A train skips three Ozone Park stations for nine days starting Saturday for signal work

Riders who use the A train’s Lefferts Boulevard branch should plan for a nine-day detour starting overnight Friday. From 12:30 a.m. Saturday, Nov. 7, until 5 a.m. Monday, Nov. 16, A trains will not run between Rockaway Blvd and Ozone Park–Lefferts Blvd, the MTA said. That means no train service at 104 St, 111 St or Ozone Park–Lefferts Blvd.

Free shuttle buses will replace service between Rockaway Blvd and Lefferts Blvd at all times during the suspension, stopping at 104 St and 111 St. The MTA’s rider reminder says shuttles are timed for every three to five minutes at peak and about every 10 minutes off-peak. Trains that normally end at Lefferts Blvd will instead run to Howard Beach–JFK Airport. Overnight Lefferts Shuttle service between Lefferts Blvd and Euclid Ave is suspended for the same window.

The agency is using the continuous outage to replace track, ties, rails, third rail and switches near 104 St as the first stretch of a larger Communications-Based Train Control project on the Fulton and Liberty lines. amNewYork, citing the MTA, put the signal modernization price tag at $1.9 billion, covering roughly 23 stations and about 350,000 weekday riders and funded largely by congestion-pricing revenue. NBC New York reported the wider A/C resignaling is expected to finish in 2032. Some of the signals being replaced date to the 1930s, the MTA said.

Riders can also use regular Q112, Q8 or Q41 bus service on nearby avenues (local fares apply; those routes do not run overnight). On the weekends of Nov. 7–9 and Nov. 14–16, street-level work on the elevated structure will close Liberty Avenue to through traffic and shut 99 St and 100 St between 103 Av and Rockaway Blvd, with signed diversions, according to the MTA press release. Check mta.info/alerts before you travel.