The MTA on Wednesday released its plan for alternate routes during the L train shutdown. 

A portion of the line that connects Manhattan and Brooklyn will be shut down entirely for 15 months for repairs beginning in April 2019. Service will be suspended between 14th Street and Eighth Avenue in Chelsea and Bedford Avenue in Williamsburg.

The bulk of the 225,000 L train riders who travel between Manhattan and Brooklyn are expected to move onto other subway lines. The MTA said more subway cars will be added to G and C trains.

The agency also said the M train will run to 96th Street and Second Avenue on weekends and during overnight hours.

In addition, free MetroCard transfers will be offered to accommodate riders.

The L line will be run east of the Lorimer Street stop. There, riders who leave the Livonia Street station can transfer for free onto the 3 train at the Junius Street station. Also free: the switch from the G at Broadway in Brooklyn to a pair of nearby J, M, and Z stops.

Crews are slated to repair a tunnel that was damage caused by Hurricane Sandy.

"It became an abundance of caution turning into abundance of choice," said MTA Chairman Joe Lhota. "We're going to do the same thing here. We're going to provide the people who are going to be impacted by this opportunities for multiple ways in which they can go to and from Manhattan."

Buses are expected to carry 15 percent of the L's riders during the shutdown. As a result, bus-only lanes will be added in both boroughs and along 14th Street in Manhattan.

One idea had called for turning 14th Street into a so-called "PeopleWay," limiting the street to pedestrians, cyclists, and buses.

A portion of that plan will be in place, but only during rush hours, allowing buses only from 3rd to 8th Avenues both ways.

But the plan does not include a bus-only lane over the Williamsburg Bridge.

"Without that dedicated bus lane, I think we're going to see a lot of private commuter services flood the market," said Paul Steely White, the executive director of transit advocacy group Transportation Alternatives.

For more information, visit mta.info.