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Last night, when Gothamist tried to enter the subway at West 72nd Street, a bored token booth clerk and another rather pissy MTA employee standing in front of the turnstiles told everyone that there was no 1, 2 or 3 service. No explanations, just "Don't swipe here." People were, as they tend to, freaking out. We tried to find out if other trains were still working, only to get a, "I guess so," from the pissy employee. Reader Ryan emailed us this picture of dazed people piling onto an uptown M104 bus at Columbus Circle and explained that there was some sort of power outage between 59th and 96th Street. Now it's time to play "Who Can We Be Mad At?" The MTA or Con Ed.
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My trip downtown would usually have been 30 minutes door to door, but because of being sidetracked to another subway line, it took more like 70 minutes. So not what anyone needed last night.
Thanks for the link, Jen. There was a fascinating culture clash between the people who'd never taken an uptown bus before and the people who were already riding.
When I was on the 1/2/3 last night, the conductor said it was a "signaling problem at 72nd" (which kind of reminded me of being in London -- "due to signaling problems, trains are delayed in both directions on the Victoria and Hammersmith & City lines.") The train did move, just verrryyy slowly. It returned to full speed after 96th St. It took me about 15 minutes longer to get back uptown. It wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't for the screaming baby...
Does the MTA use "Signal Problem" As the Catch all Problem description? It would cover a Variety of Problems...
I'm not sure if the MTA using "signalling problem" has the catch-all, but I heard that "Police Investigation" means someone jumped onto the tracks. Oh, and as I was waiting for the A train downtown at Columbus Circle, the PA system was blaring that the D would go local on the Eighth Avenue line, because of a police investigation at 42nd Street Bryant Park.
The MTA employees have wonderful people skills, don't they? Pissy is a kind word for them.
I am reminded of a stormy night when I was trying to get home from Manhattan to Forest Hills at 10pm. Suddenly there was NO service to queens. None. Nada. No train service. How do you like that? It was all the MTA agents would say.
But my favorite excuse is that there is no (fill in your train here) service due to a sick passenger. Huh? Get'em off the fricking train and let's go!
I thought the MTA had their own power grid, separate from ConEd's?
To my understanding, "sick passenger" doesn't always only mean that; it's what they say when there's been a subway suicide. I think I read that in the New Yorker once -- is that ringing any bells for anyone? Supposedly it happens fairly often, and the MTA doesn't want to publicize it. I would imagine the cleanup for that kind of thing takes quite some time.
Re: Chris
No, suicides don't happen very often at all in this city's subway currently. If they did, wouldn't you think other people would see it and report it? A guy on my train had a heart attack, and the conductor also referred to it as a "sick passenger." The train waited at the station. until paramedics arrived.
jaykayess, the MTA has its own distribution grid, but the electricity it uses comes from ConEd substations at a few points. Both ConEd and MTA have only trivial amounts of generating capacity relative to consumption, and virtually all electricity used in NYC comes from Indian Point, Niagara Falls, etc.