Neighborhood Threat

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)

I sent email yesterday, complaining about last Sunday’s B61 debacle. Today, to my amazement, I received this response, for what it’s worth:

MTA New York City Transit is committed to providing safe, courteous, reliable, and accessible bus service. We received your complaint regarding the difficulties you experienced with B61 service and notified our Road-Operations Unit.

We requested that they give increased attention to the route during Sunday-afternoon hours, make every effort to keep buses close to schedule and properly spaced, and ensure that bus operators are properly accommodating customers at all stops along the route.

Thank you for sharing your concerns with us and for riding MTA New York City Transit buses.

Sincerely,

Art Kelly
Manager, Customer Relations

I know this isn’t like the 7 train, which has a dedicated general manager - we won a battle with them earlier in the year - but I’d like to think that the noise will at least get the weekend coffee klatch down in Red Hook broken up.

Start writing down your bus numbers, people, as they pass you by. And complain. The link is here.

Late Sunday afternoon we got off at Court Square after coming back from visiting my sister in Astoria. According to the timetable, we had missed the previous bus by 4 minutes and had 13 minutes to go until the next bus.

I realize the B61 timetables are a joke. You can always tell if someone isn’t from the neighborhood by the fact that they bother to look at the timetable. That in itself is inexcusable, but it’s just how things were.

With the opening of Ikea, however, the B61 was a brave new world. Drivers had their timetables prominently affixed to their dashboards. Drivers were *hustling*. No more of that lackadaisical meandering down Manhattan Ave. They actually tried to make time. Read the rest of this entry »

The G train gets a bad rap. It is far more useful than people will give it credit for - that, or everyone bitching about it hasn’t been in NYC long enough to develop creative subway riding skills - Not sure which. People refuse to even entertain living in Greenpoint because of the G train, insisting on immediate proximity to the L train - which to me is far more of a nightmare. At least I’m not waiting three trains in the morning before I can squeeze myself onto one.

Earlier this year, when I was working at 50th and Madison, I would take the G to Court Square and transfer to the E or the V, which left me three blocks from work. (When the weather was nice, I would take the B61 to the first stop after the Pulaski Bridge and get on the 7 at Vernon-Jackson, get off at GCT, and then walk uptown. In my opinion, the B61-7 train connection is the most under-rated connection in Brooklyn. I would say “don’t tell anybody” but it doesn’t matter. People are too myopic.

I work in Tribeca and take the G train to the IND at Hoyt-Schermerhorn and get off at Canal St. It’s a cross-platform transfer and I have a seat for most of my commute. Most people in this area would walk or take the bus to the L at Bedford, squeeze onto a train, and then make the lengthy connection at 8th Avenue, and not even consider the G.

But, this was supposed to be a bitch about the G. Tonight we took in one of the free River to River shows downtown, and then got on the IND at Chambers St. When we got on the G at Hoyt-Schermerhorn, the conductor informed us that the next stop would be Bedford-Nostrand. It ran all stops from Bedford-Nostrand to Metropolitan Ave. - where we were then informed the next stop would be 21st St. in Queens! There was no service notice posted, nor any indication by the conductor that this was a skip-stop train, nor any reason given for the skip-stop. There’s no express track, so I’m really not sure what purpose this served. The MTA couldn’t pull that crap with any mainline train in Manhattan, but they have to realize the G is no longer a poor country cousin.

Who remembers when it was the GG (and the LL)?