G train riders are getting pamphlets and bullhorns to help them find the shuttle buses covering service as the MTA starts its summer-long shutdown of the train.
But some riders said finding the shuttles is a bit of a challenge.
“Daytime too? I have to go to Brooklyn,” Fernando Gomez said while standing in Long Island City’s Court Street station. “I don’t know what happened. Always, the line to downtown Brooklyn has trouble.”
As Gomez stood at the top of the taped-off platform steps, a helpful MTA employee stuck a pamphlet in his hand and directed him upstairs to a waiting shuttle bus. The glossy six-fold outlined the service changes under the tagline: “When we upgrade our signals, we upgrade your ride.”
The shutdown is one of the biggest construction-related disruptions to New York City transit service in years.
MTA officials said the closure is necessary to make long-overdue improvements to the train. The work will replace 30 miles of track, upgrade signals that rely on technology from the 1930s, lay new cables and replace more than 12 switches that regularly cause delays. It will progress in three phases:
- June 28 through July 5: No trains between Court Square and Nassau Avenue.
- July 5 through Aug. 12: No trains from Court Square to Bedford-Nostrand.
- Aug. 12 through Sept. 3: No trains between Bedford-Nostrand and Church Avenue.
Officials said they will have employees at the line’s closed stations 24 hours a day, seven days a week, throughout the project to hand out flyers and help passengers. The MTA also said additional workers will be on the streets from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. helping commuters locate the shuttle bus.
But on Monday afternoon, while two workers with a bullhorn announced the arrival and departure of shuttle buses at the Court Street station, no workers could be found at another station at Jackson Ave.-21st Street. A Gothamist reporter had to watch one shuttle pass before finding the shuttle bus stop a block away from the station entrance.
The MTA posted yellow signs the size of baking trays at the station entrances and on street posts where the shuttle stops. But spotting the signs can be difficult in New York’s normal blizzard of signs.
The agency said customers with questions can contact the project coordinators directly at [email protected] or call (347) 757-4371.
Gomez said he was unimpressed with the agency’s attempts to help riders navigate the new trainless terrain and complained about how inferior buses were compared to the train, especially in rush-hour traffic.
“A lot of people take the G train to Brooklyn, especially to Greenpoint,” Gomez said. “And we have to take the bus. They don't care that we have trouble. They don't care. We pay taxes. We need good service.”
Some commuters said they were equally unimpressed with the delays from having to take a bus through traffic and around illegally-parked cars.
“It’s much slower and the train is more comfortable,” Kelvin Garcia said. “The train is better, it’s faster.”
David Deturis said that while he’s not a fan of the G train’s historical performance, part of what makes this service shutdown so difficult is because of how crucial the train is.
“Especially because it's really the only thing that connects Queens to Brooklyn,” he said.
