MTA and DOT hold open house ahead of L-train subway shutdown

WILLIAMSBURG, Brooklyn (WABC) -- The MTA and DOT are calling a meeting Wednesday an "open house" to address concerns about the looming L train shutdown.

Officials are logging the feedback from riders who are understandably upset, because no matter how you cut it, this is going to be painful.

A section of the L train line will be out of service for 15 months for repairs, beginning in April 2019, and the latest proposal calls for a car ban on 14th Street between Third and Ninth avenues during rush hour.

The idea is to make way for more bus service.

The Williamsburg Bridge will also become HOV-only, for cars with at least three people, during rush hour, including all types of cabs.

Riders here have lots of questions and plenty of doubts that things will go smoothly.

The MTA says it will increase train, ferry and bus service during those 15 months.

This is the first of those meetings, which went until 8 p.m. at Progress High School in Williamsburg.

There will be three more meetings over the next few weeks, in different communities that will be impacted.