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'Hell no': G train riders to suffer more shutdowns as MTA struggles with upgrades to line
By
Stephen Nessen
Published Apr 28, 2026
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Stephen Nessen / Gothamist
By
Stephen Nessen
Published Apr 28, 2026
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Brooklyn lawmakers on Tuesday decried an MTA plan to close sections of the G train on 10 weekends through the end of the year in order to make upgrades to the line, arguing the agency’s leaders didn’t care how the service disruptions would affect the line’s 160,000 daily riders.
Councilmember Lincoln Restler, who represents Greenpoint, said MTA officials briefed local elected leaders on the outages last week. He said the agency plans to close the line north of the Bedford-Nostrand station on three weekends in June, two in August, one in September and three more in December.
"We told them 'Hell no,'" Restler said, describing a call with MTA officials that took place last Friday. “They did not indicate on that call that they were open to any feedback or any changes.”
The MTA plans to shut down service on the line between Classon Avenue and Hoyt-Schermerhorn the weekend of May 30.
The MTA has been working to add modern signals to the G train for years. During the summer of 2024, the agency got buy-in from local leaders, including Restler, to conduct extensive night and weekend shutdowns on the line to upgrade the infrastructure.
The MTA at the time reported the closures would enable the signal project to be finished in 2027. But last year, the agency’s consultant reported the work wouldn’t wrap until July 2029.
“We're frustrated with the MTA that every single time they do a capital project, they're over budget and they fail to meet their timeline,” Restler said. “This isn't an abstract problem. This has negative consequences on our community.”
MTA leaders last year blamed the delays on the agency’s contractors, and said they didn’t have enough engineers trained to work on the project. Transit officials also said they needed federal approval to install 5G communications technology in the G train tunnels.
MTA leaders didn’t respond to multiple questions about those issues. But the agency’s Chair Janno Lieber on Tuesday said this year’s shutdowns were necessary in order to repair the Newtown Creek tunnel between Long Island City and Greenpoint.
“We're trying to minimize impact, but the reality is when you shut down, you have impacts,” Lieber said. “We're going to work with the electeds in the community to try to do it at the optimal time, but there's no perfect time.”
Lieber did not explain when the MTA began planning repairs to the Newtown Creek tunnel, or how much the fixes would cost the agency. He noted the agency will run shuttle buses during the weekend shutdowns.
Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso worried the closures during June would hurt North Brooklyn businesses in a month when the city is expecting a tourism boom due to the World Cup, Pride Month and celebrations of America’s 250th anniversary.
“It's a time when North Brooklyn is gonna be bustling or should be bustling, and the tourism and the residents of New York are coming to North Brooklyn,” Reynoso said. “We should give them a way to get here that is comfortable so we can continue to support the businesses here that need to thrive.”
Rachel Despeaux, who owns the Greenpoint shop Awoke Vintage, said the closures were an existential threat to the neighborhood’s economy.
“We're now asked to weather and endure another storm that, in this current retail economy, I do not know if that is possible to weather,” she said. “I cannot say with confidence that all of my neighbors and myself will still be here if the MTA proceeds as planned with a weekend shutdown consistently throughout the year.”
Commuters like Jazmine Walker, 30, were also not looking forward to another summer of using shuttle buses to get around.
Walker commutes from East Flatbush to Greenpoint for her job as a nanny. She had flashbacks to last summer, when she had to run to catch the MTA’s shuttle buses in the heat in order to get her kids to summer camp on time.
“I hated it,” she said. “ I'm already maneuvering between a bus and two trains, and now I have to wait for possibly another bus. … It's a little disgusting.”
Ramsey Khalifeh contributed reporting to this story.
Tagged
brooklyn
new york city
transportation
Stephen Nessen
Stephen Nessen covers transportation. Since 2008 he has reported on everything from Occupy Wall Street, the rebuilding of the World Trade Center site, Hurricane Sandy, to Trump’s campaign for president. His transportation reporting has taken him everywhere from the MTA’s secret Rail Control Center to the gleaming subways of Seoul. Got a tip? Email [email protected].
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