Riders of one of the city's busiest subway lines will have to find an alternate route every weekend in March. The 7 line is closing starting Friday night, marking the first of its notorious suspensions for 2017. NY1's Lisa Voyticki filed the following report.

No one wants to hear it, but it's happening whether riders like it or not. This Friday from 11:30 p.m. through Monday at 5 a.m., there will be no 7 trains between Queensborough Plaza and 34th Street-Hudson Yards in either direction.

The closures will take place every weekend in March. 

"No no no, that's terrible," said one rider upon learning the news Tuesday.  

Another rider who works in construction said, "You can't get to work, you can't make money."

The MTA says the inconvenience for riders will pay off in the form of more frequent trains which means less crowding and fewer delays.  

During weekend shutdowns, the agency is testing new signal technology called Communications-Based Train Control, which it says should be operational by the end of this year.  It's also replacing aging tracks.  The improvements cost $774 million.  

Queens Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer says work on the 7 line has been going on for decades.  

"It's yet another series of weekends where my constituents will have to get on a shuttle bus to nowhere, going backwards from where they want to go," he said.

Like previous shutdowns, there will be free shuttle buses to other subway stops within Queens. The stops are the Queensboro Plaza, Queens Plaza, Court Square, Hunters Point Avenue and Vernon Boulevard-Jackson Avenue stations.

"I have to now take shuttle buses and they're overcrowded, and usually there's a lot of pushing going around and people getting hurt," said Melissa Almeida, who relies on the 7 train to travel to work and take her daughter to school.

As an alternative, the W train will run on March weekends, and riders can also take the N to Manhattan.

"Usually I will have to let at least two trains pass by before I can even get in," said Almeida about catching the N or W during 7 train closures.

After March, riders won't have to worry about weekend interruptions until the fall.  The MTA says it will stop 7 line service during two weekends in October and two weekends in November.