Local Group Wants To Make The G To J/M Transfer Permanently Free
Image: Daily News
It’s hard to believe, but the G train shutdown will be over in less than a week. Maybe it’s just us, but those five weeks went by awfully fast. And the shutdown proved significant for Greenpointers: First, there was the rush to get the India Street ferry pier fixed in time for the shutdown. Done. Then, it turns out the replacement shuttles were awesome, better than the absentee train, and some Greenpointers wish the shuttle would run forever. And finally, there’s the free transfer between the Broadway G and the Lorimer JMZ that the MTA instituted just for the shutdown. Now local advocates are wondering why we can just make that free transfer permanent.
This morning, local advocates from the Riders Alliance and elected officials held a rally outside the Broadway G calling for just that, reports the Daily News. This comes after years of complaining about the paid transfer, which according to MTA data, about 2,000 riders are making per day. And if they don’t have an unlimited card (about half of them didn’t), the so-called “walking transfer” puts $5 in the pockets of the MTA when all is said and done.
If the transfer were to be made free on the increasingly peopled JMZ and G train routes, the MTA stands to lose $770,000 to $1.1 million per year, no small sum. But I’ve personally made this transfer dozens of times and it never makes sense to pay twice for an obvious, easy and much-needed transfer.
At the moment, the transfer between 59th St./Lexington 4/5/6/N/Q/R train stop and the 63rd St./Lexington Ave. F stop on Manhattan is the only free walking transfer in the entire MTA system.
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