Riders blast MTA over morning of chaos
FURIOUS commuters slammed the MTA Thursday morning after a 30-foot piece of the third rail’s protective board came loose, slowing the commute from upper Manhattan and the Bronx, agency officials said.
The MTA at first blamed the rush-hour mess up on “debris” on the track. There were no trains on the Nos. 1, 2 and 3 lines between W. 96th St. and W. 42nd St. because of debris blocking the tracks at W. 50th St., officials said.
“This is unacceptable,” commuter Alicia Hale posted on Twitter. “This is the morning commute — lives and jobs.”
The roughly three-hour ordeal started at 7:12 a.m., when the MTA spotted “debris” on the tracks north of the 50th St. station on the No. 1 line. The third rail cover that was lying across the tracks tripped the emergency brakes on a No. 3 train.
The MTA was forced to scramble service, sending No. 2 trains down No. 5 line tracks in the Bronx, Manhattan and Brooklyn. There were no No. 3 trains between 148th St. and 34th St.-Penn Station. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority was advising straphangers to take the A or C trains or local buses.
Meanwhile, workers cut power and crews stationed nearby responded within 15 minutes to start clearing the tracks, according to MTA Chairman Joe Lhota.
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A test ran through the area, at 8:11 a.m. By 8:30 a.m., express service came back, followed by local trains at 9:30 a.m.
The MTA said in an alert that full service was back at 10 a.m. The agency also acknowledged the third-rail protective board was involved, apologizing for the disruptions and overcrowding.
“We’re doing an investigation to find out exactly what happened to cause this rail covering to become ajar and come off,” Lhota told the Daily News.
Lhota defended how the agency brought service back to normal from the rush-hour madness and communications with riders.
“It’s half the time it used to take, and I want to get that down even better,” he said. “Things like this used to take almost all day to fix.”