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By Danielle Furfaro
Brooklyn Daily
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority finished its review of the G train and agreed to make many changes, but it still needs money to increase service.
On Monday morning, the MTA released a report that includes a battery of changes it plans to make to appease long-suffering G train riders.
The changes result from a full-line review the MTA conducted over the past five months at the behest of state senators Daniel Squadron (D–Brooklyn Heights) and Martin Dilan (D–Bedford-Stuyvesant). Squadron had previously convinced the transportation agency to review the F and L lines, leading to changes on those trains.
“Now G train riders will be en route to much-needed relief that may one day lead to the G meaning great,” said Squadron. “These recommendations will allow the G train to keep pace with skyrocketing growth in Brooklyn.”
The MTA confirmed that it will make the following changes within the next year:
• Create a more streamlined timetable that will better interact with the F line schedule. This will allow G trains to be better spaced at all 20 stations.
• Pick a standardized place on the platform where the four-car train will stop every time.
• Rearrange benches and trash cans on the platforms so that they are in the area where trains will stop.
• Add public announcement systems to the 12 G train stations that currently do not have them.
• Make changes to the way it ushers riders into the trains at the ends of the line at Church Avenue in Kensington and Court Square in Queens.
• Add additional signage.
One potential change that remains up in the air is increasing service by 25 percent between the hours of 3 pm and 9 pm. This change would require an additional $700,000 to institute. Squadron said he would help the agency come up with the funds.
Members of Riders Alliance, a straphangers activist group, attended the Monday meeting to show their support for the changes. The group has spent the past several months rallying and meeting with the MTA on how to improve service.
“The trains come very infrequently, which is compounded by the fact that they are irregular,” said Alexis Saba, who lives of the Clinton-Washington stop in Crown Heights. “I am happy for these changes, because it means I will not longer have to leave my house half an hour early.”
Reach reporter Danielle Furfaro at dfurfaro@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260-2511. Follow her at twitter.com/DanielleFurfaro.