Greenpoint’s elected officials gathered alongside business owners and concerned residents yesterday afternoon, calling on the MTA to reconsider its plan to suspend G train service during summer weekends.
Assembly Member Emily Gallagher broke the news earlier this week on X, sharing that the MTA planned to halt weekend service for all of June, as well as select weekends in August and September.
Service suspensions here and there can be a pain, but doable. However, in a neighborhood that has endured them nearly every weekend since December (on top of a total shutdown in summer 2024), G train riders have reached their limit.
“I do not accept another summer of shutdowns for G train riders. Enough is enough,” said Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso.
“From the World Cup to Pride, this is going to be an extremely busy June for New York City. This should be a boon for the local economy, but that’s impossible if North Brooklyn and Greenpoint are cut off from the rest of the city.”
“The recurring G train shutdowns by the MTA have stranded the Greenpoint community and our neighborhood’s great small businesses,” said Council Member Lincoln Restler. “The MTA must limit all future closures to overnights to minimize the devastating consequences of these closures on our community.”
According to the politicians’ calculations, the outages will amount to 40% of weekends this year.
Business owners also spoke out during the press conference, worried that additional outages could drive customers away, especially at a time when so many businesses are already struggling.
“We’re so lucky to break even on the weekdays, and to actually make money on the weekends. And so now to lose 40% of our only profitable time during the year will be, beyond a devastating hit, it actually does dollars-and-sense wise, make us all have to look around and say, are we going to be able to weather this storm?” said Rachel Despeaux of Awoke Vintage.
Restler and Reynoso are pushing the MTA to limit the work to overnight hours, reduce the cost of CitiBikes in Greenpoint, and make sure that the shuttle buses actually run efficiently.
Since 2024, the MTA has been working to implement communications-based train control (CBTC), finally bringing the G train into the 21st century. But MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber says that these upcoming outages actually address a totally different issue.
“It turns out that the tunnel under Newtown Creek between Greenpoint and Long Island City needs a lot more work than was originally thought,” Lieber revealed during an MTA press conference on Tuesday.
Restler’s office says the outages are scheduled for June 6, 13 and 20; August 8 and 15; September 12; and December 5, 12 and 19. Those dates are subject to change.