Just brilliant! The 10 day-old new Transit Authority Command Center momentarily lost radio contact with all trains on Tuesday. The Rail Contraol Center, which is in Manhattan, started to get fouled up when a man jumped into front of a Queens train, which then "overwhelmed" the system. If that's what one incident can do, imagine if there was something more serious? Luckily, the old system in Brooklyn was able to take over and get contact in a minute. The MTA claims they are learning and "stressed safety was not compromised...because track signals and other critical equipment were not effected" [Daily News] and that "it's a normal part of doing business." Uh huh. And thinking about it, there was a fishy delay on Tuesday morning, that caused trains to be rerouted, but the operators said it was because of multiple police investigations in lower Manhattan and Brooklyn. Anyway, Gothamist just hopes there's more than one back-up system for the subways.
Photograph from VincenzoF via Flickr
