Some Brooklyn subway riders will enjoy the fruits of a past NY State Assembly stand on the transit capital program starting Monday. The Franklin Avenue Shuttle, the short subway line that connects the A/C and D/Q lines in Bedford-Stuyvesant and Crown Heights, will reopen after closing in July, 1998 for a thorough reconstruction.

The rebuilt line features a new connection to the 2/3/4/5 lines at the Botanic Garden station and new platforms, lighting, escalators, elevators, transfer points and MetroCard vending machines. Some stations have been made more accessible for wheelchairs. The job is wrapping up three and a half months ahead of schedule.

The Straphangers Campaign hailed the Shuttle's re-birth, stating: "The big winners are the city's transit system, the thousands of riders served by the line, and the community activists and elected officials who won a $74 million overhaul of the four-stop shuttle against great odds."

NY State Assembly leaders, led by Albert Vann, who represents the district that includes the Shuttle, and Catherine Nolan, who represents the Assembly on the MTA Capital Program Review Board, refused to approve the MTA's 1995-1999 capital program until the Shuttle reconstruction project was included.

The MTA had removed the Shuttle from the capital program in 1994 and planned to shut it down and replace it with buses. Years of neglect had permitted the line to fall into an appalling state of disrepair. Still, in 1995, the Shuttle carried 10,000 people per day, more than the LIRR's Oyster Bay Branch. The MTA did close the Shuttle's Dean Street station, the first subway station closed since 1962.