A coalition of more than 30 advocacy organizations, business groups and major destinations — including the New York Mets — is calling on Governor Kathy Hochul, Mayor Zohran Mamdani and MTA Chairman Janno Lieber to restore weekend G train service to Forest Hills, framing the extension as one of the fastest transit wins available to Brooklyn and Queens riders. In a letter sent and made public on February 5, the signatories argued that extending weekend G service would be a transformative improvement for outer-borough residents who they say have long been underserved by a system built around Manhattan commutes, and that riders should not have to wait until 2030, when the next major transit expansion is set to open, for relief.
The coalition, organized in part by the Tri-State Transportation Campaign, said in its letter that the G train has seen remarkable growth since weekend service to Forest Hills was eliminated in 2010, with weekday ridership surging to 166,000 passengers — an increase of 50,000 riders and, the signatories said, one of the fastest growth rates in the entire subway system. “Despite this growth, traveling between Brooklyn and Queens remains unnecessarily difficult,” the letter’s signatories stated. According to the campaign, the signatories include major advocacy groups such as Tri-State Transportation Campaign, Riders Alliance, Transportation Alternatives, New Yorkers for Parks and Open Plans, alongside neighborhood organizations, environmental groups and prominent Queens business entities including the Queens Chamber of Commerce, the Queens Economic Development Corporation and the New York Mets. The coalition pointed to a recent op-ed in Streetsblog NYC making the same case as evidence of growing pressure on the new administration.
The G train push lands amid a busy stretch for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which spent the late winter and spring rolling out new technology, expanding camera enforcement and continuing planning on its marquee outer-borough rail project. On March 25, the MTA’s press office announced the launch of what it called a new, best-in-class MTA app for subway and bus customers, built by the authority’s in-house tech team. According to the MTA, the app shows the real-time position of a train or bus and its estimated arrival time at all future stops, offers live in-app customer support to answer rider questions, and includes refreshed visuals intended to make navigating the transit system easier. In a release tied to the launch, the MTA said Governor Hochul announced the app, describing it as dramatically transforming the user experience with more accurate real-time data on arrival times, transfer information and service changes, and a new accessibility mode that includes a map of accessible stations and easier-to-find elevator and escalator status. The authority said the app was optimized for New York City underground data availability and rebuilt from the ground up, and that it is available in the Apple and Google app stores.
