You are reading

Hundreds Evacuated From Subways After Con Ed ‘Power Surge’ Disrupts Service

L train service was shuttered Sunday night after a power surge shut down the subway’s signal system (Wikimedia Commons)

Aug. 30, 2021 By Allie Griffin

Hundreds were evacuated from subway trains late Sunday night after a power surge shuttered service on half of the subway system.

About 550 New Yorkers who were on trains stuck between stations had to leave the train cars and trudge through subway tunnels after the signaling system went down on the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and L lines at around 9:10 p.m.

“Let me be very clear — last night was unacceptable,” Gov. Kathy Hochul said at a press conference Monday morning. “If you were one of those riders or people relying on safe transport, the system failed you.”

The system shutdown stemmed from a momentary power outage at 8:25 p.m. in which Con Edison lost a feeder and there was a voltage dip across New York City, Hochul said.

The transmission disturbance happened at the same time that a manhole fire in Long Island City bellowed smoke above the horizon. The two incidents are not believed to be related at this point, Hochul said, adding that the state is still investigating the two events.

The outage — which caused many New Yorkers’ lights to flicker for a split second, but didn’t lead to home outages — triggered the subways’ backup power system. When the subway system switched back to its normal system, there was a high surge of power that caused the subway to lose signalization and communication between command center and trains throughout the system.

The loss of communication and signals affected 83 trains — including five that were in between stations, Hochul said.

Straphangers on four of the five trains exited the subway cars and walked through tunnels to get to the next platform. The fifth train was replatformed.

“What we experienced was a lot of anxiety for the citizens of New York City who happened to be on the trains,” Hochul said. “This [was] a scary situation, something we don’t want New Yorkers to ever have to experience again.”

Service was restored on all lines by 1:30 a.m. after the FDNY checked that the tracks were clear of people who evacuated train cars.

Two of the four trains stuck in tunnels were evacuated by emergency personnel, while passengers onboard the two others decided to leave the trains and walk the tracks on their own — which Hochul warned was dangerous and advised against.

Hochul said the situation was unprecedented.

“The confluence of events that led to this has never happened before to our knowledge,” she said.

Hochul and the MTA are conducting an investigation to learn the root cause of the system breakdown to avoid the issue going forward.

“I’m immediately directing a review to find out the root cause of the service issues last night…,” Hochul said. “I want to find out exactly what happened to prevent it from happening again.”

email the author: [email protected]
No comments yet

Leave a Comment
Reply to this Comment

All comments are subject to moderation before being posted.

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Recent News

Long Island ‘predator’ indicted on sex trafficking charges for forcing two victims into prostitution using violence, tattoos to intimidate them: DA

Mar. 29, 2023 By Bill Parry

A Long Island man was indicted on sex trafficking charges and faces up to 50 years in prison for allegedly forcing two women to engage in prostitution and assaulting and robbing them while weaponizing personalized tattoos as a twisted form of branding his victims, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced on March 29.

Met Council leader warns of ‘catastrophe’ for low-income families in Queens due to lack of pandemic-era federal food aid

Mar. 28, 2023 By Bill Parry

As an accomplished legislator, law professor and media personality with broad experience in government and not-for-profit organizations, Met Council CEO and executive director David Greenfield is well aware of the power of words. With Passover arriving on Wednesday, April 5, and with federal pandemic food assistance no longer available to low-income families in Queens, the leader of the nation’s largest Jewish charity organization warned of a coming “catastrophe” and called for the city to step up to provide $13 million in emergency funding for pantries to help New Yorkers facing food insecurity and elevated costs of living in the borough.

Pair of Queens community organizations will activate public spaces to celebrate local cultures

Two Queens community organizations are among an inaugural cohort of five groups citywide that will lead new projects to celebrate local cultures and histories in public spaces under a new initiative called The Local Center in a partnership between Urban Design Forum and the Association for Neighborhood & Housing Development (ANHD).

At a time when New York is grappling with an uneven pandemic recovery and as displacement looms large for communities and neighborhoods across the five boroughs, this new endeavor will convene interdisciplinary teams to transform and activate the shared spaces where cultural traditions flourish — and importantly, center the community visions and leadership that is too often left out of the process.