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MTA's New Signs Do Little to Curb the 'G Train Sprint,' Locals Say

By Janet Upadhye | January 13, 2014 9:36am
 Newly installed G Train signs read "G Train stops here. Wait here to board."
Newly installed G Train signs read "G Train stops here. Wait here to board."
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DNAinfo/Janet Upadhye

FORT GREENE — There may be no finish line in sight for the G train sprinters.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority recently finished installing new signage at all G train stations indicating where the train — which is significantly shorter than an average subway train — will land when it brakes to a halt. But locals say the signs haven't put an end to their daily workouts, as they still have to sprint to make it onto the train in time.

"It's not that people don't know where to wait. It's that the trains are shorter than the platform," said Ayana Goldman, 30, who rides the G train every day. "If you're entering the subway and the train is coming, you're still going to have to run for it."

The new signs, which read "G Train stops here. Wait here to board,” are now visible at every G train station, according to a spokesman for State Sen. Daniel Squadron — who called for a full review of the G train in the summer of 2013.

Squadron praised the proposed new signs last summer, saying they would "make the notorious G Train Sprint a thing of the past.”

But on a recent Friday morning at the Fulton Street G train stop in Fort Greene, DNAinfo New York spotted several straphangers sprinting the length of the platform to catch the short trains.

The "G Train Sprint" was noted in a video made by the Riders Alliance Group, which also released survey results from 300 riders that found that 60 percent of them performed the sprint at some point.