{"id":302254,"date":"2026-07-21T22:12:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T22:12:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/302254\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T22:12:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T22:12:08","slug":"brooklyn-queens-subway-closures-to-modernize-train-control","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/302254\/","title":{"rendered":"Brooklyn-Queens Subway Closures to Modernize Train Control"},"content":{"rendered":"

(TNS) \u2014 For the third time in as many years, straphangers in North Brooklyn are faced with a vexing, if familiar, question \u2014 is the G train running<\/a>?<\/p>\n

After planned signal upgrades meant a 10-week shutdown of the line in 2024<\/a> \u2014 and continued work on the signaling system meant scattered outages weeknight and weekend outages last year as well \u2014 riders in Greenpoint were angered to learn this spring that there would be yet more weekends with no G train service this summer.<\/p>\n

MTA officials said they\u2019d discovered a leak in the tunnel under the Newtown Creek \u2014 and that repairing it alongside the ongoing upgrades meant taking the trains out of service for multiple weekends between the Bedford-Nostrand and Court Sq. stations.<\/p>\n

The announcement raised the ire of Greenpointers \u2014 especially the neighborhood\u2019s small business owners<\/a>, who say that, in Greenpoint, no trains means fewer customers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI lose 10-20% of my revenue when the train isn\u2019t running,\u201d Perri Salka, owner of The WonderMart gift shop on India St. and an organizer with Shop Small Greenpoint, told the Daily News. \u201cThe impact has felt significant to my bottom line.\u201d<\/p>\n

Salka said she worries most about the MTA\u2019s plans to close the train for three weekends in December \u2014 prime time for the retail business.<\/p>\n

\u201cI make just over a quarter of my revenue in the month of December,\u201d she said. \u201cHow dare they?\u201d<\/p>\n

But the MTA says the work is necessary as part of a comprehensive overhaul of the line \u2014 one that will lead to much more reliable operation on a line where decades of infrequent service have earned it the nickname of \u201cghost train.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

On a recent Saturday at the 21st St. station in Long Island City, a yellow work-diesel pulled into the station, bringing a repair crew back from a 12-hour shift patching the tunnel.<\/p>\n

The train was one of eight along the closed section of G train, supporting nine different work teams along the tracks, said Jamie Torres-Springer, the MTA\u2019s head of construction and development.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are making a massive investment in the modernization of this line,\u201d Torres-Springer said. \u201cIt will only be the fourth line across the 22 lines that will be fully re-signaled.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve enabled cell service across the entire G line as part of this work,\u201d he added. \u201cFive more stations [will] become A.D.A. accessible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Torres-Springer also noted the MTA\u2019s decision last year to swap out all the line\u2019s older subway cars for the state-of-the-art R211<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But the primary reason for the work \u2014 the cause of the shutdowns that began in 2024 \u2014 is the first one: the installation of modern computerized signaling<\/a>, known as communication-based train control, or CBTC.<\/p>\n

The system \u2014 which is already in place on the L train, the No. 7 train, portions of the E, F, M and R trains \u2014 will allow the MTA to precisely track trains in the tunnels, letting them safely run more closely together. The upgrade will also streamline dispatching, allowing trains to be routed from the MTA\u2019s Midtown rail control center.<\/p>\n

To install the new system means putting in brand new switches and new traffic lights. It means adding small wireless transponders at regular intervals along the tracks, along with 5G radios to let them communicate. And it means wiring all of those devices up to a computer that can control them while talking to dispatchers.<\/p>\n

Last weekend, the last of those pieces were scheduled to be installed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is one of the most exciting weekends of my life,\u201d Jonathan Lopez, Construction Management Lead with contractor WSP, said with a smile. \u201cThis weekend is when we\u2019re going to finish most of the hardware installation. After this weekend if everything goes well, I can say I did my job \u2014 everything we\u2019ve installed in the ground will be functional.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lopez was quick to note the difference between \u201cfunctional\u201d and \u201coperational.\u201d<\/p>\n

MTA officials expect to conduct more than a year of testing, troubleshooting, and software tweaks before turning the new system on. A large keyed switch in the newly-minted Train Control Room up the tracks at Court Square was marked \u201cLEG[ACY]\u201d for the existing signal system<\/a> and \u201cCBTC\u201d for the new one. Workers can flip it back and forth for upcoming tests.<\/p>\n

But MTA officials say it will be late 2027 or early 2028 before that switch is flipped for good. And all along the track-side, new signal lights were covered in black plastic, so as not to confuse train operators before the new system comes online.<\/p>\n

As the tunnel approached Court Square, workers were spread out across the three subterranean tracks.<\/p>\n

A crew was working on the motor that moves one of the newly installed switch tracks.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, you can have all the software you want,\u201d one engineer told The News, gesturing at the switch motor. \u201cYou still have to move the thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nearby, on the uptown track, three men stood on the flatbed car of a work train, reaching up towards the ceiling to organize and wrap up bundles of electrical cables. Somewhere nearby, still audible over the din of compressors and engines, a speaker belted out \u201cRamblin\u2019 Man\u201d by the Allman Brothers Band.<\/p>\n

Turning around, walking along the downtown tracks and back past the 21st St. station, the tunnel began to pitch downward, under the Newtown Creek. The air began to feel more humid. The boots of an MTA work crew and one reporter began to slosh through mud.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou see some gaps, the ties shifting?\u201d said Anish Gandhi, a Vice President with MTA Construction and Development. Small gaps of just a millimeter or so were visible around one or two railroad ties embedded into the tunnel floor.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe gauge has to be so many inches,\u201d he said, referring to the distance between the rails. \u201cThe water\u2019s seeping in and allows the ties to shift.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe went to install the [tie] plates,\u201d Gandhi said, referring to the hardware that affixes the rail to the ties. \u201cAnd that\u2019s when we realized we can\u2019t install them, because it\u2019s crumbling underneath.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a bulwark against the gauge changing, NYC Transit has installed threaded \u201cgauge-rods\u201d between the rails to reinforce them. Paired with regular track inspections, the stretch of rail beneath Newtown Creek is safe to use, officials said.<\/p>\n

But any repair won\u2019t last without a more watertight tunnel.<\/p>\n

Above, metal spigots jutted out from overhead \u2014 one in the center of the ceiling, one on each side, the trio repeating every 10 feet as the tunnel stretched out ahead.<\/p>\n

The spigots serve as injection ports, where crews can pump grout behind the tunnel wall, with the goal of coating and encasing the entire tunnel lining under the Newtown Creek in a waterproof layer, filling any cracks along the way.<\/p>\n

Torres-Springer said the damage could be traced back to repairs done in 2015 after 2012\u2019s Hurricane Sandy.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s when \u201cthe old MTA,\u201d as he put it, \u201cmade some repairs, but left the leaks to be remediated by somebody in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not doing that,\u201d he said. \u201cWe went in and we saw that the leaks were extensive, and we\u2019re repairing them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Further on down the tunnel, a work crew of contractors stood atop a flatbed car, wielding long drills and boring into the side of the tunnel. One man leaned his shoulder into the drill as another vacuumed up the dust of century-old concrete.<\/p>\n

After a minute or two, a spray of water came from the hole, smelling suspiciously like the\u00a0Newtown Creek<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ten more feet down the tunnel, another crew was set up with another long drill. Later in the weekend, another team would come through to install spigots in the holes.<\/p>\n

MTA spokeswoman Sophie Deixel told The News that work crews had managed to drill along 1,000 feet of the tunnel that weekend \u2014 100 sets of holes \u2014 and pump grout along 450 feet of tunnel.<\/p>\n

Each tube of the 95-year-old tunnel is 3,200 feet long. The MTA estimates it will take until the year\u2019s end to seal them both.<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand the pain of it,\u201d Torres-Springer said, when asked about straphangers\u2019 frustrations. \u201cI wish everybody could come into the tunnels and see [the work.] It\u2019s a massive upgrade of the G train.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a92026 New York Daily News, Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(TNS) \u2014 For the third time in as many years, straphangers in North Brooklyn are faced with a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":302255,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[9,24,63,122,124,123],"class_list":["post-302254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302254\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}