L riders, crews raise stink as fumes continue
No hint of a start date
Fumes on L trains in Williamsburg stations were so bad Wednesday that workers wore masks and two employees were hospitalized — but the MTA kept the route open and insisted that it was safe.
Leaked heating oil caused noxious fumes along several stops on the subway line Wednesday for the third day in a row.
“The smell is awful. To me it smells like a diesel train dumped oil down there,” said rider Theodore Toler, 63. “I take this train every day and I’ve never smelled anything like that down there before.”
Transport Workers Union Local 100 officials say they worry for the safety of workers and riders. “It’s unbearable, it has to be something toxic,” said Evangeline Byars, a train operator and TWU official.
Another union rep, Lynnwood Rychard, confirmed two workers were taken to the hospital because they were suffering headaches and couldn’t breathe.
MTA officials insisted there is no danger.
“Safety is our Number 1 priority, and the FDNY and [Department of Environmental Conservation] made it clear yesterday that there is no danger to our riders or workers,” said MTA spokesman Maxwell Young.
“We continue to monitor air quality at the affected stations, and it has remained safe.”
Gov. Cuomo’s bid to play subway white knight is turning into one L of mess.
More than a month after Cuomo announced a proposal to prevent a 15-month shutdown of the L subway line, no start date has been announced for the work and it’s unclear what alternatives will be implemented.
“We have to prepare and I don’t know when it will start at this point,” said Andrew Albert, an MTA board member who heads the New York City Transit Riders Council. “And we are supposed to get an independent consultant, but that doesn’t appear to be moving.”
Cuomo said in early January that instead of halting service on L trains between Williamsburg and the East Village, he had devised a scheme in which the work could be done with the trains continuing to run on a slowed-down schedule.
But the MTA still has to complete months worth of other construction on the line before the slowdown can start and the agency hasn’t started the process of hiring independent consultants to vet the plan as the board had demanded, Albert said.
East Village residents and politicians are fed up waiting for information.
“One month after Governor Cuomo announced plans for the L train, we still have too many questions that have not been answered,” said Erwin Figueroa, senior organizer for Transportation Alternatives.
City Councilman Keith Powers said, “Even before we were going to shut down the L train, we needed more options to get people around 14th Street.”
The MTA and the city Department of Transportation had already devised a host of other commuting options to help riders get around the original plan to shut the L-line tunnel under the East River for 15 months in order to fix major storm damage.
The alternatives included making 14th Street bus only, creating an HOV lane on the Williamsburg Bridge and building new bike lanes. But now that Cuomo has nixed the shutdown, those plans are on hold.
Leaked MTA memos indicate that even without a shutdown, there will be serious pain for riders, with massive service cuts, longer waits for trains and some stations made exit-only.
“We are presently meeting with local elected officials to provide updates, and working collaboratively with our partners in city government to develop a robust plan to share with the public soon,” said MTA spokesman Maxwell Young.