Subway riders are used to waiting for trains. In Brooklyn, tens of thousands are waiting for their stations as a massive makeover of nine stations is running behind schedule. NY1 Transit Reporter Jose Martinez has the story.

For close to 16 months, the morning commute for most N train riders in Brooklyn has not been easy.

"Manhattan-bound N trains will not stop at 20th Avenue, 18th Avenue" is just some of what riders hear.

It's the same story at five other stops near the southern end of the line. What was supposed to be a 14-month repair job still isn't done, inconveniencing more than 50,000 riders daily from Sunset Park to Bensonhurst.

"It's more and more difficult sometimes because there's a lot of service changes," one commuter said. "And it just ends up being really hectic."

The MTA launched the long-delayed makeovers in January of last year. The transit agency planned to spend $400 million rehabbing the nine notoriously grungy stations along what's called the Sea Beach Line.

Manhattan-bound riders at the affected stations have had two options: they can go backwards, taking a train to the Bay Parkway or Coney Island stops and boarding Manhattan-bound trains there, or they can walk to a station where full service is still running.

"I understand for some people it's hard because they have to come all the way over here," one man said at a station with full service.

The MTA isn't saying when the Manhattan-bound platforms will reopen. Riders are hopeful it is soon.

"When it was snowing, it was ugly, because I had to walk two blocks, three blocks, to get to here, you know?" one straphanger said.

"It has been more crowded, and the trains are pretty much more delayed," one woman said.

But riders say they also welcome the improvements at the century-old stations, considered among the shabbiest in the city.

"They were real rotten. You could say rotten and ugly-looking," one man said.

There will be new platforms, staircases, canopies, and columns, and overpass supports are being reinforced. Two of the stations will be accessible to riders with disabilities.

"These stations were really in bad condition, and I'm glad that they're fixing them," one man said.

Once the work is completed on the Manhattan-bound platforms, crews will shift over to the Coney Island-bound side. In all, the project is expected to last until 2020.