The G subway line is in the news again:

Vindication for the G: Study shows every other line has more delays, especially the 2 and 5

http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/politics/2012/05/5868010/vindication-g-study-shows-every-other-line-has-more-delays-especial

G line ridership is up in Brooklyn

Brooklyn Eagle has the story:
http://www.brooklyneagle.com/articles/new-mta-data-shows-spike-g-train-riders

Restoring the extended G line

Keeping the G train running to Church Avenue isn't news - it's old! Here's hoping this is a case where history DOES repeat itself.

http://brooklynpaper.com/stories/35/15/dtg_gtrainhistory_2012_04_13_bk.html

NYC Transit Head Resigns

NYC Transit President Howard Roberts resigns in wake of Jay Walder's elevation to MTA chair:

click here for the Daily News story.

Greenpoint Transit Looking Worse

Brooklyn Daily Eagle:
Subway, Bus Cutback Plans Give Greenpoint the Blues
by Raanan Geberer
February 11, 2009


NORTHERN BROOKLYN — Just as elsewhere in the city, residents of Greenpoint and Williamsburg are objecting to the MTA’s planned budget cuts as well as those recommended in the so-called Ravitch Commission report.

Specifically, people are up in arms about the plan, spelled out in the Ravitch report, to cut the G train back to Court Square at all times, and at plans to cut the B24 and B48 buses in Greenpoint at night and on weekends.

The beleaguered G train was first cut back around 2003, when it was made to terminate at Court Square on its northern end at all times except late nights and weekends. Previously, it had gone to 71st Street-Continental Avenue in Forest Hills. Greenpoint and Williamsburg residents often used it to go shopping, hospitals and movies in Queens.

Even though it is supposed to go to Forest Hills nights and weekends, temporary service cuts often scale it back to Court Square anyway. “I used to live on that line, and I can count on two hands the number of times I saw this [trains going to Forest Hills] happen,” says Amy Cleary, an aide to Assemblyman Joe Lentol.

The G train was also cut back to using four-car trains. MTA officials defended the move on the grounds that this would allow trains to operate more frequently. Gene Russianoff of the Straphangers’ Campaign says he can understand the transit agency’s point of view because “there are 6,200 cars in the entire fleet, but we wish they had taken our advice a few years ago and kept the Redbirds in service.”

Area residents say that if anything, G service should be expanded because of rapid population growth and new housing construction in Greenpoint and Williamsburg.

“The assemblyman will be going for a ride on the train with Ravitch in the coming few weeks,” says Cleary. “The best way to make them understand is to get them on there.”

As far as the B24 and B48 buses are concerned, Lentol pointed out in a letter to the MTA that “the B48 services an area of Greenpoint that will not have any other options when it comes to public transportation. Cuts to the B48 bus will mean 20- and often 30-minute walks to the G train, and even longer to and from the L Train.”

Tony Pecora, a neighborhood resident, says, “Many people go to work from 4 to 12, many go out on weekends. To get to the L train, they will either have to call a car service or walk two miles. I work Tuesday to Saturday, and get off at Lorimer Street after midnight. If they make these cuts, I won’t be riding the bus — I’ll either take a car service, which is eight dollars without a tip, or I’m going to walk.”

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NY Times City Room: MTA Fiscal Crisis

November 10, 2008
M.T.A. Faces $1.2 Billion Deficit
By Sewell Chan and William Neuman

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority faces a $1.2 billion budget deficit in 2009 — $300 million more than it had projected in July — that will very likely require new fare and toll increases or service reductions unless it gets new state and city aid or finds new sources of revenue, officials warned on Monday morning.

At a meeting of the finance committee of the authority’s board, the authority’s chief executive, Elliot G. Sander, said the authority faces a dire fiscal situation that could influence riders across the subway, bus and commuter-rail networks. The deficit was caused, he said, by the collapse of revenues from real estate and corporate taxes, which until just a few years ago had given the authority a string of healthy surpluses.

“The word draconian is not inappropriate,” Mr. Sander said at a news conference after the meeting. He was flanked by the authority’s chairman, H. Dale Hemmerdinger, and its chief financial officer, Gary J. Dellaverson, in describing the potential service reductions.

“They will be very, very significant,” Mr. Sander said. “Whatever that mix that we come up with, in terms of fare and toll increases and service reductions, there’s no question that they would have an impact, significantly, on our customer and on the functioning of that region.”

The magnitude of the fiscal challenges confronting the authority was evident in a PowerPoint presentation presented at the meeting and posted to the authority’s Web site.

Real estate transaction taxes, which represent an important share of M.T.A. revenue, provided the authority with more than $1.4 billion in 2006 and nearly $1.6 billion in 2007. This year, the authority is on track to collect only $995 million in such taxes — about $50 million less than had been projected in July.

And the situation is expected to get even worse. The authority now expects to collect $895 million in real estate taxes next year, and $877 million in 2010.

The authority is required to pass a balanced budget in December for the fiscal year that starts on Jan. 1. A final decision on the fare and toll increases, and service cuts, will most likely not be reached until after a state commission on M.T.A. finances, appointed by Gov. David A. Paterson and led by a former authority chairman, Richard Ravitch, delivers its report on Dec. 5 and after Mr. Paterson releases the state executive budget on Dec. 16.

The Ravitch commission is contemplating imposing tolls on the four East River bridges — the Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queensboro and Williamsburg Bridges — that are run by the city, unlike the authority’s bridges, like the Triborough, which already charge tolls.

Asked about the toll proposal, Mr. Sander, who was a city transportation commissioner in the Giuliani administration, replied: “I’m previously said that from a broader transportation-policy standpoint, I’m comfortable with that, but that should not be interpreted as my support for it in this context. We are looking at that suggestion, along with many, as we’ve said publicly.”

Mr. Sander attributed the authority’s financial condition to the heavy borrowing for capital projects that occurred in the early part of this decade, when the authority was under the control of Gov. George E. Pataki and the previous chairman, Peter S. Kalikow.

“The 2000-2004 capital program was essentially put on a credit card,” Mr. Sander said, and is “the largest contributor” to the current operating deficit. Already, the heavy borrowing now costs the hundreds of millions of dollars in interest payments each year — and the figure is projected to rise to $2 billion by 2012.

Mr. Paterson said in a statement on Monday:

The financial information provided this morning to the M.T.A. Finance Committee is another reminder of the dire fiscal situation facing all New Yorkers.

In April, I appointed Richard Ravitch to head a commission charged with recommending strategies to fund M.T.A. capital projects and operating needs over the next 10 years, a period when the Authority will be under unprecedented financial pressure as it expands and rebuilds its core infrastructure to provide the additional capacity needed to allow the region to grow. The Commission will report its recommendations in early December.

Addressing the fiscal challenges facing the M.T.A. and the state over the next several years will require shared sacrifice, difficult choices and cooperation from all funding partners. We should be open and transparent in facing these challenges and in discussing options. The M.T.A.’s subway system, buses and extensive regional commuter rail network are the lifelines of the greatest city in the world, and I will continue to work with Richard Ravitch, M.T.A. Chairman Dale Hemmerdinger, M.T.A. C.E.O. and Executive Director Lee Sander, Mayor Bloomberg and the legislative leaders to ensure our transit system continues to serve the 8.5 million people who depend on it each day.

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Important G Train Station Rehab Postponed

Smith-Ninth rehab will cost more and take longer
By Mike McLaughlin
The Brooklyn Paper

It’s the same F-ing story at the crumbling Smith-Ninth Street station: repairs are going to cost more — much more — and take much longer.

As recently as June, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said it would spend $187.8 million to rebuild the elevated F and G tracks from Carroll Street to Fourth Avenue, and renovate the aging Smith-Ninth street station.

But on Wednesday, MTA spokeswoman Deirdre Parker told The Brooklyn Paper that the work would cost “upwards of a quarter-billion dollars.”

The track work on the so-called Culver Viaduct is still scheduled to begin early next year and finish in 2012.

But the renovation of the decrepit Smith-Ninth street stop — which requires closing the station for ninth months — has been pushed back to 2011 from 2010.

That’s a mixed blessing for straphangers who abhor the conditions at the highest platform in the subway system, but don’t want to have to trek to the Fourth Avenue or Carroll Street portals to hop on a train. (The MTA says it will provide shuttle buses.)

“I think ‘dingy’ is the best way to describe the condition of everything in this station — everywhere you look is just one big, ‘Ew,’” said Jason Coyne, a Carroll Gardens resident. “And now they’re delaying the fix-up process? If it looks like this now, imagine how gross it’s going to be next year, and the year after that.”

That goes double for people who board at the Fourth Avenue station. Last November, the MTA announced it planned to revamp the span over Fourth Avenue by installing expansive windows for views up and down the boulevard. The MTA scrapped that proposal in June due to spiraling budgets throughout the transit agency.

©2008 The Brooklyn Paper

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Brooklyn11211 Blog: G to Have its Own Line Manager?

Neighborhood Threat
All subway lines to get a General Manager
September 22, 2008 at 1:50 pm

Gothamist reports that all subway lines will get a General Manager soon. Currently, the only lines that do have a GM are the 7 and the L. I’m not a daily L rider, but after our experience with the General Manager on the 7 train, I am overjoyed to hear that the G train will soon have a repository for our complaints.

The experiment calls for a general manager to take charge of each subway line and make “quick” decisions over train schedules, maintenance of stations, and riders’ complaints.

We are avid Mets fans and spend 30+ games per year out at Shea. In 2007, the MTA instituted Express service after the games, which (aside from the B61, but we’ve covered that) eliminated any temptation to drive to the game, not when we could be home in half an hour. However, in 2008, they instituted a “Super-Express” which initially only stopped at Woodside, Queensboro Plaza and Grand Central. While we just got off at Queensboro to wait for the B61 (as creepy as it is to do that), the boyfriend wrote to the GM, pointing out that eliminating the Court Square stop deprived riders of the connection to the G.

Three weeks later they wrote back to tell him that three other people also complained of the same thing, and that they had reinstituted that stop. (No, seriously. They even made announcements at Shea about it.) You can read about our adventure here.

If four people could cause that to happen on the 7 train, imagine what a band of determined Greenpoint residents can do to transform G train service.

Coming up: a bus driver reveals the complaint number of the Grand Street depot (after 6 buses went by on Friday OUT OF SERVICE)


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MTA Mess Leaves G Riders Feeling Jittery

Groups Warn of Fare Hikes, Service Cuts and Fewer Transit Repairs, At Hearing by Governor Paterson’s Commission on MTA Financing

New York’s Economy, Environment and Mobility at Risk, Say Groups

The following is a press release from the Empire State Transportation Alliance, a coalition of which Tri-State is a member. For more information, contact: Gene Russianoff (917) 575-9434 / Michael O’Loughlin (917) 957-9106

Leading transportation, environmental and labor groups warned today that New York faced major fare hikes, and cuts in transit service and vital repairs unless new City and State aid is raised to address the MTA’s “titanic” financial problems.

The warning came at the first public hearing of the State Commission on MTA Financing. The Commission - appointed by Governor David Paterson and headed by former MTA Chairman Richard Ravitch - is charged with recommending ways to meet the MTA’s financial needs over the next ten years. Its report is due out by December 5th.

In July, the MTA officially announced major operating deficits in its $6 billion operating budgets for 2009 and 2010. The deficits are caused in large part by declining tax revenues in a bad economy; rising fuel costs; and the impact of years of massive borrowing to finance badly needed repairs.

The agency’s enormous debt has made the MTA the fifth largest debtor in the U.S., behind only three other states and New York City.

The MTA has also proposed cutting $2.7 billion from its five- year, $14.7 billion core capital program - nearly a fifth of its current efforts to bring the subways, buses and commuter lines to a state of good repair. The cuts include rehabilitating 19 fewer subway stations and $336 million in fans to clear smoke in emergencies.

The agency faces a shortfall of more than $17 billion in its 2010-2014 capital program.

“Years of borrowing as a result of the City and State’s disinvestment in mass transit are coming to a head as the price of fuel has drawn many new people to transit, with total ridership up in the last year by more than 5% on the subways. What’s more, the proposed hikes would come at a time when working and middle class New Yorkers are already struggling with a rising cost of living, and real economic hardship,” said Roger Toussaint, president of the Transport Workers Union, Local 100.

“New York’s subway, bus, and commuter fares just went up in March. But now the MTA says it needs to raise the price of MetroCards and commutation tickets again in July 2009,” said Gene Russianoff, staff attorney for the Straphangers Campaign. “Back-to-back increases that have occurred only once before in the 104-year history of New York transit.”

“Failure to make the necessary investments in the critical transportation infrastructure would severely hamper New York’s economic viability. We simply can’t allow this to happen,” said Kevin Corbett, co-chair of the Empire State Transportation Alliance.

“As a result of population growth and high energy prices transit and bus ridership are at all-time highs, and the MTA system is maxed out. Unless the state invests now to expand the system we will condemn generations of New Yorkers to elbow-to-rib congestion and an underperforming economy,” Robert Yaro, president of the Regional Plan Association.

“The MTA’s problem is clear: The City and State have inadequately funded mass transit for years. The formula for funding mass transportation should be changed,” said Paul S. White, executive director of Transportation Alternatives.

“Thanks to years of delayed investments in our transit system by the City and the State, we have an aging infrastructure and a staggering fiscal crisis,” said Richard Kassel, senior attorney and transportation expert at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). “Quite simply, we won’t meet our future economic, environmental, or sustainability goals if the City and State don’t make transit investments a top, top priority.

“Every New Yorker has a stake in better transit — and more transit,” said Andy Darrell, Vice President at Environmental Defense Fund. “With gas prices high and our population growing, it’s time for innovations like bus-rapid-transit that can be built quickly. And it’s time for innovative, fair financing — including road pricing — to put our transit network on firm financial footing. The economy and the environment can’t wait.”

“Will already beleaguered riders be abandoned to cope with these difficulties without help, with higher fares and a big downturn in fixing our old system? Or will Governor Paterson, Mayor Bloomberg and our legislative leaders fight for transit? The next several months will tell,” said Kate Slevin, executive director of the Tri-State Transportation Campaign.

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NY Times Editorial on MTA Budget

September 8, 2008
Editorial: The Riders Pay

New York City’s mass-transit system is deteriorating and desperately underfunded. The politicians know this, but they are still providing far too little in the way of financing. The result is that the system’s users, many of them already suffering from tough economic times, could be stuck with the bill.

Neither the city nor the state is paying its fair share, despite what they claim. With the Metropolitan Transportation Authority facing a budget gap of nearly $1 billion next year, direct subsidies from both governments last year totaled about $600 million, not much more than what they were a decade ago, according to the nonpartisan Independent Budget Office. Adjusted for inflation, subsidies have actually declined, saddling riders with an ever-increasing burden.

The main problem is that New York’s state legislators have failed to put a dependable source of financing — like congestion pricing — in place. Transit has been forced to rely on fluctuating taxes from real estate and other sources and, increasingly, rising fares.

A one-two punch of back-to-back fare hikes and reduced service seems likely if New York’s elected leaders don’t approve significant new subsidies or a solid revenue-generating plan.

The M.T.A. has said it needs the city and state together to contribute an additional $300 million next year. State lawmakers say they are awaiting the recommendations of a commission led by Richard Ravitch, expected after the November elections. Mayor Michael Bloomberg insists that the city has already done its part, contributing $1.2 billion last year.

But Mr. Bloomberg gets to his $1.2 billion figure by including not only the city’s direct subsidies, which are what really matters, but also an assortment of other kinds of payments that do not directly benefit the M.T.A. They include $344 million in interest payments on money the city borrowed for previous transit aid.

A safe, clean and reliable mass-transit system is not only environmentally sound; it is also essential to New York’s economy. We know the city and state have their own huge, looming budget gaps. But both need to dig deeper to keep mass transit moving.

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Straphangers Survey Rates G Line as Among Worst

According to the recent NYPIRG Straphangers Campaign State of the Subway report, the G train is more likely than average to break down (not fun when trains are scheduled so far apart to begin with), and is the system's dirtiest line (even more disgusting when one considers that the MTA only needs to clean 4-car trains - and fewer trains at that) - tens times dirtier than other subway lines.

The Straphangers Campaign couldn't provide crowding data for the G, since the MTA does not take platform ridership crowding assessments as for other subway lines.

The G's report profile can be found here:
http://www.straphangers.org/statesub08/G.pdf

And here's the main link to review methodology as well as reports on other lines.
http://www.straphangers.org/statesub08/

Question: Does the State of the Subways report profile for the G line match your own G line experiences?

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Daily News: Commuters Rail for Spot on MTA Board

Commuters rail for spot on MTA board
By Pete Donohue Daily News Staff Writer
Sunday, July 27th 2008


An MTA advisory panel has floated a novel idea to Gov. Paterson: Appoint regular rail riders to the board.

"There are quite a few [current board members] who don't ride mass transit on a regular basis," said Gerard Bringmann, chairman of the Long Island Rail Road Commuter's Council.

Bringmann said the group wants Paterson to appoint "someone who feels our pain and is in the trenches with us; someone who knows what it's like to be on a train without air conditioning or on a platform where messages are garbled or nonexistent."

The council, part of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, expressed its view in a letter to Paterson, who must fill a vacancy caused by the death of Frances Powers. The missive was prompted by recent comments by David Mack, chairman of the MTA's Long Island Rail Road committee, who said he rides the train a handful of times a year - and only because he doesn't have to pay.

MTA divisions are currently preparing their preliminary 2009 spending plans amid high fuel costs and declining tax revenues. The reports include how the various divisions will meet a prior directive to cut spending by 6% over four years, starting next year when savings must total about $80 million.

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MTA Wants to Accelerate Fare Increases

July 23, 2008
M.T.A. Wants to Accelerate Fare Increases
By Ray Rivera

At a contentious meeting at its Midtown headquarters, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority board provided new details about its plan to plug a gaping hole in its finances. Not only is it seeking an 8 percent increase in revenue from fares and tolls, to take effect July 2009, but it also is requesting an additional 5 percent to take effect by January 2011 — for a cumulative increase of 13.4 percent over 18 months.

In presenting its preliminary budget for the 2009 fiscal year on Wednesday morning, the authority made no attempt to conceal what it considers to be its worst fiscal situation since the economic downturn that followed 9/11. When fares last went up, in March, the authority’s plan was not to have another fare increase until January 2010, with future increases every two years thereafter. Now that entire schedule has been moved forward — by six months for the initial increase and by a year for the projected future increases. (Jeremy Soffin, an authority spokesman, said after the meeting that the 2011 increase might be pushed ahead a few months to get as close as possible to the goal of two years between increases.)

The authority’s leaders said the fare and toll increases are necessary by the confluence of soaring energy prices and a plunge in revenue from real-estate transactions, which are a prime source of the authority’s revenue. The authority is struggling to pay the interest on billions of dollars in debts that have accumulated since the 1980s, but exploded since 2000, to pay for expensive equipment upgrades; debt service alone is expected to consume one-fifth of all authority spending by 2012.

Speaking before a packed hearing room at the authority’s headquarters on Madison Avenue, the authority’s leaders portrayed the plan as difficult and unpopular, but necessary. “Nobody wants to increase the fares,” said H. Dale Hemmerdinger, the authority’s chairman, adding, “We’re human beings, like the rest of you.”

Several board members, however, expressed dissent, saying that despite internal spending reductions already proposed by the authority’s leadership, more should be made before asking riders for more fares and tolls. Some argued that those reductions could be made without affecting service.

“When I look at this budget, I don’t think that we have nearly made the cuts that we need to make,” said Andrew M. Saul, a board member who represents Westchester County. He urged lawmakers to reexamine legislation that he said would restructure the authority and streamline its operations. “There needs to be fundamental change,” he said, adding, “and until that’s done, there’s going to be fare increase after fare increase.”

Several members of the public called for more city and state aid was needed — a position with which several board members are quietly sympathetic, though as political appointees, they have been reluctant to publicly call on the governor and mayor for new assistance.

At least a dozen witnesses brandished signs urging, “Mayor Bloomberg: Help the Riders” and “Governor Paterson: Help the Riders.”

While some board members, like Mr. Saul, called for long-term restructuring of the authority’s finances, others said the authority needed to make cuts urgently.

Jeffrey A. Kay, who oversees municipal operations at City Hall and is one of four representatives of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg on the board, said, “Before we go out and ask for higher fares, we need to find every dollar we can.”

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Speak Out About G Train Service This Wednesday!

Couldn't attend the NYC Council's oversight hearing on G line service last week? No worries; this Wednesday, April 16, you can take your concerns straight to NYC Transit President Howard Roberts. And this event is in the evening, folks! Here's the information:

NYC TRANSIT RIDERS COUNCIL
2008 PRESIDENT'S FORUM ON SUBWAYS
with
NYC TRANSIT PRESIDENT HOWARD ROBERTS
When: WEDNESDAY, APRIL 16, 2008
5:00 TO 7:00 p.m. (Registration from 4:45 to 6:00 p.m.)
Where: 2 BROADWAY(between Beaver and Stone Streets)
20th FLOOR AUDITORIUM

NOTE: you must have a photo ID to enter the building.

Attendees must register in person by name and topic in order to speak. Speakers will be called by topic. Once all speakers on a topic have been heard, no further comments on that topic will be accepted. There is no advance registration.

Location Details:
Transit Headquarters
2 Broadway
Manhattan, NYC NY

NYC Council to hold hearing on G service

Today, NYC Council Transportation Committee Chair John Liu announced that he has organized an oversight hearing on G train service. Witnesses from the MTA will be asked to speak about ridership data, plans for the future, conditions, and other issues regarding G line service, and the public is also encouraged to testify about their own experiences.

Time/Date: Tuesday, April 8 at 1:00pm
Location: Council Chambers, City Hall

Oversight: What is the MTA doing to improve service on the G line?
Resolution #1262 Calling upon MTA to immediately improve service on the G line and to not implement any service cuts.

For all of you who've been endlessly frustrated by the roller coaster ride that is G line service levels, we're asking you to turn out in force on April 8th. Riders from Queens AND Brooklyn have been affected by the MTA's various management decisions and random service changes.

If you'd like to more directly help spread the word about the hearing, Save The G can certainly use your help. Please reach out to savetheg [at] yahoo [dot] com with your contact information, noting what sort of advocacy contributions you can make, and we'll be sure to thank you in person on April 8th.

This is a major opportunity for G riders to speak and be heard; let's make the most of it!

Brooklyn Paper article: A New G Spot?

February 23, 2008

By Mike McLaughlin
The Brooklyn Paper

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority has promised to study whether it is feasible to connect the G train with the maze of lines at the Atlantic Avenue–Pacific Street subway station at the crossroads of Park Slope, Fort Greene, Boerum Hill and Downtown Brooklyn.

The agency promised Councilmember Letitia James (D–Fort Greene) this week that it would study what it would take — and, more important, how much it would cost — to build a tunnel that would connect the G line’s Lafayette Avenue stop with the Atlantic-Pacific station, a move that would simplify commuting for tens of thousands of people.

“It would make life better for people in Fort Greene and Clinton Hill,” James said.

The so-called “Crosstown Local” passes tantalizingly close to Atlantic Avenue, a portal for many subways and the Long Island Railroad, but skirts the hub as it travels between the Lafayette Avenue and Hoyt–Schermerhorn stations, limiting the number of ways in which Manhattan-bound G riders can transfer and continue their commutes.

Clinton Hill residents salivated over the possibility of having a free transfer to the 4/5, B/Q, N/R, M at Atlantic–Pacific, rather than contenting themselves with a transfer to the A/C at Hoyt–Schermerhorn.

“That’s a great idea,” said Amy Sly. “The lines are so close to each other.”

But burrowing a tunnel between Fulton Street and Atlantic Avenue is no simple task.
Initial estimates from the MTA say it would take 5–10 years to complete and would be the biggest shaft in the subway system, according to James.

New York City Transit would not comment before it drafts a formal response to James.
But one thing is clear: the agency is trying to improve the much-maligned G line.

New York City Transit thrilled riders in December when it announced it would increase the number of trains per hour — if (and it’s a big if) finances look good in the spring, after the agency has had a chance to assess its revenues from the recent fare increase.

It also plans to permanently extend service to Church Avenue in Kensington, creating the first direct link between Park Slope and Williamsburg.

But as the MTA giveth, it also taketh away.

The expanded service in Brooklyn comes at the expense of Queens. Currently, travelers can reach Forest Hills on nights and weekends, but if the changes go through, the G would permanently terminate in Long Island City.

Straphangers criticized the MTA, saying that it’s ignoring the line’s ridership.

“There’s a very healthy commuting community between Brooklyn and Queens,” said Teresa Toro, the chair of Community Board One’s transportation committee, and member of the Save the G Coalition.

©2008 The Brooklyn Paper
http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/31/8/31_08_a_new_g_spot.html

State of the MTA Address

From our friends at the Straphangers Campaign:

Dear rider:

Want to hear how the MTA sees the future? Then come to a "State of the MTA" address by the agency's Chief Executive Officer Lee Sander.

He will "reflect on the MTA's progress, present his vision for its future, and describe the funding challenges ahead." The details are below.

- Gene Russianoff and Cate Contino

WHEN: Monday, March 3, 2008
Check-in: 10 a.m.
Program: 10:30 a.m.
WHERE: The Great Hall of The Cooper Union,
7 East 7th Street at Third Avenue
New York, N.Y. 10003

RSVP: http://www.mta.info/ceo-rsvp/ or 212-878-0292
==============================
NYPIRG Straphangers Campaign
One Click to a Better Commute - http://www.straphangers.org

G Train Riders Give the G a D+

The results for the MTA's Rider Report Card for the G Line have been posted on the MTA website: http://www.mta.nyc.ny.us/nyct/service/reports/rider_report_letter_g.htm

According to the MTA, 3,903 G train riders responded to the report card survey, giving the line an overall grade of D+. We expected more responses from G riders, judging from random, informal rants to Save The G's members via email, phone and subway platform encounters; we hope it's enough to give the MTA a picture of riders' needs and concerns.

It's not surprising that the biggest issue for G riders is frequency of service -- the G has long intervals between trains (longer still whenever there's any kind of delay), making commutes a daily challenge and frustration.

Again, while Save The G appreciates that the Rider Report Cards are designed to measure morning rush hour service only, it's troublesome that the G train's other service issues have been excluded from the survey - particularly regarding the reliability of weekend service through Forest Hills on weekends, severe overcrowding caused by 4-car trains, and the mechanical joke otherwise known as the "power mover" at Court Square Station, which is out of service virtually every day. It's unfortunate that the MTA's survey doesn't take those service problems into account -- if that were the case, the G would likely receive an even lower grade.

Now that the results are in, it remains to be seen what the MTA will do with the information it's gathered. Any opinions?

Give Thanks to Governor Spitzer and the MTA!

This year, we're grateful that the MTA has begun to survey its customers via its Rider Report Card initiative. If you didn't receive a hard-copy report card for the G line at your home station, fill one out online asap: http://enterprise.mtanyct.info/survey/start.asp

We're deeply thankful that Governor Spitzer has called off the MTA's proposed fare hike (though it remains to be seen what unlimited MetroCards will cost next year) - G train riders are already paying too much for second-rate service. Thanks, Governor Spitzer!

Happy Thanksgiving!
Save The G

Update to the G Line Rider Report Card

Save The G stands corrected on an important item in our previous post.

MTA spokesman Paul Fleuranges has clarified that the Rider Report Cards are meant to examine morning rush hour service only - hence the Report Card's exclusion of most of the G's stations in Queens. (Perhaps future Report Cards can ask riders to compare their rush-hour experiences to non-rush hour experiences, so the G's full route can be evaluated.)

The MTA concedes that the "power mover" at Court Square station isn't noted on the report card, but will evaluate riders' grades on "Working elevators and escalators" with the power mover in mind. Future G train Report Cards might note the Cour Square station's power mover; however, for the purposes of this survey, please count the power mover as an escalator when you grade the G. (We ask the MTA to remind riders of this when distribution time rolls around.)

For those issues or concerns which aren't represented on the Report Card questionnaire, Save The G reminds you to make thoughtful use of the "comments" section. Mr. Fleuranges has assured us that the MTA is reviewing all written comments, so this is an important way to articulate G-line concerns not addressed in the Report Card.