The G and The M Are About To Get Much, Much Better
So, mixed bag. In an effort to appease frustrated, increasingly vocal riders (and to honor the common sense results of their own recent research into the line’s notorious problems), Andrew Cuomo announced today that the MTA will start running G trains more often during rush hour, increasing service to every eight minutes, versus the current (hypothetical) ten, a move the agency says will help the line to “merge more evenly” with the F.
They’ll also—and this is maybe the bigger news here—be extending M service on weekends, so that instead of just stopping at Myrtle-Broadway and calling it good, which is no help to anyone hoping to get into Manhattan or do anything but relatively short intra-Brooklyn travel, they’ll also travel between Queens and Delancey-Essex.
The announcements come as part of a larger press release from the Governor’s office detailing expensive, planned improvements made possible by “aggressive cost-cutting within MTA operations and increased revenues from fares, tolls, subsidies and dedicated taxes.” The catch here, of course, being that none of this will be happening until June 2014. None of which will come as a surprise to anyone who’s spent every weekend so far this summer waiting in the blistering sun for a shuttle.
Follow Virginia K. Smith on Twitter @vksmith.
