On Thursday, January 29, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz was among the “mourners” at a mock funeral for the M and R trains organized by the NYPIRG Straphangers Campaign and held at the Court Street subway station in Downtown Brooklyn. Other “bereaved” attendees included Gene Russianoff, staff attorney for the NYPIRG Straphangers Campaign, State Senator Daniel Squadron, Michael Burke of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership and Paul Nelson, representing Assemblywoman Joan Millman’s office. This marked the second time in as many weeks that BP Markowitz and the Straphangers Campaign attended a subway “funeral”—on January 15, they paid their “last respects” to the Z train. The lines are included in the MTA’s plan to reduce subway and bus service and raise fares to close its budget gap.

According to the Straphangers Campaign, eliminating the M train in southern Brooklyn would cut out 16 trains during the morning rush hour and 12 trains in the afternoon rush, resulting in longer waits and more crowding on the R line. The MTA plan also calls for six stations on the R line in Downtown Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan to be bypassed between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. Currently, the N train serves these stations at night, but the proposal is to run the N over the Manhattan Bridge and skip the stations, which include the Court and Lawrence Street stations in Brooklyn.

“As Brooklyn’s own Woody Allen once said, ‘I don’t want to achieve immortality through my work, I want to achieve it through not dying,” said BP Markowitz. “We know the M and the R trains feel the same way. They want to live long and productive lives, and let’s face it, Brooklyn needs them! Our growing population of Downtown Brooklyn residents needs night-time service on the R; and for the M to be denied any entry into Brooklyn—that’s a fate worse than death! Long live the M and R!”