It's been a heckuva year on the NYC subway
It's no secret that the New York City subway has been having some issues lately, with the problems that have always plagued the transit system—signal malfunctions, overcrowded trains, beat-up stations—seemingly getting worse.
And as the problems have increased, so too have the number of people who've taken to social media to share the bad and the ugly moments of their daily commutes. (This includes, occasionally, the MTA itself, which updates commuters via the NYCT Subway Twitter account.)
#CuomosMTA pic.twitter.com/a6ZTEa45Jb
— Craig Toocheck (@ctoocheck) June 13, 2017
Though Governor Andrew Cuomo and the MTA have revealed a plan to tackle some of the problems plaguing the subway system, it's unclear how long it would take (or even if that plan will offer a real, honest-to-God solution rather than a Band-Aid). Meanwhile, straphangers continue to report as problems arise—leading to many a "WTF?!?" moment on social media.
Here, we've cataloged some of the most outrageous of those moments, from flooding to packed platforms and everything (waterfalls?!?) in between.
January 18: An inauspicious start to the year: an elevator at the Court Street station in Brooklyn stopped working with 20 people trapped inside, leading MTA workers to rescue them by coming through the elevator's ceiling. "The fire department came very quickly and they were so wonderful," Rachel Jo Silver, one of the stuck commuters, told the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. They opened a ceiling panel, climbed down with a ladder and we climbed out."
Today's adventure: fire department had to come bc we were stuck in a subway elevator! pic.twitter.com/845wgYe7YA
— Rachel Jo Silver (@racheljosilver) January 18, 2017
March 2: A water main break in Brooklyn Heights leads to delays on the R line, and the Court Street station floods with murky water. Just another day on the subway!
R trains continue to be rerouted via the Q btwn Canal St & DeKalb Av while we investigate the impacts of the water main break near Court St pic.twitter.com/eyOaKATP8p
— NYCT Subway (@NYCTSubway) March 2, 2017
April 21: A Con Ed equipment failure at the Seventh Avenue station in Midtown leads to an epic snafu that lasts basically the entire day; as the New York Times put it, "Delays quickly cascaded outward from Manhattan, halting trains underground many miles from the site of the power failure and stretching normally routine commutes into hourslong slogs. At least a dozen subway lines, including many that do not pass through the affected station, were delayed." Unsurprisingly, this makes subway stations a total nightmare.
People cannot even make it to the train platforms due to this #MTA power outage in #NYC pic.twitter.com/A0iSwbH8Xc
— Cassie Dagostino (@casatino) April 21, 2017
May 2: At the Franklin Avenue stop in Crown Heights, pieces of the ceiling fell onto a 3 train, causing delays across the system. Many of the subway system's stations are in bad shape, and reports have said it could take as long as 50 years to get them in a state of good repair. Yikes.
Pieces of the ceiling fell on top of the 3 train at Franklin so now the train is stopped and the conductor is waving everyone off pic.twitter.com/7lOwGTYmVy
— Rebecca Baird-Remba (@thecitywanderer) May 2, 2017
May 5: A huge storm led to flash floods throughout the city, which of course extended into the subways, too. Commuters reported flooding and in-station waterfalls throughout the transit system, a not-unusual occurrence during inclement weather.
It's raining on the u/t N/Q/R/W platform at Times Square. @NYCTSubway is dealing w/this by announcing that it may be slippery. pic.twitter.com/SoDrgNcYOK
— (((Jeremy Posner))) (@jmp_nyc) May 5, 2017
May 9: Another power outage, this time at DeKalb Avenue in Brooklyn, leads to another day of widespread subway delays, overcrowding on platforms, and frustrated commuters.
If you've ever wondered what commuting to/from South Brooklyn is like with the @MTA. @JustinBrannan @fox5ny @lizdahlem #BayRidge pic.twitter.com/rYO6s5tuAc
— Matthew Kabel (@MattKabel) May 9, 2017
May 31: Extensive subway delays led Hunter College student Jerich Marco Alcantara to miss his graduation ceremony, but in a perfect display of how New Yorkers come together in times of subway-related crisis, his fellow E train passengers threw him a mock ceremony. "It was a great time," Alcantara told New York. Awww.
June 5: We'll let Gothamist take this one: "Unamused commuter Stella Kim emailed Gothamist to note that it took her roughly thirty minutes to go one stop from York Street in Brooklyn to East Broadway in Manhattan, where the train stalled again for about 20 minutes. On the plus side, it was there that a magical and all-too-rare waterfall hashtag blessed the inside of the subway train."
Ew.
Also June 5: A perfect storm of terrible factors—a stalled train during rush hour with no air conditioning—led to what can only be described as a commute from hell. Passengers were stuck on an F in between stations for nearly an hour before finally being freed, and the ensuing video looks like a horror movie filmed in a steamy subway car.
S/b F train stuck for over an hour w/o light and air just rolled up-passengers dripping with sweat begging to get off #mta @MTA #effedtrain pic.twitter.com/NXJ3pDJtji
— Chelsea Lawrence (@chelseahbelle) June 5, 2017
June 14: A water main break in Harlem led to delays on the 6 train (and, inevitably, delays on other lines as well); one straphanger captured water rushing into the subway station—though, thankfully, not the car itself—as a result.
Craziness on the downtown 6 train @MTA! Watermain break... not today Satan!!! pic.twitter.com/NiBqfwqy2Y
— Nef B (@dreambelieve34) June 14, 2017
Stay tuned, because this list will only continue to grow as the year goes on.
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