EAST VILLAGE, NY — The so-called 14th Street "busway" could be scrapped during the L train tunnel repairs, according to reports.

The mitigation measure planned to be put in place during the 15 month closure of the L train between Bedford and Eighth Aves. would have put a car-free busway along much of 14th St. The busway would have allowed for more bus routes along the thoroughfare to provide additional crosstown transportation for hundreds of thousands of L train riders.

But with a formal shutdown now canceled, the busway could be no more. "We don't anticipate closing 14th Street to vehicles," the Metropolitan Transportation Authority's managing director, Ronnie Hakim, told reporters in a phone briefing Wednesday, according to The New York Post.



The MTA and Department of Transportation did not immediately respond to questions. HOV-3 restrictions along the Williamsburg Bridge will also likely be scrapped, Hakim said, according to AM New York. AM New York reported the Canarsie tunnel repairs will begin during the last weekend in April, as previously planned.

Mayor Bill de Blasio's spokesperson Eric Phillips countered the MTA's announcements, noting de Blasio has not made a final decision on the portions of the plan the city could still choose to implement.

"The Mayor hasn't decided what to do with the city-controlled mitigation plans on the bridge and on 14th Street," Phillips said. "As we learn more and more detail every day from the MTA about its closure of the L train, we'll continue to design efforts and review existing plans to help affected riders."



But Transportation Alternatives had choice words for the de Blasio administration, which could implement street improvements regardless of how the MTA decides to repair the L train. "Mayor de Blasio's new plan on 14th Street could be summarized in one sentence: 'City to bus riders: drop dead,'" said Tom DeVito, senior director of advocacy at Transportation Alternatives.

DeVito added the MTA is right to increase M14 service to every three minutes, but with cars clogging up the crosstown street, the buses will "plod along at walking speed."