Ave "U" and Neck Rd are almost halfway fixed

I don't get it.  The MTA is trying to save money and I think they found unnecessary ways to spend it.

Some subway stations on the Brighton Line are really close, I am only talking about the Brighten Line because I grew up in Sheepshead Bay and am intimately aware of the stop and go of the local.  I know that Beverly and Cortelyou are the closest subway stops to each other.  I am ranting about Ave U and Neck Road because the MTA is in the process of spending a serious chunk of change rebuilding them.

They just reopened the City bound sides of those two stations after like a year and a half of total destruction and reconstruction.  So on my way to Sheepshead Bay I got off at Ave U and walked to Neck Rd. That walk was a third of a mile and took 5 minutes.

So according to the MTA Neck Rd had an average weekday ridership (I guess that means swipes at the turnstile) of 3,795 or a total of about 1.2 million swipes in 2008.

I just don't get the math on this.  How much did it (will it) cost to replace the Neck Rd Station.  How much does it cost to "staff" the booth and maintain the turnstiles?  Neck Rd in not even serviced by a bus.  It is not just the money, why does everybody from Sheepshead Bay, Brighton Beach and Coney Island have to stop there when the trains are running local?

I know, a few thousand people use it every day so what ever politician would have allowed it to be shut would have had his head chopped off at the next election.  Maybe someone can sell the big picture before they spend Millions fixing the Beverly and Cortelyou Road stations.  They are on different sides of the same block.


Anyway, neither station is close to any kind of "grand reopening ceremony", the trains only go one way and they are still a mess.  But I took some photos.