MTA - Franklin Avenue Shuttle

The Franklin Avenue Shuttle is a MTA shuttle service operating in Brooklyn. I used to frequent this station in high school as it takes you from Bed-Stuy to Crown Heights to Prospect Park. Wow the improvements from what I can remember includes an elevator and stain glass windows. The platform used to be wood frame that would shake, you could feel the vibration as the train pulled into the station, now it is sturdy and concrete. There are now two trains cars which run between Franklin Ave and Prospect Park. The north bound Franklin Ave station has one escalator going up and you will have to take the ascending steps down stairs or take an elevator to the street level or to the lower level where you can connect to the "C" train. The south bound stop, Prospect Park connects you to the "Q", "B" or "D" train in either direction.

When I was growing up the first station stop on the Franklin Shuttle after leaving Franklin Avenue was Dean Street, which remained open until 1996, but due to lack of ridership that station was torn down.

On November 1, 1918, a five-car wooden elevated train derailed and crashed into one of the new tunnel walls, killing at least 93 people. This accident, called the "Malbone Street Wreck" was the worst MTA accident ever.

Four stars because it is a clean station there's always an attendant visible however, the escalator does not operate consistently, it's like throwing dice...maybe it will work....maybe not.

It's probably popular to say you dislike the Franklin Avenue Shuttle C stop. It takes awhile to arrive, people are pushy, kids are loud, its the subway...go down the line (pun not intended). But I kinda dig it.

Maybe its because I'm a born n' bred NY'er and remember the days when this was one of the most dangerous stops in Brooklyn, truly one to avoid. The first time I took it, it was because I HAD to go see this girl. Rack that up to teenage hormones. But that's when it was undergoing construction to be the much better station it is today.

The stain glass makes it inviting, the view is kinda cool, and it gets you to Prospect Park and Flatbush pretty quickly. Can't beat that. I too get upset when it takes a minute to arrive, especially after rush hour, but take that time to chill out and maybe ecen meditate, well, if the homeless dude down the track isn't killing your vibe.

S as in Sordid and Seedy.
--------------------------------------
11 PM on a Monday night in December. It's cold and it's windy. First day of snow of the winter. More like a dusting than a real snow. The wind lifts up tall plumes of white sand. I'm standing by the platform, watching the white plumes whirl by against the yellow lights of the train station.

I feel cold.

A man comes by. He stops in front of me, a couple of feet away. He's holding a Manila envelope under his arm. He's smiling. He carefully opens the envelope, and sloooowly takes out a magazine.

He comes closer, and starts flipping the magazine at me. Page after page. It's a dirty magazine called "Voluptuous". It features women with HUGE boobs. Naked.

All this time the man is mumbling something absolutely unintelligible to me. I try to look straight at the empty tracks, but the man keeps the magazine under my face and flips one page after the other at me.

Slowly.

Relentlessly.

Systematically.

Painfully.

"Sorry, man. Not interested", I say a couple of times.
That doesn't seem to deter him much. He keeps flipping the pages while holding the magazine under my nose. Mumbling and smiling. Smiling and mumbling.

He is definitely happy.
A bit too happy for my own comfort: I don't understand what he wants from me. Is he just happy to share the magazine with me? Is he trying to sell me the magazine?

Eventually the train comes. We board the same car. By now he has given up on me, but starts flipping the magazine in front of other men on the train. First one, then another one.

Finally, as the train slowly leaves the station, a man seems to pay attention. This guy starts laughing loudly, and the man with the magazine goes to sit besides him. Now the magazine man is grinning in excitement. I still don't understand what he's trying to achieve.

"I AM MORE LIKE AN ASS MAN, YOU KNOW?" Says the second man.

"THIS IS MORE LIKE AN APPETIZER FOR ME", Ass-man goes.
"AN APPETIZER", repeats Ass-man, while glancing at the magazine.

"YOU KNOW BOOBALICIOUS? BOOBALICIOUS MAGAZINE! THAT'S ANOTHER FINE PUBLICATION", says Ass-man.

We reach my stop.

Don't you love the fact that the stops on the S train are so short?
--------------------------
Only on the S train in Brooklyn.

My review is on the C line

This is my most useful discovery in Clinton Hill thus far! Now, rides that use to run me anyway between $8.00 - $12. is a more affordable $2.50!!!

The platform seems a bit dismal but I've never seen litter here and even though on Yelp the station ALWAYS says closed, it really never is.

I'm yet to try the actual S shuttle but the C train is my baby. I get to downtown Brooklyn, across the way Brooklyn and the City most times without leaving the C and many times with just one quick change.

The C line is pretty realiable and I've never waited more than 5 mins for it. My traveling hours so far have been between 10am-8pm.

The A train also passes through this station but it seems to be an express line as I've never been a witness to it stopping here.

I'm always excited about my departure when I get to this station most likely on business or an adventure and always so happy on my arrival home. Yes, as much time as I spend in Clinton Hill and Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn is really starting to feel like home.

The End.

Franklin Ave Station, I saw a mother with a stroller and a toddler struggling to walk down the to the C train platform, the station is very oily and dirty, looks like water leak in certain areas.

Pigeon droppings leaves a nasty stains, and it's unsanitary, MTA, by the way model owls, will keep those pigeons away, it actually works and saves money.

This station seems like a major hub,it's a transit to the shuttle or S train, that takes you over to prospect park another Station.

The Q and B trains (this station also needs a Major over haul.) on the way there was lots of garbage, broken down wood and trees, looks like it's never been clean, the graffiti art work looks great major clean up needed.

I'm surprised because of so much wood and garbage, it doesn't catch on fire, simple cleaning its needed. MTA Pay attention.

Not to be confused with the 42nd street S train connecting Grand Central Terminal to Times Square, the Brooklyn S train shoots up and down Franklin Ave in Crown Heights between Fulton St and Eastern Parkway, and is a bona fide NYC subway train!

I'll admit I had my doubts as to whether the S train did, in fact, exist, since I don't think I've actually met anyone who's ridden it before. But then yesterday, looking for the best way for my sister and I to get to our dinner destination, there it was: HopStop was telling me to take the S. As skeptical as I was, when entering unknown territory I'm not one to argue with HopStop. So after getting off the C train at Franklin Ave, we climbed several flights of stairs to an outdoor platform (who even knew this was here??) and lo and behold, there it was! The S train! With real people on it! At least, they looked real.

We climbed aboard, and inside it looked just like any other subway car. Orange-palette seats, steel poles, windows, etc. As the doors closed, they made that familiar ding-dong sound, and I began to believe. Needless to say, we reached our destination safe and sound. Thank you, S train! I'm sorry I ever doubted you.

A very very handy station as the junction of A, C, and S lines provides a very helpful relief in case of congestion in many other parts of Brooklyn. The inconvenient part is the transfer from S to C has a large detour if you miss the sign for Downtown vs Uptown. Area is alright. Station itself is normal MTA standard, that is to say, dirty but barely maintained & at least functional. Many entrances from many directions each lead to a very different portion of the station, but conversely, allow for personally convenient ingress/egress. Staffed booth and good lighting make it good.

Slow as hell on the weekends. One of those things that you thought was a good idea at the time but turned out to be not all that good. I also hate how much of a pain it is to get an A/C from one direction to the other. You'll have to be committed to going to Manhattan or further into Brooklyn; no time to rush to the platform where the train is showing up.

One good thing I can say about this one, though is that you will get phone reception in the Franklin Avenue subway station on the A/C platform.

There are very rarely service interruptions, but their definition of normal service is also kinda random, especially when trying to connect to/from the C.

Not many people see the value of this train and I admit, I didn't see it until recently. I live off the G "is for glacial" train and work in Prospect Heights. I also have to work on the south side of prospect park, off the B & Q line. Due to a recent injury that has kept me off my bike, the Franklin Avenue Shuttle makes it easy for me to transfer to a myriad of trains, A, C, 2, 3, 4, 5, B & Q, with relative ease and efficiency. This train is ideal for Brooklyn commuters transferring from one side of Brooklyn to the other.

Just two cars long, two separate trains run in either direction. Intervals are about 10 minutes each way. There are only four stops, so there is little room for delay. Much better than the equivalent bus and it continues to run in the snow (unlike the bus).

Riding the shuttle is also really pleasant, you get some nice elevated views of Crown Heights, Prospect Heights and Bed Stuy before going underground near Franklin Ave. The trench portion before the park can be really pretty in the fall.

If they could find a way to connect the shuttle with the G, this would easily be the most valuable train in all of Brooklyn.