Riders Struggle to Get Home as M.T.A. Restores Service
An M.T.A. worker patrolling late this afternoon inside the Brooklyn Bridge-City Hall subway station, where there was still standing water on the tracks. Read the latest service updates. (Photo: Mario Tama/Getty Images) Updated, 5:53 p.m.
A flood of Manhattan commuters struggled to make their way home this evening, following the extensive disruptions that paralyzed the New York City subway system in the morning.
While most subway service had returned to a somewhat normal state by mid-afternoon today, the subway lines that run under Queens Boulevard remained crippled by flooding of the stations around Jackson Heights. The M.T.A. ran shuttle buses down the thoroughfare and urged Queens subway riders to use the Long Island Rail Road instead.
Despite those contingency measures, the commute was a mess for tens of thousands of Queens riders.
Tyrone Edwards, a 20-year-old student, was among about 150 people waiting for shuttle buses from Queens Plaza to 71st-Street Continental Avenue because the E and F trains were not running to their usual terminuses in Queens. Transit employees used bullhorns to direct passengers.
Mr. Edwards said it had taken him four hours to get to Manhattan from Jamaica, Queens this morning. “It’s a little better now,” he said, adding, however, that his afternoon commute was hardly carefree. “All the trains are crowded,” he said. “Everybody was fighting to get on.”
At the 21st Street-Queensbridge station in Long Island City, where the F train was terminating instead of its usual terminus in Jamaica, Sabretta Alford, 38, who lives nearby, gave directions to confused riders even though she is not an M.T.A. employee. “I’ve been standing here for 20 minutes and directing people,” she said. “I offered someone direction, and then everyone started coming up to me and asking questions. Look at the people coming out. They have no idea where they’re going.”
Ray Ramzey, 64, of Woodside, Queens, who took the F train to Long Island City, said he did not want to wait for the shuttle bus. He started walking east. “I’m going to walk to Woodside,” he said.
Nearly 10 lines remained significantly disrupted by the torrential rainstorm that drenched the city this morning, as the beleaguered M.T.A. — and hundreds of thousands of riders — muddled through the evening rush.
At 4:40 p.m, the M.T.A. released its service plan to handle the evening peak. These the major elements of the plan, which involves numerous reroutings.
- Service on the Queens Boulevard corridor is not expected to return to normal for this evening’s rush hour.
- E trains are operating in two sections, World Trade Center to Queens Plaza and from Roosevelt Avenue to Parsons/Archer.
- Shuttle Bus service is available between Queens Plaza and Jackson Heights-Roosevelt Avenue.
- F trains are suspended in both directions between the 21st Street-Queensbridge Station and the Jamaica-179th Street station.
- Shuttle Bus service is available between 21st Street-Queensbridge F station and the Queens Plaza E station.
- Shuttle Bus service is running from the 179th Street F station to the Sutphin Boulevard-Archer Avenue E Station
- G trains are suspended in both directions between the Long Island City-Court Square Station and the Bedford-Nostrand station.
- G train service is operating between Bedford-Nostrand and 4th Avenue-9th Street Station.
- Shuttle Bus service is available from Bedford-Nostrand G Station to Long Island City-Court Square Station
- V trains are suspended in both directions between the 2nd Avenue Station and the Forest Hills-71st Avenue Station.
- Jamaica-bound customers can also take the Long Island Rail Road to Jamaica Station, and transfer to buses or the e train. The Long Island Rail Road is honoring MetroCard.
- R trains are operating between Bay Ridge-95th Street and Astoria-Ditmars Blvd Station.
- W trains are suspended in both directions between the Astoria-Ditmars Boulevard Station and the Whitehall Street Station.
As of 3:30 p.m., service on most of the major Manhattan lines had been restored entirely or in part. However, the entire C line remained suspended, between Euclid Avenue, Brooklyn and 168th Street in Manhattan.
Along with the C, the G, V and W lines remained out of service.
It appears that Queens commuters will have the most difficult time of it this evening.
E trains are suspended between Queens Plaza and the Forest Hills-71st Avenue in Queens. The F line is suspended between 21st Street-Queensbridge and Jamaica-179th Street in Queens.
The M.T.A. is running shuttle buses between 21st Street-Queensbridge Station and Jamaica-179th Street in Queens. A shuttle train is running back and forth over a short distance, between Jackson Heights-Roosevelt Avenue and 71st Street-Continental Avenue.
The G line is suspended between the Long Island City-Court Square station in Queens and the Fourth Avenue-Ninth Street station in Brooklyn. The V line is suspended between the Second Avenue Station on the Lower East Side of Manhattan and the 71st Avenue-Continental Avenue station in Forest Hills, Queens. The R line is suspended in between the 57th Street-Seventh Avenue station in Midtown and the 71st-Continental Avenues in Forest Hills. The W line is suspended between the Astoria-Ditmars Boulevard station in Queens and the Whitehall Street station in Lower Manhattan.
The Long Island Rail Road girded itself for a flood of commuters who normally take the Queens Boulevard subway lines and will now be forced to take the commuter railroad instead. The railroad said it would cancel and combine some trains to allow for a “dedicated shuttle train service” stopping at Pennsylvania Station, and Woodside, Forest Hills, Kew Gardens and Jamaica in Queens. However, while the shuttle service is in place, some trains to Long Island will not make local stops at Woodside, Forest Hills and Kew Gardens.
The railroad posted employees throughout Pennsylvania Station to answer questions from commuters. The railroad warned of “numerous track changes” and urged readers “not to descend to the platform until their train has been posted.”
Dmitry Kiper contributed reporting.
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