In the early part of 1988, the Williamsburgh Bridge was discovered to have some structural defects (i.e. holes) in its girders, as it was discovered by a painter who was working on the bridge. Thus, the bridge had to be shutdown, and all BMT "J" and "M" were not permitted to go across the bridge. The Williamsburgh Bridge would soon reopened just sometime prior to the opening of the Archer Avenue extension.
Thus, NYC Transit made some adjustments to its IND Fulton Street and BMT 14th Street-Canarsie route services. For the IND in particular, all JFK Express trains were to run in regular passenger service in full 8-car R-46 consists making all Fulton Street express stops, and dropping its extra preminum fare policy. Also, there were extra put-ins with additional rush hour "A" line service between Manhattan and Euclid Avenue, so there were both green and non-GOH R-10's plus I believe R-27/30's also pulled from the "C" line roster pool.
For the BMT, there was more trains available on the "L" route, and if I am correct on this one, the BMT Nassau Street and Broadway-Brooklyn portions of the "J/M" routes were separate, with no trains between Essex Street and Marcy Avenue. All yard and shop transfers between East New York Yard and Coney Island Yard had to be done with the use of the Long Island Rail Road's Bay Ridge freight branch.
-William A. Padron
["Fulton St. Local"]