The dreaded December G train shutdowns have been scrapped, to the relief of business owners and residents in North Brooklyn.
Long-overdue repairs initially scheduled to stretch through the end of the year have been finished ahead of schedule, according to the MTA, and though the G still needs some work, it will run like normal during the busy holiday season.
“I am grateful to the MTA for listening to our community and finding a way to complete this important work without disproportionately impacting small businesses during the busiest time of year,” said state Sen. Kristen Gonzalez, in a statement.
The MTA completed needed repairs ahead of schedule. Photo courtesy of Marc A. Hermann/MTA
After a year of intermittent service disruptions, the MTA had planned to shutter the G train for three consecutive weekends in December to finish badly-needed repairs in the tunnel between Greenpoint and Long Island City, which was badly damaged during Hurricane Sandy back in 2012.
The MTA added the December closures to the calendar earlier this year, after discovering the tunnel needed “a lot more work” than was originally planned.
Business owners in Greenpoint, who have been dealing with periodic G train interruptions since the agency began installing Communications-Based Train Control in 2024, despaired. The G is the only train line that serves the nabe, and weekend shutdowns had already dealt a hefty financial blow.
A report from Shop Small Greenpoint found most businesses surveyed saw sales decline at least 22% during shutdown weekends, and 39% had to cut staff shifts or hours in response. Perri Salka, owner of WonderMart and co-founder of Shop Small Greenpoint, said that holiday shopping in December brings in a quarter of the store’s annual revenue.
Earlier this year, a coalition of local business owners sent a letter to the MTA asking them to reconsider the closures planned for June and December, and local elected officials have repeatedly called on the MTA to change its plans.
Small business owners and elected officials have repeatedly called on the MTA to change their plans.File photo courtesy of John McCarten/NYC Council Media Unit
“The MTA completed over 6,400 feet of grouting and leak mitigation in the Greenpoint tube under the Newtown Creek, which has facilitated the removal of weekend outages in December,” said agency spox Laura Cala-Rauch. “We will continue to partner with elected officials and community leaders to ensure that the rest of this transformative project is completed efficiently under as few outages as possible.”
The line has seen full and partial shutdowns in September, with service interruptions still on the calendar for a few weekends in October as the MTA continues to implement CBTC, which will provide faster, more reliable train service when finally finished.
“What a moment for Greenpoint! This is proof that when a neighborhood organizes, it gets results — proof that a shop owner with a survey and a stack of signatures can change a transit agency’s plans, and proof that Shop Small Greenpoint’s voice, and every neighbor who lent theirs to it, truly matters,” Salka said in a statement. “Reversing these shutdown dates means our shop owners can count on a full, uninterrupted holiday season this year.”