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The crowds? Large, but not mutinous. The annoyance levels during the inaugural weekend of the L train slowdown? Present, but predictable.

So went the first two nights of the plan designed to avoid the dreaded L train apocalypse: a partial shutdown of the subway line that carries 400,000 riders each weekday. The repair work, which began on Friday, means significantly fewer trains will run on nights and weekends while the line’s key tunnel linking Brooklyn and Manhattan undergoes an overhaul to fix damage from Hurricane Sandy for the next 15 to 18 months.

Work is expected to halt by 5 a.m. Monday, but the impact on the morning rush remains an open question.

Despite doomsday predictions of long turnstile lines, closed station entrances and dangerously crowded platforms, the L train’s first rehab weekend went as well as the Metropolitan Transportation Authority could have hoped.