avoided negotiating the sharp S-curve where the Malbone Street Wreck had occurred. Trains that are being taken out of service continue to use the old route. Prior to the Brooklyn Dodgers' relocation to Los Angeles for their 1958 season, the Franklin Avenue Line was one of the busiest routes to their games at Ebbets Field, located in Flatbush near the southern end of the line. A 1982 New York Times article described the line as the "gateway to Ebbets Field". Decline After the city gained ownership of the line in 1940, Brighton-Franklin services gradually declined. A major blow to the viability of through-service occurred in 1954 when the train of the IND Division was extended to Coney Island via the Culver Line, deprived the Franklin of a major source of transfer traffic, consisting of passengers from Harlem and the Bronx, who now had a more direct route to Coney Island. Brighton-Franklin express service ended in 1954, and the Franklin Avenue Line became a full-time shuttle in 1963. On November 1, 1965, when R27 subway cars started going into service, this service was named SS. In 1985, when the practice of using double letters was eliminated, this service became the S. On December 1, 1974, a southbound shuttle train of R32s was approaching the tunnel portal en route from Franklin Avenue when it derailed on the crossover and smashed the same place where BRT car 100 had hit in the Malbone Street Wreck. This derailment resulted in some injuries, but there were no fatalities, because time signals limited the speed of trains coming down the hill from Crown Heights. In January 1977, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA)'s Emergency Financial Control Board proposed abandoning the severely deteriorated line due to cutbacks in city funding. The local community was outraged at the plan and was successful in saving the shuttle for the meantime. A coalition of about 5,000 passengers, including local businessmen, the Jewish Hospital and Medical Center, staff workers of the Bureau of Child Welfare and representation from local high schools, showed up to a meeting on January 5 to protest the planned cut. They were aided by Congress members Shirley Chisholm and Fred Richmond, who issued a statement in support of the riders of the shuttle, including 2,000 students. In 1981, the MTA proposed abandoning the severely deteriorated line under the failed Program for Action. At the time, only 10,000 daily