Riders of the G train, which has seen plenty of service disruptions in recent years, should brace for several more outages this year, including every weekend in June, Brooklyn state and city lawmakers warned this week.
Assembly Member Emily Gallagher and City Council Member Lincoln Restler, both of whom represent areas serviced by the G, including Greenpoint and Williamsburg, raised alarms about the coming changes over the weekend and on Monday.
Gallagher took to social media on Sunday to share the news. She said the MTA informed her that the crosstown line will have diminished service, the details of which she did not specify, every weekend in June, two weekends in August, one in May, and one in September.
Gallagher said more G train shutdowns are “unacceptable.”
“These shutdowns have disastrous impacts on our community. Small businesses lose customers in their busiest months,” she said. “These shutdowns impact social connections, weekend work shifts, and our wallets.”
Restler’s office shared that the MTA is planning to shut down the G over 10 weekends and two dozen weeknights during the remainder of the year. He is holding a news conference with Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso and local business leaders in Greenpoint on Tuesday to highlight the “devastating impacts.”
Gallagher said the service changes “punish” Greenpoint residents in particular, given that the G is the neighborhood’s only train line. The G is also the only train that runs between Brooklyn and Queens without running through Manhattan — earning it its designation as the crosstown line.
Moreover, she vented that the MTA has continued altering G service after shutting down the line for much of the summer of 2024.
“We were told that last year’s shutdowns would be the end,” she wrote. “They made this schedule without communication, much less collaborative planning.”
When asked about Gallagher’s post, MTA spokesperson Aaron Donovan did not confirm the shutdowns she mentioned. Instead, he pointed to already-announced G line service changes on weeknights this week and next, as well as alterations it made to the train’s route and schedule throughout this month.
During those service disruptions, where large portions of the G have been suspended, the MTA has run T403 shuttle buses making G stops as an alternative.
The agency implemented those changes to ensure it could continue its work of modernizing train communication systems on the G line — known as signals. Its crews have also been performing track work along the line.
An MTA source shared that the agency regularly updates elected officials and community boards on planned service changes months in advance. However, they said such information is subject to change and will only be given to riders closer to the actual changes.