(Photo: Natalie Rinn)
Greenpointers, if you were jealous of Williamsburgers and their increased L train service, hold tight: it could happen to you!
Today the MTA announced that a review of the G line, completed last week, resulted in the following recommendations.
- Increase G train service by 25% in the afternoon and evening, contingent on funding, from approximately 3pm to 9pm.
- Run trains at more even intervals, rather than having some bunched together and some with long waits in between.
- Stop the 4-car train at the same place on the platform at all times and clearly mark where on the platform the train will stop, as well as rearrange benches and other station elements so that riders wait at the right place for the train — addressing the notorious “G Train Sprint”;
- Add public announcement systems at the 12 G train stations that currently lack them, so the MTA can update customers in real time when there are service changes; and
- Make changes to train operations, for example letting trains wait at Court Square with all the doors open longer so that passengers can spread throughout the train instead of bunching together near the one open door
Those recommendations are quoted from a handout distributed at a press conference this morning. Standing at the entrance of the Metropolitan station, Daniel Squadron, who pushed for the review along with fellow state senator Martin Malave Dilan, said, “Today G train means ‘good news'” instead of, um, Godot (seriously: he said Godot).
Daniel Squadron (left) and Martin Dilan (right) (Photo: Natalie Rinn)
But the news isn’t all good: according to the MTA’s review, the increase in service is contingent on $700,000 in funding. “The review itself is not a promise to make any changes,” Squadron qualified, though he said the MTA could maybe, possibly allocate the necessary funds at a board meeting later this month.
In the meantime, this much is certain: improvements that won’t require more ducats — such as the increase in benches and the addition of PA systems — will be implemented throughout the year.
The Full Line Review came on the heels of MTA ridership data indicating that the G line, on an average weekday in 2012, carried 2,000 more riders than on an average weekday in 2011. The MTA attributed the 4.2% increase to new residential developments and increased travel between North Brooklyn and Downtown Brooklyn, according to a release from State Senator Daniel Squadron’s office in April.
About 125,000 people ride the G each day. Everyone else says “eh, screw it,” and just hoofs it to the L.