The G train is partially suspended on some weekends and nights through 2027. (Photo: MTA)
By Lana Schwartz | lana.schwartz925@gmail.com
For months that feel like years, G train service has been partially suspended.
Most nights and weekends, it runs only between Church Avenue and Bedford Nostrand, cutting off North Brooklyn from the rest of the borough and severing Brooklyn’s only subway connection to Queens.
The MTA maintains that it’s making necessary signal upgrades, though for how long — and which weekends the G train will be down — is anyone’s guess.
Here is what I imagine the G train has been doing with its downtime:
Quiet quitting
After years of being slandered as “the worst subway,” ridiculed for its smaller number of train cars, and shamed for being late (as if every other train line is always so punctual), the G train is slowly transitioning away from being a subway at all. Maybe there’s a job opening with SEPTA?
Binging GIRLS
Finally, it understands the random massive influx of people getting off at Greenpoint Ave circa 2012 — and every year since.
Watching TikToks about “boundaries”
The G train doesn’t owe anyone anything.
Bragging about its open-gangway cars
One year ago, the MTA introduced two open-gangway cars to the G train line, making it only the second train line after the C train to possess these state-of-the-art R211 cars.
Even if the G train is incapable of the one thing it’s supposed to do (provide the necessary connective tissue between North and South Brooklyn), at least it looks pretty.
Exploring our other boroughs
92 years in New York and the G train gets to see the three boroughs it doesn’t serve — Manhattan, the Bronx, and Staten Island — for the very first time. Although, generally speaking, that is about how long it takes most New Yorkers to finally get to Staten Island.
Avoiding the L train at all costs
If the G train does happen to be running on nights and weekends, that means the L train will not be.
The two trains — which previously worked together in tandem to provide necessary transfers to subway riders — have been swapping weekends like divorced parents sharing custody of Williamsburg and Bushwick.
But what New Yorker hasn’t steered clear of entire neighborhoods in order to avoid seeing an ex?
Lana Schwartz is a writer who was born and raised in Queens and today lives in Brooklyn. Her writing has appeared on The New Yorker, The Onion, McSweeney’s, and more. She is the author of the books Build Your Own Romantic Comedy and Set Piece.
