My Life on the G: Stuck Waiting for an Eternity

This is the introductory post to what will soon be an ongoing series of posts about riding the G Train. We all know that this line is one of, if not THE worst, lines in NYC. However, as someone who rides the G day in and day out...I have a right to complain. The Blue York team hopes that you can sympathize with us and share some of your own G Train horror stories.

The other night after hanging out with some friends, it was too late to catch the B24 bus home, so I was subjected to waiting for the infamous G train in Brooklyn. I had great hope that this would be a speedy trip, as the train quickly arrived. There was great joy in my heart--no waiting for tens of minutes at 3:45 am. However, my joy turned to sorrow, as the train just sat there...all of us crazies out late at night wondered what was happening, but the driver just kept repeating that there were track problems ahead at both stations, with no estimated departure time. We were kept waiting at Metropolitan for at least 20 minutes, and at the next station, Nassau for another ten to 15 minutes. I finally walked over to the driver to ask what was going on...I was extremely frustrated and was looking for an answer. When he opened the window, he was instantly confrontational, and did not seem to know what was going on. I did not know whether to catch a cab, or stay waiting below ground for an unknown (perhaps eternity?) period of time.

Finally, he got on his walkie talkie, and then, very quickly, he told me I better get on the train because we were to start moving. I find it peculiar that as soon as I complained, the train started to move normally again, switching to the Brooklyn-bound side of the tracks. My impression, the driver wouldn't have done anything to get going unless I complained. Note that this was at 3:45 in the morning, and we didn't arrive at the last stop until about 4:30 or so...a trip that should have lasted ten minutes took 45 minutes. We also saw no evidence that there was any work being done on the Queens-bound track when we passed by. All very mysterious: was there legitimately a problem? Or was there a lack of information or a lack of caring by the driver? Poor service all around. Will I rely on the G train late at night again? Not so sure.