The straphangers around Smith and Ninth Street will be stranded without a train until the fall.
The reopening of the Smith-Ninth Street F and G subway station, which was slated for the end of this month, will be delayed until fall 2012, according to the MTA and Craig Hammerman, the district manager of Community Board 6.
"The consolation is that they're not really taking anything new away, the area has gone without it for some time—although I'm sure riders will view it differently," Hammerman said at a CB 6 meeting on Wednesday night.
The station was closed on June 20, 2011 for a $32 million renovation, part of the Culver Viaduct Rehabilitation Project, a $275.5 million engineering and construction effort to rehabilitate the elevated steel and concrete Culver Viaduct structure, which both the F and G train lines run along and has distrupted service at .
The Smith-Ninth Street station renovations, which is being done in coordination with the Fourth Avenue Interlocking Signal Modernization, will include a new and expanded street level control house, new architectural metal panel escalator enclosure and rehabilitated stairs and platforms, an MTA spokesman said. The station will also have new lighting, public address and CCTV systems.
Originally the station was supposed to open at the end of March with only G train service. Now the station will stay closed until the fall, but F and G service will resume at that time, a representative of the MTA said.
For now, straphangers will have to rely on or walk from the Carroll Street or Fourth Avenue-Ninth Street subway stations.
