The C Train Is Garbage
In the MTA system, certain train lines are always getting flack. The G train has long been the butt of our collective mocking, that infuriatingly infrequent Queens-to-Brooklyn connection upon which so many nights in Williamsburg depend. But for all the jokes we have made at the G train’s expense, the truth is there is a far worse line: the C. The C train is garbage. It is irritatingly slow, out-of-date, and all-around horrible.
If you live off the C train, you are doomed to see its brighter, prettier cousin, the A train, whizzing by three or four times before the creaky, terrible C actually shows up. On the annual Straphangers Campaign report card, the C regularly ranks in the bottom. Can we do anything about it, other than fling ourselves at the mercy of the MTA and/or move?
The Rider’s Alliance, a nonprofit group advocating for straphangers’ rights, thinks so. “The C train is slow. The C train is infrequent. The C train is the worst. But we can change that!” reads the invitation to the Alliance’s meet-up today. They’re coordinating strategies to bring to the MTA to improve the C. And it might actually work? Alliance senior organizer Rebecca Bailin told DNA Info that the group’s efforts to get elected officials to address poor service led to the MTA agreeing to a full-line review of the C. Though given the MTA’s general efficiency in handling that kind of stuff, it’s probably wise not to hold your breath. In the meantime, I guess there’s always the bus?