No one really likes the E or the G

It’s grade time, baby! After a few weeks of silence — and missing grades for the Q and W — the MTA issued some Rider Report Cards on Friday. The E and the G, the train everyone loves to the hate, both received their results, and they both landed D-pluses. That’s pretty sad.

Let’s start with the G because it’s way more interesting. The G runs from Smith-Ninth Streets in Brooklyn to Court Square in Queens. It used to run all the way out to the 71st Ave. in Forest Hills, but the train will no longer head that far into Queens when the service additions go into place next year.

The riders of the G, the only non-shuttle subway to avoid Manhattan, don’t smile upon it. They term it the Ghost train because it never shows up, and it even has its own community organization devoted to Saving the G Train. In fact, most riders were expecting it to receive an F. They will be sorely disappointed to hear this news.

So what did the riders think of the G? The Top Ten list please:

1. Reasonable wait times for trains
2. Minimal delays during trips
3. Adequate room on board at rush hour
4. Sense of security in stations
5. Cleanliness of stations
6. Station announcements that are easy to hear
7. Sense of security on trains
8. Train announcements that are easy to hear
9. Station announcements that are informative
10. Cleanliness of subway cars

For all of the rider report cards, I think this is the most accurate Top Ten list I’ve seen so far. Wait times for G trains are beyond unreasonable, and the stations at non-peak hours are fairly deserted and rather unsafe. To be fair, the train runs through some of the city’s less safe areas, but the MTA could do more to staff these stations. The four-car trains don’t lend much room to rush hour crowds either. When the MTA starts extending the trains to Church Ave., they should run longer, more frequent trains. The time of the G is upon us.

On the other hand, we have the E train. This train starts at the World Trade Center stop and heads up 8th Ave. as a local. It cuts across 53rd St. with the V and into Queens where it runs express along the Queens Boulevard line. It terminates at Jamaica Center with a connection available to JFK Airport at its second-to-last stop in Queens.

As a primary express route into Manhattan from Queens, it’s a fairly high-volume train, and the riders don’t like it. The Top Ten problems:

1. Reasonable wait times for trains
2. Minimal delays during trips
3. Adequate room on board at rush hour
4. Station announcements that are easy to hear
5. Cleanliness of stations
6. Train announcements that are easy to hear
7. Sense of security on trains
8. Cleanliness of subway cars
9. Sense of security in stations
10. Comfortable temperature in subway cars

I can’t speak for the E train really. I ride the train usually just one stop from West 4th to 14th St. in the morning, and it never really gives me much of a problem. So I’ll take the riders’ words for it.

Anyway, there you go: two more unimpressive grades for the city’s subways. After the jump are the full grades.