G train riders already feel like the rug is getting pulled out from under them — now they feel like the ceiling is coming down on top of them as well.
Water damage is causing paint to flake and a funky liquid to drip on straphangers at the Hoyt-Schermerhorn Street station, grossing out commuters who live in fear that the Metropolitan Transportation Authority will soon ax a beloved five-stop extension of the line that links North and Brownstone Brooklyns.
Dilapidated ceilings — marked by calcified grime, badly peeling paint, and rusted pillars — give the station’s two center platforms a horror-movie aesthetic, straphangers say.
“It has a grungy, dingy, and generally cryptic feeling,” said Gene Russianoff of the transit-advocacy group Straphangers Campaign.
The well-used is a major transfer point that links the so-called Brooklyn Local to the A and C trains. The station boasts six tracks, although the outer two aren’t in use — which is part of the reason why film crews often shoot in the station.
Hoyt-Schermerhorn played a big part in the movie “Coming to America” and Michael Jackson’s video “Bad,” but commuters shouldn’t expect a Hollywood-style makeover anytime soon.
An MTA spokesman said the station will receive a fresh coat of paint by 2015, but did not respond to specific requests for comment about the dripping ceiling.
Train advocates — who are fighting to save added G train stops in Kensington, Windsor Terrace, and Park Slope from elimination — had plenty to say.
“It’s unpleasant,” said Russianoff. “G train riders have a lot to complain about.”
The MTA added service to the only train that never suffers the injustice of entering Manhattan after it began a $257.5 million renovation of the Culver Viaduct. When work wraps up next winter, the agency is no longer obligated to keep running G trains at the Fourth Avenue–Ninth Street, Seventh Avenue, Prospect Park–15th Street, Fort Hamilton Parkway, and Church Avenue stations.
Reach reporter Natalie O'Neill at noneill@cnglocal.com or by calling her at (718) 260-4505.
