The G Train is Doing Just Fine With Those Weirdly Short Trains, Says the MTA
There are plenty of reasons to complain about the G on a given day—enough to fill a listicle!—but maybe the most longstanding sources of ill will are the unusually short trains, the ones that force everyone to sprint to the middle of the platform and get on the train wheezing and out of sorts, if they manage to make it on at all. They’re the worst. And according to the MTA, they won’t be going away any time soon.
The Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported on a recent forum meant to address the train’s August closure for sandy-related repairs, and when the subject of adding more cars to the trains came up, things got a little heated:
When the floor was opened up for questions, the controversy began. Dr. Dorothy Gorbe brought up the matter of the four-car trains, which she called “a safety hazard” because it leads to people from either end of the platform converging on the center, trying to crowd into the cars. She asked whether the MTA would consider running longer cars on the line.
When [MTA Representative Andy Inglesby] said that a recent study of G train ridership concluded that there was no need for longer cars at this time, the crowd booed loudly. “He should come to the platform at 8 in the morning,” said area resident Tom Anteney.
[…]
Whenever Inglesby brought up the subject of the survey concluding that there was no need for longer cars on the line, he was booed. Toward the end of the forum, Assemblyman [Joe Lentol] told the crowd that he would conduct his own survey. He also declared that “Greenpoint is no longer the little hamlet of the past, but part of the big metropolis.”
So, pending Assemblyman Lentol’s study, looks like the G will be keeping those four-car trains, in spite of the neighborhood’s booming population and development (standard trains have between eight and eleven cars apiece). It might be wishful thinking, but seems like when they take a huge stretch of the line out of commission this summer they could just… add in a few more cars while they’re at it?
Follow Virginia K. Smith on Twitter @vksmith.
