"For me, investment in transportation infrastructure is the key to the continued success and prosperity of our city," Reilly tells Streetsblog. "Within my own corner of Brooklyn, I envision robust F/V and G service along the Culver Line, with express and local service. I see a Smith/Ninth Street Station that is ADA compliant. And I see better bus service, particularly along a re-imagined B61 line, perhaps split into two routes to better insure against disruptions."

Reilly, a 33-year-old attorney, says he would work for a "sustainable funding regime" for citywide transit and livable streets infrastructure and initiatives, including curbside parking reform and "some form of congestion pricing." If elected, he says, "there will be at least one loud and clear voice for transit, for pedestrians and for cyclists on the Council."

As noted in today's New York Times, the 2009 campaign season is well underway, and Reilly has a crowded field to contend with in District 39. CB6 District Manager Craig Hammerman, Pratt Center for Community Development Director Brad Lander, Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats President Josh Skaller, and Gowanus Canal Community Development Corporation Executive Director Bob Zuckerman are also vying for the seat. (The Brooklyn Paper has short profiles of all five.) All of the candidates are Democrats. All except Reilly live in Park Slope.

Photo: Tom Callan/The Brooklyn Paper

Council Members Bill de Blasio (D-Park Slope, Carroll Gardens, Kensington), Simcha Felder (D-Midwood, Bensonhurst and Boro Park), and Domenic Recchia (D-Coney Island, Gravesend, Bensonhurst) will stand with community activists and representatives of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership and Transportation Alternatives on Thursday, June 28, 2007, to rally in support of the restoration of express service on Brooklyn's F line.

"To let existing transportation infrastructure go unused is a disservice to the Brooklynites who rely on mass transit every day," says de Blasio.

An online petition in support of restoration launched by community activist Gary Reilly has generated 2,500 signatures in two weeks. "Investments in transit pay off in increased quality of life for everybody," says Reilly. "Let's get this done."

"A remarkable shift in conscious is happening in New York City, with a renewed commitment to strategic planning for the future," says Felder. "But let's not allow our focus on the future to distort our sight of what's right in front of us. The MTA plans to restore F express by 2012. We think it can happen sooner than that."

The rally is at 2:00 at the Church Avenue F Station (Church and McDonald) in Brooklyn. 

With the city promising to improve mass transit via congestion pricing revenue, Gary Reilly, author of neighborhood blog, First and Court has started a petition asking the MTA to restore express subway service on the F line and to extend the V line for local service to Brooklyn:

The petition, which you can sign here, already has over 2,200 signatures on it. Reilly writes:

Increases in the commuting population in Brooklyn have taxed the transit infrastructure, and the plan for congestion pricing in Manhattan will further add to the stresses on subway commuters. Enhancing transit service in the outer boroughs is vital to the quality of life in our rapidly growing communities and to the feasibility of any congestion pricing plan.

Currently, along the F line in Brooklyn, a set of express tracks lie unused while the local service gets more and more crowded. In addition, the V line currently stops at 2nd Avenue in Manhattan, resulting in near-empty V trains through Manhattan, while F trains are packed.

A New York City Transit spokesman tells the Brooklyn Paper that it won't be possible to activate the F line's unused express tracks until 2012 due to construction work on two Brooklyn stations. Some history:

An express F ran between Jay Street-Borough Hall and Kings Highway during rush hours through the 1970s, when it was discontinued for track repair work. The dormant express tracks run below the local track between Bergen and Carroll streets and beside the local tracks on the elevated portion to Seventh Avenue in Park Slope. South of the Slope, the track follows a separate tunnel to the Church Street station.

Transit experts have said in the past that an F express could stop at York Street station in DUMBO, Jay Street, Seventh Avenue and Church Avenue, before running local to Coney Island.

Photo: Tom Callan for Brooklyn Paper