Brooklyn. In May 2009, after the New York State Legislature passed legislation to offer financial support to the MTA, the service cut was taken off the table. However, in late 2009, the MTA once again discovered that it was confronting another financial crisis; most of the same service cuts threatened just months earlier were revisited. One proposal included completely phasing out M service and using the as its replacement. Under this proposal, the V would no longer serve its southern terminus at Second Avenue. Instead, after leaving Broadway–Lafayette Street, it would run along the Chrystie Street–Williamsburg Bridge connection, unused since the elimination of the K in 1976, and stop at the upper (BMT) level of Essex Street in Manhattan before serving all M stations to Metropolitan Avenue in Queens. The MTA determined that this move, while still a service cut, would actually benefit M riders in northern Brooklyn; approximately 17,000 weekday riders used that route to reach its stations in Lower Manhattan, whereas 22,000 transferred to other routes to reach destinations in Midtown Manhattan. However, only about 10,000 riders in Southern Brooklyn used the M to access the Nassau Street Line. This merger opened up new travel options for northern Brooklyn and Queens in that it allowed direct and more convenient access to areas that were not previously served by those routes such as Midtown Manhattan, as before the service changes, M train passengers had to transfer at least once if heading to Midtown. On March 19, 2010, it was reported that the plan had been changed and that while the new combined route would still be used, it would carry the M train designation, recolored orange to designate the IND Sixth Avenue Line as its Manhattan trunk line, while discontinuing the V train. Many MTA board members opposed the elimination of the M designation, saying that riders would be more comfortable with that rather than a V designation, and because the M had been around longer than the V. Official M service via the Chrystie Street Connection began on Monday, June 28, 2010. 2011–present On June 8, 2014, weekend daytime M service was extended to Essex Street as part of an $18 million funding project to improve subway service, as well as to offer a direct connection to the F train on Saturdays and Sundays; late night service continues to terminate at Myrtle Avenue. During the morning rush hour,