[UPDATE BELOW] Wednesday night saw heavy delays on the L train when, according to the MTA, there was "an issue with a breaker cable that forced us to turn trains at Bedford Avenue." One commuter reported waiting 90 minutes at Union Square for an L train at 5 p.m., and there were more heavy delays during Thursday morning's rush, when it took some straphangers over 45 minutes to get from Morgan to 14th street. An MTA spokesman said that delay was caused by a train "that went Brakes in Emergency near Montrose Ave" and was "under investigation." And now we have this morning's mess.
Commuters were instructed to get out and walk at Third Avenue around 9:30, and some say they were stuck for over a half hour at different points along the line. The MTA confirms that two trains went "Brakes in Emergency" but a spokesman says "the situation was resolved in ten minutes." You wouldn't know it from Twitter, though, where straphangers' commutes were amplified into a fugue of frustration:
Transit update: The L Train continues its worse-than-Hitler streak of mildly inconveniencing hipster commuters!
#MTA— Jason Persse (@jpersse) August 3, 2012
It's just funny at this point, L train.
— Julia Schweizer (@msjschweiz) August 3, 2012
The "L" train should be renamed the "HELL" train. Being stuck feet away from the station w/o any info is just cruel.
— Jerome Brissett (@Bel_botum_JRome) August 3, 2012
I'm pretty sure my whole office thinks I made up this mythical, broken-multiple-times-in-the-same-week L train. Nope, the nightmare is real
— Kelsea Stahler (@KelseaStahler) August 3, 2012
VERY weird things happening on L train. Stuck. Underground..its cool, not like im on way to audition or anythng.
#damnyoumta— Sarah e Jacobs (@EatingLikeSarah) August 3, 2012
See, this is why you should always be sure to check Is the L Train Fucked? before going down those steps into the subway. Or, you know, #bikenyc.
Update 11:08 a.m.: Another beleaguered L train commuter says her train was evacuated and everyone told to get out and walk at First Avenue as well. And apparently there's a lot more to this L train madness, according to this tipster:
How many times did the L train break down this week? Because you didn't even mention Tuesday evening rush hour: at Union Square I was told the L train had stopped going from Manhattan to Brooklyn. (Small note: I didn't go onto the platform after being warned by the swarm of people exiting that the train was out of service, so I couldn't verify for myself.)
Or Wednesday morning, when I had a 45-minute delay to my commute. The proffered explanation was a train with mechanical problems at Montrose. Between my experiences and what you described, that would make Tuesday evening, Wednesday morning, Wednesday evening, Thursday morning and Friday morning service problems. That's concerning.
