a shuttle bus. F service returned to Stillwell Avenue on May 23, 2004, upon completion of the construction work. Automation In the 2010s, the MTA implemented communications-based train control (CBTC) on the portion of the IND Queens Boulevard Line west of Kew Gardens–Union Turnpike. The 63rd Street Connection to 21st Street–Queensbridge, used by the F. would also be retrofitted with CBTC. The automation of the Queens Boulevard Line meant that the would be able to run 3 more trains during peak hours, up from 29 trains per hour before the project started. CBTC on the Queens Boulevard Line west of Union Turnpike was fully operational by February 2022. The 2015–2019 Capital Program was revised in April 2018 to fund to the design for the expedited installation of CBTC on the Queens Boulevard Line east of Kew Gardens–Union Turnpike. Another part of the F route, between Church Avenue and West Eighth Street–New York Aquarium on the Culver Line, was selected for CBTC installation as part of the 2015–2019 Capital Program. During much of 2020 and 2021, there was no weekend F service south of Church Avenue to accommodate installation of CBTC on the IND Culver Line. In December 2022, the MTA announced that it would award a contract for the installation of CBTC on the Culver Line between Bergen Street and Church Avenue, which carries the F and G routes. As a result of these projects, the F would be automated along all of its route but the segment south of West 8th Street. Restoration of express service There has been community support for resuming express service on the Culver Line between Jay Street–MetroTech and Church Avenue, including from Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Senator Daniel Squadron. The MTA announced that after the elevated Culver Viaduct underwent extensive renovations from 2009 to 2012, "There will be no impediment to implementing the F express." While F express service was contested for four years by some residents on the Culver Line who feared they would lose a one-seat ride into Manhattan, some politicians drafted a letter in 2014 petitioning for express service. In late October 2015, city officials considered implementing express service. Some rush-hour peak-direction F trains ran express between Jay Street and Fourth Avenue since at least 2015 and the MTA once planned to use expanded rush-hour express service (Jay Street to Church Avenue) in both directions in the summers of 2016 and