Starting Friday at 9:30 p.m., the G train will shut down between Greenpoint Avenue and Bedford-Nostrand Avenues for six consecutive weekends of signal work, and the MTA is asking a skeptical borough to believe that this time, the shuttle buses will be different.

The agency has some convincing to do. During the 2024 shutdown, replacement buses sat in Manhattan Avenue traffic while riders walked alongside them, occasionally waving. This round comes with a plan shaped by that memory: temporary dedicated bus lanes on Manhattan Avenue and Bedford Avenue, enforced by camera, plus countdown signs at every stop and a fleet of 60 buses running as often as every four minutes.

"We heard very clearly that a shuttle bus stuck behind a double-parked box truck is not a shuttle," said Omar Haddad of the advocacy group Riders First Brooklyn, which pushed for the bus lanes and will run volunteer counts each weekend to hold the agency to its promised frequencies.

Riders are reserving judgment. "I've been fooled before," said Colette Byrne, waiting at Nassau Avenue on Monday. "But four minutes? If they actually do four minutes, I'll write the MTA a thank-you card. I'll do it. Watch me."

The signal work, part of a larger modernization of the crosstown line, is scheduled to finish in late September. Weekday service is not affected.