MTA announces St. Patrick's Day service changes, alcohol ban
NEW YORK CITY (WABC) -- The MTA announced plans and service changes for New York City's annual St. Patrick's Day Parade today.
Officials remind customers that alcohol will be banned from the Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North.
The MTA Police Department will enforce the ban from 12:01 a.m. Saturday to 5 a.m. Sunday. On the LIRR, alcohol is always banned between 12:01 a.m. and 5 a.m. on Saturday mornings.
Any alcoholic beverages found by the MTA Police will be confiscated.
The LIRR and Metro-North will offer extra trains to help customers get to the parade, and subway and bus service changes will be in place for the day.
With large crowds expected for the parade, the MTA urges customers to buy round trip tickets in advance.
New York City Transit
From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, the following subway and bus changes will be in effect for the St Patrick's Day Parade:
To prevent crowding on stairways and platforms, some subway entrances at the 5 Av-59 St NR station will be closed. In addition, select exits and entrances at the 77 St 6 line station may be designated as entry/exit only, on both the uptown and downtown platforms.
Due to ongoing critical maintenance and reliability improvements this weekend, L trains will not run between Brooklyn & Manhattan. As an alternative, special weekend M trains will provide additional service into Manhattan and will operate between Metropolitan Av and 47-50 Sts, then via the F line between 47-50 Sts and Lexington Av/63 St, and via the Q line between Lexington Av/63 St and 96 St.
As a reminder, some subway lines do not run on weekends: There will be no 6 or 7 express service. b trains will not run, and customers are reminded to use the J instead of the Z. Details about these changes are available on the Weekender app and website. Customers are advised to use Subway Time for live wait times, or TripPlanner+ to plan their trips.
The following NYC Transit and MTA Bus routes operating in and around the parade route will be affected by reroutes, detours, and frozen zones: M1, M2, M3, M4, M5, M31, M50, M55, M57, M66, M72, M79 SBS, M86, SIM1c, SIM3c, SIM4c, SIM33c, X27, X28, BM1, BM2, BM3, BM4, BM5, BxM2, BxM3, BxM4, BxM6, BxM7, BxM8, BxM9, BxM10, BxM11, Q32, QM2, QM4, QM5, QM6, and QM15.
Customers using bus routes in the five boroughs can also use MTA Bus Time to track real-time bus positions and gauge arrival times.
Long Island Rail Road and Metro-North Railroad
The LIRR will operate 38 additional trains to/from Penn Station to help customers seeking to attend the parade. On Saturday morning, this includes six extra trains departing Babylon between 8:30 a.m. and 11:15 a.m., seven extra trains departing Ronkonkoma between 8 a.m. and 11 a.m., two extra trains from Huntington between 10 a.m. and 11:30 a.m., and two extra trains from Great Neck between 10 a.m. and 11:30 a.m.
Metro-North is prepared to operate 18 additional trains to/from Grand Central to accommodate increased ridership to the parade on Saturday. On Saturday morning, this includes five upper Hudson Line trains focusing on Poughkeepsie, New Hamburg and Beacon, two additional trains on the Harlem Line, one from Southeast, and one from North White Plains, and two additional trains will operate on the New Haven Line, one from New Haven, and one from Stamford. Additional service will also operate for West of Hudson customers, where one extra inbound train and one extra outbound train will run on the Port Jervis Line, and cars will be added to all regularly scheduled Port Jervis Line and Pascack Valley Line trains.
For more information, visit MTA.info.
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