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Riders hope that low grades for the G line will eventually lead to improvements, while plans are in place to make the G a more usable line. Despite being the two largest boroughs in New York City, there is only one train line dedicated to getting people from Brooklyn (2.5 million people) to Queens (2.3 million people). All other passages must make their way from one borough, through Manhattan (1.6 million people), and then on to the third. The only body of water the G line crosses, however, is the Newtown Creek, separating Kings and Queens Counties. The service is regularly judged abysmal, although paradoxically it gets good grades overall through quirks of the MTA's rating system.
The MTA has been distributing reader report cards recently, though, and allowing passengers themselves to assess what they thought of the lines that they ride. According to The New York Times, G riders expect the line to get a grade of F, and are even hoping for it. Supporters and detractors of the G line are hopeful that a poor grade on the rider survey will spur improvements to a line whose trains only consist of four cars, rather than the standard eight cars on other lines.
Currently the G line stops at Smith/9th Sts. in Brooklyn, stranding riders high in the air with a fine view of the Gowanus Canal until an F train comes along to carry them further into the borough. The Brooklyn Paper recently reported though that plans are in place to extend G-line service all the way to Kensington.
Originally, the MTA said the line would add stops at Fourth Avenue, Seventh Avenue, 15th Street, Fort Hamilton Parkway and Church Avenue only until the repair work to the viaduct was completed in 2012.The whole project is estimated to cost $250 million and will include a complete refurbishment of the now-grimy viaduct that carries the elevated F line across 4th Ave. at 9th St. in Park Slope.But now the agency says that the direct underground link between Greenpoint and Kensington — by way of Park Slope —will be permanent.
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any word on when these stops will be added? i read the brooklyn paper article but it didn't have a start date.
And it will only require a fare increase between 2 and 25 percent...
"Despite being the two largest boroughs in New York City, there is only one train line dedicated to getting people from Brooklyn (2.5 million people) to Queens (2.3 million people)."
This is a little misleading. While the G train certainly is the only train that goes from Queens into Brooklyn, there are others that does indeed go from Queens into Brooklyn w/o going into another borough. The J & Z begin in Jamaica; The A begins in Richmond Hills and the Rockaways; and I believe the M train also starts off in Queens; all having to go through Brooklyn before entering Manhattan.
[3] Certainly true. That's why I used the word "dedicated."
I agree - when will all of this be taking place? This is NOT news - but I'd like to know when these changes will be implemented already.
Yeah, it'd be great if they did things like replace the viaduct -- but I'd be happier if they worked on things like frequency of service and the G's asinine weekend stop schedule.
Capital improvements are great, but the MTA wouldn't do badly to concentrate on improving riders' experience and saving capital improvements for things that will more closely address future demand and overcrowding issues.
I'm still waiting for a subway that goes to the newport mall in jersey so I can use my unlimited, know what i'm sayin?
on the days they feel the need to shorten the Queens portion of the line, can't they at least extend it one more stop to Queensboro Plaza?
I've never understood, standing on the 7th Ave platform on my way to Williamsburg or Greenpoint, watching the G train blow by on the express side of the platform without stopping, why it couldn't just stop?
It really just doesn't seem like this is a huge thing to change. The G already goes through these stops, all they have to do is actually stop. I might actually see my friends in Greenpoint more often if this happens.
Why does it cost $250 million dollars to make a train run a little further on tracks that already exist?
Thank goodness. I actually take the G for my commute and it has to get better than this. Especially the more-common-than-not weekend service changes and the four car nonsense. Some people live in Brooklyn AND don't live on the L or the F.
Re #9:
"...why it couldn't just stop?"
The long and short of it is that during those few short years in the 70's, when the G-local and F-express configuration was finally used, Manhattan bound commuters on the local stops resented having to take the G to 7th Ave or Bergen in order to catch an F. Especially true for Manhattan-bounders going up and down the stairs at Bergen Street.
Since there was no V train (because there was no 63rd Street Tunnel) to service the local stops too, the MTA decided to scrap the Culver local/express service and just leave it ALL as local. And to be extra special cheap, the MTA chose to terminate the G at Smith-9th instead of it's natural terminal at Church.
What Brooklyn needs now to satisfy the most people is an F-express (express to Church, local to Stillwell), G-local (to Church) and V-local (to Church).