This weekend–11:45 p.m. Friday, January 20 to 5:00 a.m. Monday, January 23–there will be no service between Brooklyn and Manhattan, in either direction, on the 2/3 line. This means no service at Clark Street or on the 2/3 platforms at Borough Hall. Use the 4 or 5 (extended to Brooklyn this weekend) at Borough Hall, A, C, or (Manhattan Bound only F; being diverted to the A/C line this weekend) at High Street, or the R, or (late night) N at Court Street.
The following work week, late nights from 10:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m. Monday, January 23 to Friday, January 27, 4 trains will not run between Brooklyn and Manhattan in either direction, so there will be no service at the 4/5 platforms at Borough Hall (5 trains do not serve Brooklyn late at night). As an option, use 2 or 3 trains to or from the 2/3 platforms at Borough Hall.
For service changes that may affect travel on other parts of the system, either during the weekend or the following week, see MTA Info or The Weekender. Especially for those traveling into or from Brooklyn, I encourage you to check the MTA site; there are many changes that could affect your trip.
Your correspondent takes the R train from his Montague Street home to work in Midtown West and back: it’s slow, but I can usually get a seat and read comfortably, if not immediately at Court Street, always at Whitehall Street, the first station in Manhattan. The principal downside to this is the very unreliable quality of the two elevators that serve this deeply buried station. On those occasions when both are out of service, getting down to the platform involves a long descent through a reeking stairwell. If there’s no elevator service on return, I’ll take the long walk to the far end of the station and take several short stairways and an escalator to street level.
On Wednesday, the Daily News reports, one of the two Court Street elevators stopped in mid-lift, with twenty passengers on board. Fortunately, they were only trapped there for half an hour, and were able to use their mobile phones to contact those who were waiting for them. With the assistance of FDNY personnel, the passengers had to exit through a hole in the ceiling of the elevator cab.
Although the Daily News piece said the elevator in question would be out of commission until Friday, this morning I found both of them working. They both arrived a few moments apart; I hoped I was getting on the good one. It worked.
