The G train is finally back to full service following a painful summer shutdown.
The Crosstown Line returned to its full route between Court Square in Long Island City, Queens and Church Avenue in Kensington, Brooklyn at 5 a.m. on Sept. 3. The line had been shuttered in phases since late June so the MTA could perform major capital work to modernize the route’s signal system, replacing a nearly 100-year-old analog system with modern Communication-Based Train Control (CBTC), allowing trains to run faster and closer together.
Since June, the G has been outfitted with 100 miles of new cable, while 17 switches and 6 relay rooms were replaced, MTA construction chief Jamie Torres-Springer said on Tuesday. Ten stations were also deep-cleaned while service was shuttered.
The full $368 million project won’t be completed until 2027, but further work will not require any more 24/7 shutdowns, and by the time it’s finished the MTA expects reliability on the G to rocket upwards.
“We’ve got immediate benefits that our riders are seeing today,” Torres-Springer said. “There’ll be a smoother ride, we’ve cleaned up the stations, we’ve improved a lot of track. We’re going to be providing frequent and reliable service. And when we complete this project over the next couple years and fully re-signal, we’ll have even more reliable, faster service for our G train riders. So again, we are very appreciative of the patience of folks who put up with this outage over the last couple of months.”
The G is the only direct train connection between Brooklyn and Queens that doesn’t bypass through Manhattan, and in some parts of its route it’s the only train line available, especially in Greenpoint.
The MTA provided free shuttle bus service along the closed G corridor, which riders reviewed as decent for what it was, but still a significant inconvenience.
“I did them once or twice, and they actually were pretty okay,” said Bushwick resident Addison…
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