Okay, one power outage to mess up your morning commute is bad, but people can generally shrug it off. Two power outages on the same line and riders get irritated. Then a third power outage, right at the evening rush hour, New Yorkers just start thinking about storming the MTA headquarters with pitchforks and torches - if only they could get there. And that was the general sentiment after the 4,5, and 6 lines were affected by power outages. The 7AM power outage may have been caused by an A/C power issue at Grand Central, which then caused a signal problem. Then some other circuits blew, and when the MTA put in temporary cable, it shorted out and caused an afternoon power outage. Finally, at around 5:50PM, the MTA found a 2' by 3' hole in a manhole near the 33rd Street station, where water and salt had corroded through the subway's concrete ceiling. Best is that the MTA does "not know when this hole was dug or by whom." They think it was caused by an excavation but it might have been dug by another agency. This time around, the MTA learned their lesson and declined to say when the 4, 5, 6, service would be normal, but it seems to running normally for now.
And with today's 7 train incident, people are complaining that whenever the fare goes up, not to mention suffering from "I'm helpless at the clutches of the MTA" blues, service gets worse. Gothamist feels the bigger problem is the lack of support the state and city gives the MTA, but that's a whole other political nightmare to deal with.
Were you affected by the 4/5/6 problems? Given that this paralyzed East Side commutes, you'd think that the Second Avenue Subway would be more of a reality. See what happened when Mayor Bloomberg was affected by a subway problem last year, and revel in subway paranoia with the NY magazine story about the subway crisis.
