| Issue 306 | February 26, 2001 |
NYC
Transit's plan to truncate G-train service at Court Square in Queens as
part of its V-train/63rd Street tunnel plan (MTR #'s 296,
303) is
coming under increasing fire. Civic groups from the Brooklyn neighborhoods
of Greenpoint and Bedford-Stuyvesant have launched an organizing
effort to save the G, and it has won support from local elected officials,
the Regional Plan Association, the Daily
News and candidates for city-wide office like Mark Green and Steven
DiBrienza.
The plan to cut most G service in Queens would not only make Brooklyn-Queens subway trips tougher, it would also inconvenience thousands of Brooklyn riders who commute to midtown and currently transfer at Queens Plaza. This may be the first time NYC Transit has proposed service cuts to a line whose ridership has grown by at least 30% in the previous five years.
Transit points out that the changes will allow more frequent and reliable Brooklyn G service, since it will not have to be coordinated with other Queens Boulevard trains. It will also offer a free transfer to the #7 train at 45th Road. Brooklyn riders are unimpressed. Even with these improvements, they will lose one-seat rides to Queens and easy connections to Manhattan.
NYC Transit claims it must sacrifice the G because of problems integrating it into Queens Boulevard service. But the numbers don't support that argument. The operating plan calls for 12 R and 9 V peak hour trains on Queens Boulevard. Surely transit managers can run more than 21 trains an hour and avoid sacrificing the needs of Brooklyn riders to improve service for Queens.
A second problem NYC Transit faces is a general shortage of rolling stock throughout the "B division" (lettered lines) that limits its ability to add service to crowded lines like the L train, and prevents them from extending the V train into Brooklyn along the Jamaica or Culver Lines. The MTA Capital Program provides for the purchase of 660 new B division subway cars. However, instead of ordering additional copies of the 212 cars purchased in the last Capital Program, which will be delivered this year, they are initiating a new design process that will add nearly four years to the procurement. Those new cars might actually reach the subways by early 2006.
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