How bad is the G?

The G, Brooklyn's homegrown

The G is the only subway line in New York that never enters Manhattan — the lime-green line that runs from Court Square in Long Island City, Queens, through northern Brooklyn to Church Avenue in the southern end. Its entire 11 miles sit in two boroughs, which makes it the city's best-kept secret and its most-loved oddity all at once.

What riders know: the G is the line that Brooklyn talks about like a friend. Because it's small and self-contained, it develops a genuine personality — riders cheer for it, complain about it affectionately, and treat a running G as a minor victory. It's the line you take to ditmas, to Park Slope, to Williamsburg, and it does it without all the drama of the Manhattan arteries.

The G's quirk is structural, not behavioral: it doesn't connect to Manhattan, so it lives on the far side of the East River. That means its riders rarely transfer away — a G rider is a Brooklyn/Queens loyalist by definition. Its terminals at both ends are interchange hubs — Court Square with the 7 and E, Church Avenue with the F — but the ride itself is all one borough's business.

The G is the line that proves you don't need Manhattan to matter. It's crowded, it's sometimes slow, and it's never in the news, but it moves Brooklyn and Queens with an intimacy no big-line rider will ever understand. On most lists it lands mid-pack; among people who know it, it's always a favorite.