The L Train

It's 4am and the large metal wheels grinding their way toward Brooklyn start to scrape apart the inside of your ear, causing you to temporarily sway in your seat with dizziness. You struggle to regain control and eventually bounce back, sitting upright with a spark. You feel embarrassed until you realize that the only other people on the train seem to have passed out, and you are not sure wether to feel relieved or even more insecure. The L train is a line on the New York City subway. It operates between Eighth Avenue in Chelsea, Manhattan, and Rockaway Parkway in Canarsie, Brooklyn, at all times. The L service, being a local train, was originally the LL. From 1928 to 1967, the same service was assigned the BMT number 16. On November 26, 1967, with the opening of the Chrystie Street Connection, the BMT Eastern District lines were given letters; the 16 became the LL. When double letters were dropped on May 5, 1986, the LL became the L, and it still has that designation. Ridership on the L train has increased dramatically since 2000. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority's $443 million fleet of subway cars on the L service was introduced in 2002, but by 2006 was already too small to handle growing ridership. The Transit Authority had projected that 212 Kawasaki-made R143 subway cars would be enough to accommodate ridership demands for years to come, but ridership has risen higher than expected.