Surprise: N express service suffers under cuts

Buried in the 127-page MTA document detailing transit service cuts is this doozy: the end of N express service in Manhattan.

As part of plans to kill the W line, the MTA will run the N local from Canal Street to 42nd Street. That leaves just the Q for express service, tacking on at least two minutes to the commutes of 77,000 straphangers, according to agency figures.

“That’s ridiculous. The N is only good when it’s express,” said Sandro Lemos, 37, a rider from Astoria.

In 2001, the MTA started the W train to increase service between lower Manhattan and Astoria. The agency recently noted that the death on the W will fuel more crowding on remaining lines.

(With Julia Borovskaya)