Braking bad is ‘anarchy’ on the MTA

The MTA believes a group of anarchists have been gumming up commutes for years by unnecessarily pulling emergency brakes on subway trains.

Trips on No. 2 and No. 3 trains were thrown into a tizzy Tuesday evening when the emergency brakes on multiple trains were pulled — agency officials believe that was not an isolated incident.

Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman Patrick Foye said Wednesday that train data and reports from employees have led the agency’s leadership to believe that there is “an individual or a group of individuals that are systematically gaining access to subway cars, pulling emergency brakes and then fleeing to the tracks” before repeating the process on another train.

“We believe that this happened again last night on the northbound 2 train,” said Foye. “This is not an isolated incident, and it’s been happening for years.”

Foye asked the public to help catch the cord-pullers, as intentionally tripping a train’s emergency brakes can have a major negative impact on service.

The NYPD has been notified of the issue, and has deployed additional cops.

NYC Transit President Andy Byford said at least one person has repeatedly gained access to subway train cabs, leading MTA officials to believe they have keys.

When emergency brakes are tripped on some subway cars, it puts in place a series of events that can stop a train for up to 30 minutes.

Transport Workers Union Local 100 head of trains Eric Loegel said the problem is particularly bad on older trains — crews are required to inspect each car following an emergency brake pull, and the subway’s rail control center must be notified.

Newer train models are less of an issue, Loegel explained. Most subway cars that went into service after 2000 have technology that keeps trains from stopping when an emergency brake is activated unless they are near a station platform.