The G Train is Already Ruining Your Summer (Blame Hurricane Sandy)
What, you expected something else? From the G? Come on now. Of course service between Brooklyn and Queens is going to be suspended for repairs throughout the entire month of August. This couldn’t have happened any other way.
And in fairness to the MTA, we’ve known about it for a while; the Transit Authority announced way back in June that this kind of shut-down would be coming over the summer as they work to finally repair the damage inflicted during Sandy (it’s the same series of repairs that’s currently shutting down a large swath of the R). They’re just making good on their promises. At the time, acting chairman Fernando Ferrer explained it as such:
“Closing [the R and the G] is a difficult but necessary step to restore them to the condition they were in before Sandy struck. The temporary repairs that returned these tubes to operation after Sandy are not enough to provide reliable service. This is unfortunately the reality of recovery from Sandy: The damage is insidious and continuing, and repairing it will take billions of dollars over several years.”
So, may as well get used to the unchangeable fact that from July 26 through Sept 1, anyone with any interest in traveling between Long Island City and Nassau Ave. will have to resign themselves to a shuttle (though there’s a town hall at 6pm on April 3rd at 176 Java St. if you really want to go rail about it). In any case, here’s hoping that the East River Ferry will have resumed service to the neighborhood by then.
Follow Virginia K. Smith on Twitter @vksmith.