G trains are once again operating for length of the crosstown subway line after a summer shutdown allowed MTA crews to prepare for modern signal upgrades.
“This is all part of the resignaling modernization of the G line which will bring it into the 21st century and improve service for all of our riders,” MTA’s head of construction and development, Jamie Torres-Springer, told reporters Tuesday.
Service on the northern end of the line — which serves much of Brooklyn as well as Long Island City in Queens — has been disrupted since June 28, when the MTA began the work of running nearly 600,000 feet of signaling wire to prepare the line to run on so-called communication-based train control, or CBTC.
The computerized CBTC signaling system, already in place on the L and No. 7 trains, allows the MTA to more accurately locate trains in the system — and, in turn, run trains more quickly and safely. The prep work also included the replacement of six signal relay rooms and the modernization of 17 switches.
The work took place in three phases, covering the line from the Court Square station in Long Island City, Queens, to the Hoyt-Schemerhorn station in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn.
Work crews also shored up the foundation under the G train track just west of the Hoyt-Schemerhorn station, where the line turns south before joining the F train on the Culver line north of the Bergen St. station.
The transit agency also used the outage to conduct renovations at 10 stations along the G line.
“We painted 233,000 square feet of stations,” said NYC Transit president Demetrius Crichlow. “That’s roughly six football fields.”
The resignaling of the Crosstown Line — which carries the G from Hoyt-Schemerhorn to Court Sq. — has a price-tag of $368 million.
The installation of CBTC equipment along the Culver line — which carries the G train south of Hoyt-Schemerhorn until its southern terminal at Church Ave. as well as the F train further south to Coney Island — is expected to wrap up in the coming months.
The MTA is also working to install the modern signaling system on the Eighth Ave. line of the A and C trains in northern Manhattan.
The system can’t operate as designed without modernized rolling stock capable of talking to the computerized signals. The A train is the only of the lettered lines currently running CBTC capable train cars — the R211 models rolled out last year.
New rolling stock would need to be purchased for the G and F trains before those lines could run at the increased frequencies made possible by the system.
Originally Published:
