#13. The G Train
Apr 3rd, 2008 by Navelgazer
Part of being a native New Yorker is the love-hate relationship with the subway system. You love the ability to get to Union Square from anywhere in a half-hour or less, but hate to have to stand in urine in order to get there. You love not having to own a car, but hate the dude who keeps “accidentally” feeling you up during rush hour. Most of all, if you live in Brooklyn and want to get to another part of Brooklyn, you love the G Train until the first time you take it, at which point you begin to hate the G Train.
In theory, a train which can connect Williamsburg, Greenpoint, and Sunnyside with Downtown Brooklyn should be a godsend. One of the biggest hassles with NY travel is having to ride into Manhattan whenever you try to go from one outer borough to another. In practice, though, the G Train just feels like the most backhanded way possible of throwing Brooklyn and Queens a bone. It’s like a kid who keeps asking for a puppy, and finally his parents give him, like, a lizard or something instead just to shut him up, and then the disappointed kid just puts forth the absolute minimum degree of care to keep the thing from dying. Can you picture that lonely reptile, moping around in its terrarium, away from direct sunlight, starving, having the instincts to fend for itself but kept away from the environment in which he might do so? That’s the G Train.
With service beginning in 1933, the G Train still shows off its depression-era roots, from lazy, bad service, fewer cars, and the fact that everything about it’s creation was obviously dictated by mob kick-backs. It doesn’t just go from nowhere to nowhere – it strategically (read: arbitrarily) zig-zags back and forth to every nowhere along the way, shrewdly dodging contact with any helpful transfer station. Lorimer instead of Bedford. Hoyt-Schermerhorn in lieu of Atlantic. It never fails to fail as much as it can.
If one is foolish enough to leave Forest Hills on this lime-green vomitarium, they’ll soon find that it takes them no where worth going, until finally reaching the end of the line at the Gowanus Canal, which is famous in recent years for killing a damned whale with its putrescence.
It might be hard for non-New Yorkers to understand, but we feel very passionately about our trains. We love the 6 train’s efficiency, and an entire lost generation identifies itself by the L Train. But even the people who live off of the G are only reminded of how little City Hall thinks of them, their neighborhoods, and their livelihoods. It contributes nothing to the economy of anywhere it touches. Nobody likes the G Train.
Even though “no one” likes it, we need it! The City Council is having a hearing on G train service this Tuesday, April 8th, 2008 1pm at City Hall! More information at http://savetheg.blogspot.com
Oh, I agree that we need it, mysterious stranger, I just think if it weren’t so neglected people wouldn’t have such a hard time choosing between riding inside of it and riding in front of it.
In fact, there’s even a petition up to hook the G to Atlantic. http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/connect-the-g-train
Thank god. Let’s hope it works, and thanks for linking it here.
You’re may be right that nobody likes it, but it’s probably more accurate to say that over 99% over the world’s population has no relationship with it whatsoever. And in fact, if it annoys New Yorkers, some non-negligible part of that population may very well like it just out of spite.
Milkman is right, dammit! From down here in Gulfport, MS, I say Bully! Bully for the by-god G-Train, whatever sizable piece of hell it might be.
damn straight.
I appreciate the G, and I don’t think scorning it helps.
The reason it has less cars on it than most trains is because the line itself was extended to 68th, and so in order to get more frequent trains, they took cars from each of the trains to make a new train. Which is not ideal, except if you like to point and laugh at Pratt kids waiting for the train all cool-arty-like, watch that puffed-up bravado escape like a stinky fart as the front of the G stops 2 car-lengths away from them.
I understand you can’t connect to Atlantic on the G, but you can’t get the A there either. With a single transfer, I can get from Greenpoint all the way down to Wall Street. There’s room on the train when I get on, and I get a seat! My coworker takes the bus to the L to the 6, and has to let at least 4 L’s pass her before she can get on a train, forget about a seat!
Let’s support the G connecting with the R, and being vocal about our use of the train. And, in the meantime, be glad the poor service on the G is still keeping property values at least somewhat manageable in the western half of brooklyn.
Once upon a time I relied on the G Train, and I would gladly ride it again if it routinely made its way deep along the V/R line in Queens like the Subway map appears to promise.
I love how the G train is perfectly capable of making it to Queens Plaza, but chooses not to. Only on the weekends (when the MTA feels that 40 minutes isn’t enough time to relax between trains) do they extend the line to bejesus and back and thereby accidentally include a useful transfer point. How about extending it one stop and opening up a few more lines to G riders on weekday- the tracks already go there!!! This was actually a factor in my moving last year- I no longer have a bathroom sink, but I don’t have to deal with the g-train anymore, damnit!!
Considering the state of the MTA, that petition and what its proposing is such a waste of money.
And that should be “what it’s proposing.” Oops.
Milkman and soundacious have made a classic error. They have assumed that the opinions of people outside New York matter.
They do not.
Please see your local Saul Steinberg print for further explanation.
This has been a public service announcement.
Ben, you are 100% correct. Such a tunnel would be only marginally useful, absurdly expensive, and probably 10 years off if they started tomorrow (yeah, laugh if you want - but it took ‘em the better part of 3 years to refurbish an existing exit at Whitehall on N/R line. And not a big one). Express service on the F line in Brooklyn would be more doable, far more useful, and probably even good for the G if they just extended its run.
The G train ate my hat. This is the second time. I don’t even live on this line, and I always lose my hat on it. DAMN YOU G TRAIN!!!
I just got a firsthand experience with the g’s suckiness. it would stop at way too many places, zig-zagging excessively, and then afterwards i’d have to go backwards from where i was trying to get to, and transfer no less than 3 times. ridiculous! why the hell wouldn’t it stop at atlantic? and why isn’t there an express g? gah!!