The movement to save the beloved G train extension is picking up Brooklynites faster than a rush-hour train.
More than 16,000 straphangers have signed two separate petitions to save service on the so-called “Brooklyn Local” in Park Slope, Windsor Terrace and Kensington.
The growing number of signatures already represent about an eighth of the G train’s total daily ridership of 125,000, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s most recent numbers.
The popular service — which two and a half years ago brought G trains to the Fourth Avenue–Ninth Street, Seventh Avenue, Prospect Park–15th Street, Fort Hamilton Parkway and Church Avenue stations — is set to expire when the MTA’s $257.5-million Culver Viaduct rehabilitation project ends next winter.
But not if G train-boosting activists have anything to say about it.
“The G train extension was one of the best decisions the MTA has made,” Dan Cantor of the Working Families Party, a group circulating a G train petition with more than 11,000 signatures.
Cantor said thousands of Brooklynites with jobs depend on the service, while an exclusive Brooklyn Paper report proved that cutting the line could sever Brooklyn romances.
Meanwhile Williamsburg Democratic District Leader Lincoln Restler has gathered more than 5,000 signatures in a separate petition drive.
MTA spokesman Charles Seaton said the agency has not yet decided whether it will continue the service that links North and Brownstone Brooklyns or nix it — but he did say the agency will weigh the will of the borough’s commuters before it makes a final ruling.
“Everything will be considered,” he said.
Reach reporter Natalie O'Neill at noneill@cnglocal.com or by calling her at (718) 260-4505.
