With friends like the MTA, New Yorkers don't need enemies

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New Yorkers have endured all kinds of calamities, including foreign terrorists, epic storms and Canadian wildfires. But this week we were reminded that the MTA can upend daily life all on its own.

A two-day subway meltdown was the result of decades of disinvestment into the very equipment that makes life in New York City possible.

Much of New York City ground to a halt Wednesday night as a cascade of subway failures sent tens of thousands of riders out into the rain scrambling for buses or taxis. MTA officials said another 3,500 people were trapped in tunnels for hours while they waited to be rescued.

Service wasn’t much better on Thursday as a slew of signal problems and ongoing power failures delayed the bulk of the city’s subway lines during the morning rush. Debris also fell onto the tracks near DeKalb Avenue, gumming up service over the Manhattan Bridge.

It was a scene reminiscent of 2017 and 2018, when years of deferred maintenance led to frequent delays, jammed platforms and subway trains stuck in tunnels for hours on end.

The exact cause of Wednesday night's problems is still under investigation, but an underground electrical room exploded in Downtown Brooklyn around 5:30 p.m. as power was cut off to the subways in the area, according to MTA Chair Janno Lieber. The problem shut down service on large segments of the A, C, F and G lines.

Internal MTA documents obtained by Gothamist also show the electrical room’s door blew right off its hinges and fell onto the tracks along the G line.

“Last night was a bad night for a lot of New Yorkers,” Lieber said during a news conference the day after the fiasco. “This is a 90-plus-year-old electrical facility that is exactly what we have identified as an urgent need of repair and investment.”

The fact that entire portions of the subway rely on a 90-year-old electrical room says a lot about the city’s record of infrastructure investment. Collapsing ceilings in some stations also do not inspire straphangers’ confidence.

At Thursday morning’s press event to celebrate the opening of a brand new mezzanine with new elevators, the freshly painted ceiling was cracked and dripping water on a reporter. The head of construction Jamie Torres-Springer brushed it off and said someone just needed a wrench to tighten some pipes. An MTA spokesperson said the water was the result of a cleanup the night prior.

Interim NYC Transit President Demetrius Crichlow told Gothamist that Thursday morning’s problems were “nowhere near” Wednesday night’s delays. But tell that to the untold number of New Yorkers who couldn’t drop off their kids or get to work on time just 12 hours after they faced hours of delays.

Lieber and other MTA officials have for months called on Gov. Kathy Hochul and state lawmakers to sign off on $33 billion in funding for the agency’s construction plan through next year’s budget. They say that money is essential to pay for crucial repairs to the subways, including upgrading the type of electrical room that exploded in Brooklyn.

Even if the money does come through, officials warn it will take years before the subway system is anywhere close to being in a state of good repair.

Curious Commuter

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Question from Scott in Brooklyn

What’s up with the two-toned Manhattan Bridge? The top half of the bridge is a pale blue; The bottom half is a darker blue. It appears as though they got half finished painting it and just said “screw it,” which is what I thought was the case, but it’s been like that for a very long time. Why?

Answer

Nice eye, Scott. The Manhattan Bridge’s blue color isn’t uniform — but it’s not exactly a design choice. The city transportation department repaints the bridge in sections as part of its overall maintenance, and doesn’t paint it all at once. The city uses the exact same color for the whole span, but the older paint looks lighter and more faded due to sun exposure. DOT officials say the whole bridge’s color blends together over time as the newer paint continues to fade.

The latest NYC area transit headlines

Listen here:

• Mayor Eric Adams said construction will begin in 2025 on a $152.7 million plan to transform Fifth Avenue from Bryant Park to Central Park into a pedestrian-friendly boulevard. Read more.
• Transportation Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez pushed back against a bill to require licenses and registration for e-bikes during a heated City Council hearing on Wednesday, arguing that the law could prompt an undue crackdown on delivery workers. Read more.
• Several elected officials in Brooklyn said they’ve given up hope that Adams will be able to fix the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway’s crumbling triple-cantilever section, and are instead urging the city to make short-term fixes to keep the structure from falling down. Read more.
• Police said a 60-year-old man died after a school bus driver struck him as he was crossing a road in the St. George neighborhood of Staten Island on Wednesday. Read more.
• Some advocates for homeless New Yorkers said they fear the not-guilty verdict in Daniel Penny’s trial could open the door for other attacks on homeless or mentally ill people on the subway. Read more.
• New York City and the federal government have approved construction to begin early next year on the Port Authority Bus Terminal replacement in Midtown. Read more.
• The NYPD and sanitation officials said they’ve seized roughly 5,000 "ghost cars" since September as part of a deliberate toll evasion crackdown ahead of the start of congestion pricing on Jan. 5. Read more.