In Brooklyn, seeing a G train is pretty much like seeing a unicorn, except rarer. The only (non-shuttle) subway line that does not enter into Manhattan, the G has the potential to unite isolated regions of Brooklyn and Queens, but like a unmotivated prep school student, consistently fails to live up to our expectations.

Currently, people complain that G trains are infrequent, too short, and unfairly truncated during peak hours (it stops at Court Square in Long Island City, Queens on weekdays during the daytime, losing most of its Queens stops between Court and 71st Avenue in Forest Hills, Queens).

The thing is, the G wasn’t always terrible. The trouble started in 2001 with the inception of the V service, which covers the G’s Queens route during peak hours. To make matters worse, the MTA shortened the G train from six cars to four to make service more frequent, resulting in some cramped commuters.

Early this year, the G was out of the service for four weekends in a row while the MTA was making repairs. Shuttle buses filled in the gaps, and the Gothamist interviewed one New Yorker who preferred the shuttle to the G, as it was more reliable. Ouch.