page_title: G (New York City Subway service)
section_title: Controversies
hierarchical_section_title: G (New York City Subway service) / Controversies
caption_attribution_description: English: Crosstown G platform at Court Square on the G.
context_page_description: The G Brooklyn-Queens Crosstown is an 11.4-mile-long rapid transit service in the B Division of the New York City Subway. Its route emblem, or "bullet", is colored light green since it uses the IND Crosstown Line.
  The G operates at all times between Court Square in Long Island City, Queens, and Church Avenue in Kensington, Brooklyn, making local stops along its entire route. The G is the only non-shuttle service in the system that does not serve Manhattan. Since the 2000s, several improvements have been made to the G, including a route extension in Brooklyn and a full-route audit that identified solutions for issues on the G service.
  The G serves two stations in Queens: Court Square and 21st Street, which are both in Long Island City. Prior to 2010, it served all stations on the IND Queens Boulevard Line between Court Square and 71st Avenue in Forest Hills. In 1939 and 1940, the then-designated GG also used the now-demolished IND World's Fair Line to access the 1939 New York World's Fair. The GG, which became the G in 1985, had its southern terminal at Smith–Ninth Streets from 1976 to 2009.
context_section_description: The G suffers from a wide range of issues that has resulted in complaints by people living along the route. Historically, it has only connected Brooklyn and Queens, resulting in many people thinking of the G as the subway system's "outcast" 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's "outcast" reputation, some of the G's stations along the Crosstown Line are in bad shape. Since 2001, however, a series of service cuts and missing connections to other lines has worsened public opinion of the G.
  On December 16, 2001, the G's northern terminus was cut back from Forest Hills to Court Square during weekdays, and since April 2010, this service pattern has applied permanently at all times. This service pattern not only puts more ridership pressure on the E route—already one of the system's busiest before 2001—but also resulted in  G trains' lengths being shortened by one third, from 450 feet (140 m) or 6 cars to 300 feet (91 m) or 4. In addition, between 2001 and 2010, weekend service along the G to Forest Hills had been intermittent, with frequent service changes due to "track work". The 2010 route reduction did increase service frequency on the remainder of the route. Finally, the G has few transfers to other lines, with missing transfer points to the J and ​M trains at Broadway and the 2, ​3, ​4, ​5​, B, ​D, ​N, ​Q​, R and ​W​ trains at Fulton Street, as well as a lack of an ADA-accessible transfer to the 7 and <7>​ trains at Court Square.
caption: The northern terminus of the G train at Court Square
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