G (New York City Subway service)

Early service The original Brooklyn–Queens Crosstown Local service began on August 19, 1933, as a shuttle between Queens Plaza on the IND Queens Boulevard Line and Nassau Avenue. This service was designated GG because the IND used double letters to indicate local service. Starting on April 24, 1937, GG trains were extended to Forest Hills–71st Avenue during rush hours, serving as the Queens Boulevard local while trains ran express west of 71st Avenue. The entire IND Crosstown Line was completed on July 1, 1937, including the connection to the IND Culver Line (then the South Brooklyn Line) at Bergen Street. Although some retrospective accounts have intimated that GG service initially ran at all times between Forest Hills–71st Avenue and Church Avenue before being truncated, From April 30 to November 1, 1939, and from May 11 to October 28, 1940, GG trains were extended via the temporary IND World's Fair Line to World's Fair Station at Horace Harding Boulevard at all times during the 1939–1940 World's Fair. Trains were marked as S Special. The fair closed on October 28, 1940, with the station and line being demolished later that year. Additional GG service was briefly provided for the 1964 New York World's Fair, running nonstop between Hoyt–Schermerhorn Streets station and Roosevelt Avenue every 30 minutes between 10 a.m. and 3:30 pm. It took 23 minutes for trains to travel between the two stations. Since riders at local stations complained about the loss of direct service to Manhattan, F trains to and from Kings Highway began making local stops. All peak-direction F trains began running local on January 19, 1976. On August 30, 1976, due to budget cuts, remaining F express service north of Church Avenue was eliminated and GG service was cut back to Smith–Ninth Streets. On January 24, 1977, as part of a series of NYCTA service cuts to save $13 million, many subway lines began running shorter trains again during middays. As part of the change, GG trains began running with four cars between 9:30 a.m. and 1:30 pm. On August 27, 1977, GG service was cut back to Queens Plaza during late nights, and local service along Queens Boulevard was provided by the . Effective May 6, 1985, use of double letters to indicate local service was discontinued, so the GG was relabeled G. Afterwards, as part of the New York City Transit Authority's proposed service plan to serve the new Archer Avenue Line upper level, the G would have been extended to Jamaica Center during weekends and evenings when N trains terminated at 71st Avenue or 57th Street–Seventh Avenue. During late nights, a G train shuttle would have run between Jamaica Center and Van Wyck Boulevard. On weekdays, the extension would have been served by N trains. This service plan would have allowed E and F trains to remain on the Queens Boulevard mainline toward 179th Street. The final service plan, which took effect on December 11, 1988, had the extension served by E trains, with R trains extended to 179th Street. On May 24, 1987, the and services switched terminals in Queens. As part of the reroute plan, Queens Plaza became the northern terminal for the G train on evenings, weekends, and late nights. Three years later, on September 30, 1990, G service was extended to 179th Street during late nights to replace the , which terminated at 36th Street and Fourth Avenue. On April 14, 1991, weekend service was extended from Queens Plaza to 71st Avenue. Weekend G service was cut back to Queens Plaza on July 26, 1992. An alternate version was implemented in September 2019 when limited rush hour F trains (designated as a diamond ) began running express between Jay Street and Church Avenue, stopping at Seventh Avenue. Late 1990s to present On March 23, 1997, G trains started terminating at Court Square on weekends. On August 30, overnight service was permanently cut back from 179th Street to Court Square, with F trains making all stops east of Queens Plaza to replace the G, meaning that the G only ran along the Queens Boulevard Line on weekdays. Evening service between 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. was cut back from Queens Plaza to Court Square. On December 16, 2001, the 63rd Street Connector opened and the G was removed from Queens Boulevard during weekday rush hours and middays; Court Square became the northern terminal for the G train during this time. Service was extended beyond Court Square to and from 71st Avenue at all other times, which represented the reverse of the previous pattern. Service along the IND Queens Boulevard Line was replaced by the new train on weekdays during the day. This service change was supposed to go in effect on November 11, but was delayed due to the September 11 attacks. The G was to be truncated to Court Square 24 hours to make room for the V, but due to rider opposition, it was cut back only on weekdays until 8:30 pm. Another weekday simulation took place during the daytime hours on Saturday, September 8, adapting the service pattern that would be implemented when the V would debut, but without the G operating along Queens Boulevard during weekday rush hours and middays. Some trips were extended beyond Smith–Ninth Streets and originated and terminated at Church Avenue. On April 27, 2003, Saturday morning and afternoon G service was decreased, with service running every 12 minutes instead of every 8 minutes, and Sunday afternoon service was decreased to run every 12 minutes instead of every 10 minutes. In addition, Saturday morning and afternoon G trains turned out of service at Fourth Avenue instead of Church Avenue. On July 5, 2009, the G was once again extended south at all times to Church Avenue. This was required for overhaul of the Culver Viaduct, which caused the express tracks at Smith–Ninth Streets and Fourth Avenue/Ninth Street—used to switch G trains between tracks after they terminated at Smith–Ninth Streets—to be temporarily taken out of service. However, due to planned track repairs during the times the G normally ran on the Queens Boulevard Line, service along the line last ran on April 19. Flood waters from Hurricane Sandy caused significant damage to the Greenpoint Tubes under the Newtown Creek. Although the G was back in service days after the hurricane, the tube needed permanent repairs. To allow for these repairs, G service ran only between Nassau Avenue and Church Avenue for twelve weekends between July and December 2013. This schedule was also in effect daily between July 25 and September 2, 2014. Service was also suspended on parts of the G route from June 28 to September 3, 2024, as part of a project to automate the Crosstown and Culver lines. ==Issues==

open gangway cars on the G line at Church Avenue on March 4, 2025. In the 21st century, the G suffered from a wide range of issues that has resulted in complaints by people living along the route. Historically, it has connected only Brooklyn and Queens, and the "unwanted drunk uncle everyone has." One reporter wrote of the G, "[Riders] need it because it goes where no other train does, but they hate that they need it." Compounding to the G "outcast" reputation, some of the G stations along the Crosstown Line are in bad shape. and since April 2010, this service pattern has applied at all times. 63rd Street Connector service reductions When the connector to the IND 63rd Street Line from the IND Queens Boulevard Line was put into regular passenger service in December 2001, it not only introduced the new V service, but also allowed up to nine additional trains to and from Manhattan on the Queens Boulevard Line during peak hours. The reroute of the G was part of the original plans of the 63rd Street tunnel and connector, going back to the late 1960s. The service plan was designed to redistribute Queens-bound passenger loads on the crowded IND Queens Boulevard Line, which ran under 53rd Street while in Manhattan. In turn, this plan was intended to bring better service and transfer opportunities, as the V train allowed direct access to 53rd Street and the IND Sixth Avenue Line for Queens Boulevard Local passengers who previously had to transfer to an express train at Queens Plaza. The New York Times prematurely described the service plan as "complex and heavily criticized" because it put more crowding on the E train. The MTA also agreed to extend the G to Forest Hills–71st Avenue during evenings and weekends (when the V was not running), and run more trains on that route. There was a four-hour period where the G, , and V, as well as the Queens Boulevard line's express services, the E and the F, were all running at once since the V stopped running at midnight and the G was extended to 71st Avenue at 8:00 pm. The authority "had spent several hundred thousand dollars on tests, trying to figure out a way to keep the G train running past Court Square and farther into Queens on weekdays, but because of the addition of the V train, which shared space along the Queens Boulevard Line with the trains already there (the E, F and R trains), G trains could not fit during the daytime, when service is heaviest." However, due to construction on the Queens Boulevard Line, the G train frequently terminated at Court Square even when the published timetable said it ran to 71st Avenue. An MTA spokesman said, "It's not personal.... If you want to keep the system up to date, you need to make sure the track and switching are all in good repair." Community groups such as Save the G! and the Riders Alliance have been frequent activists for improvements of G service. Save the G! regularly lobbied the MTA for more G train service since the original cutbacks when the V was introduced in 2001. They made the restoration of service to the Queens Boulevard Line at all times an issue in the 2002 New York gubernatorial race, but the transit authority said, "Unfortunately, putting the G back to full service is just not an option, given our track capacity—and that's not likely to change." After transit advocates requested that Mayor Zohran Mamdani consider restoring weekend service to Forest Hills in 2026, the Mamdani administration announced in February that it would study the proposal, although any decision to extend the G route would have to be made by the MTA. Changes to train length To increase service and reduce waiting time due to the 63rd Street Connector cutbacks, the G would need more trains, but there were not enough cars available in the system. The solution was to reduce the length of trains to increase service frequency. This meant that riders would be packed into smaller trains, and led some passengers to miss trains because they were standing at the wrong part of the platform. In the past, there have been signs indicating where the train stops at some stations, in addition to the "4" and "6" markers next to the tracks used by train operators as stop points. Still, the overall lack of visual identifiers of train stop points on the platforms, the differing stop points during different times of day, and the location of staircases, transfer passageways and platform benches have been cited as a cause of passengers missing trains or being bunched into single cars. Beginning in 2013, additional signs were installed along G train platforms. In 2014, several improvements were implemented due to an infusion of extra funding, with G trains to be lengthened in 2019 (see below). Non-free transfers Save the G!, the Riders Alliance, and other organizations have also lobbied for the creation of new free out-of-system transfers to nearby stations. The most prominent is between Broadway on the Crosstown Line and either Hewes Street or Lorimer Street on the BMT Jamaica Line, which are both about three blocks away; this transfer has been previously proposed. This sentiment was repeated in 2013, with the MTA citing the loss of around $770,000 in revenue if the transfer were to become free. Temporary free transfers have been provided in the past, including one to Lorimer Street in 1999 due to suspended service over the Williamsburg Bridge on the , and again during the Summer 2014 G service suspension north of Nassau Avenue. A second transfer, from Fulton Street to the busy Atlantic Avenue–Barclays Center complex in Downtown Brooklyn, was rejected by the MTA due to the long walking distance between the two stations, as well as the fact that there is a transfer to Manhattan-bound trains at Hoyt–Schermerhorn Streets. The transfer was in effect until May 31, 2020. A temporary, MetroCard-only transfer between 21st Street and Hunters Point Avenue (along the IRT Flushing Line) was proposed, but not implemented. == 21st-century upgrades ==

station along South Portland Avenue, 2010 Station entrance reopenings Most stations along the IND Crosstown Line were built with multiple exits to the street. Over the years, many lower-use exits were closed (as they were in other parts of the subway), as the city was concerned that they were a magnet for criminals; this resulted in G trains along the Crosstown Line needing to stop at the locations closest to the exits. In 2019, the Court Square station received several new stairways to accommodate increased ridership from L train riders during the reconstruction of the BMT Canarsie Line tunnels under the East River, which started in late April 2019. Such improvements eliminated the infamous "G train sprint," From 2010 to 2015, ridership on the G rose 17%, with approximately 150,000 riders per weekday in 2015. In July 2018, the MTA published a report stating that the G route would have 15 full-length trains per hour between Court Square and Bedford–Nostrand Avenues, or a rate of one train every four minutes. South of Bedford–Nostrand Avenues, the G would have a headway of 12 trains per hour. Other temporary improvements during the L train shutdown would include free-out-of-system transfers between the G at Broadway and the at Lorimer Street and Hewes Street, as well as between the G at 21st Street and the at Hunters Point Avenue. The following month, the MTA decided that the G would not receive full-length trains, though it would still see an increase in train frequencies during nights and weekends. A spokesperson for the MTA said in 2023 that there was not enough rolling stock available to allow G trains to be lengthened without decreasing frequencies. Weekend frequencies on the G route were increased in July 2023. CBTC signaling In December 2022, the MTA announced that it would award a $368 million design–build contract to Crosstown Partners, a joint venture between Thales Group and TC Electric LLC, to install communications-based train control (CBTC) along the length of the G route. The contract includes not only the Crosstown Line between Court Square and Bergen Street, but also the Culver Line between Bergen Street and Church Avenue. Upon the completion of the contract, the G would be one of three routes in the system to be entirely equipped with CBTC, besides the L and 7 trains. Local politicians asked the MTA to operate full-length G trains and extend the route to Forest Hills following the partial closures. However, MTA chairman Janno Lieber said that longer G trains would not be restored until ridership levels increase, though the CBTC signaling would be capable of handling lengthened G trains. Full service resumed on September 3, 2024. As part of the project, the Crosstown Line tunnels used by the G train between the Court Square and Hoyt–Schermerhorn Streets stations were retrofitted with 5G cellular service, which was activated north of Bedford–Nostrand Avenues in November 2025. The MTA indicated in July 2025 that the Crosstown CBTC upgrade would be delayed due to the need to add new 5G transmitters to the R211s used on the G route. == Fleet ==

The G operates trains, half the length of normal B Division standards. It also operates One Person Train Operation (OPTO) service during late nights and weekends. the latter of which began running on the G in 2025. The G route typically operates with 13 train sets, four of which are R211Ts and the rest R211As. ==Route==

Signage history File:R1 IND GG.gif|Pre-1967 bullet used on the R1s to R38s File:GG Train (1967-1979).svg|1967–1979 bullet File:NYCS-bull-trans-GG-Std.png-50px.svg|1979-1985 bullet File:NYCS-bull-trans-G.svg|The current bullet used since 1985 Service pattern The G uses the following lines with the same service pattern at all times. Stations For a more detailed station listing, see the articles on the lines listed above. == In popular culture ==

The G train is shown in the TV series Girls, as the show's main character, Hannah, lives in Greenpoint (near a stop along the G) and sometimes uses the route. The G train is also the subject of the song "G Train" by Thirdstory, featuring Pusha T. ==See also==