when many people work, MTA spokeswoman Deidre Parker wrote:

System-wide average over the past 10 years shows that President's Day ridership is 5% lower than an average Saturday. So clearly, ridership indicates that whatever is appropriate on a Saturday is appropriate on President's Day.

Parker said it's not unusual for the MTA to continue track work on a holiday Monday suggests people add an extra 15 to 30 minutes to their travel time.

There is a silver lining to the shuttle-bus Monday: despite the cancellation of track work on two weekends due to predictions of snow, the work is still slated to be completed on time: Feb. 25-26 should be our last shuttle-bus weekend, Parker said.

For those wondering the exact reason for the weekend dearth in Q trains, workers are replacing tracks at Atlantic Avenue.

According to Parker, the work the MTA is doing should be a long-term solution to a drainage problem. For those interested in engineering, here's more detail on the work: 

702 feet of degraded concrete track is being chipped out north of the Atlantic Ave station over the course of 7 weekends and 52 weeknights in 2012. The severe deterioration of the concrete in the area was due to heavy accumulations of water, which in turn appear to be caused by poor drainage.

The concrete track is going to be replaced by ballast.  The use of ballast will give the area in question excellent long term resilience (as fouled ballast can be easily repacked and/or replaced as needed) and so will prevent the need for further chip-outs at the same location.