Wednesday, April 9, 2008

G train is the bastard stepchild of the MTA

Brooklyn officials and activists told horror stories and demanded better service on the much-maligned “G” train, while the MTA, in effect, pleaded poverty based on today’s economic situation.

That was basically the scenario at the City Council Chambers Tuesday at a Transportation Committee hearing on the “G” train.

Current MTA plans for the line, which has suffered serious cutbacks since late 2001, involve what could be interpreted as “giving with one hand and taking from the other.” This would involve extending the line from the awkward Smith-9th Street southern terminal in Red Hook down to Church Avenue, adding five well-used stops.

But in return, the permanent northern terminal would become Court Square, near Long Island City. Cutbacks from a Forest Hills terminal to Court Square were what started the G protest rolling back in late 2001 – nowadays, the G only goes to Forest Hills on the weekends and late at night, and when track work ensues, it doesn’t even run then.

As Queens Councilman John Liu, who chaired the meeting, pointed out, the reason the G originally came into being was to link Brooklyn and Queens, but that idea is apparently a thing of the past.


Brooklyn’s ‘Stepchild Train’ Gets Bad Marks at City Hall

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Demoractic Dictionary

Affordable housing:

“giving with one hand and taking from the other.”

Anonymous said...

OK, I know I'm talking about a "long time ago", but back in 1972, the predecessor to the G train (the GG, I believe) would take me from from 74th. Street and Roosevelt Avenue, near my home, to work at Broadway and Boerum Street in Brooklyn. Guess I couldn't do that today. 36 years later, and public transportation has regressed, not progressed.

Anonymous said...

yup, it was the GG back then.
Spent many a day on it going to and from Brooklyn Tech...

Anonymous said...

I didn't know Boerum and Broadway me. Check your map. The G's brief golden years were 1939-1940, when it ran on its own World's Fair extension.

David M. Quintana said...

Well I think the G train is the only train that doesn't go into Manhattan (besides the Franklin Ave shuttle), as I recall...Why does it surprise you that it's not kept up like the lines that do...Queens is the step child of the City why wouldn't the G line bear the same neglect as the borough...Duh..!