Updated (2:30 p.m.): As the MTA readies a plan to reactivate the area’s transit network in the wake of Hurricane Irene, city and authority officials warned that full subway and commuter rail service will not return any time soon, but New York City Transit will begin restoring bus service at 5 p.m. today. To get the subways and commuter rail up and running, the MTA must first make a full assessment of its system. “This is a difficult process. There is damage,” MTA CEO and Chair Jay Walder said. “It’s going to take some time.”
During the Mayor’s press conference the year, Walder explained the challenges that await the MTA. While the East River tunnels did not flood, the three Metro-North lines all experienced severe flood damage and potential erosion, and the MTA must assess every part of its system including tracks, signals and tunnels. They cannot restore service until non-revenue trains pass through the system, and the MTA will also have to get its employees to work without the benefit of a subway system. “The actions we took yesterday were right,” Walder said.
While bus service will begin to return this afternoon, the subways remain a challenge. For instance, there are, according to Walder, “virtually no trains” located in Brooklyn right now, and returning trains to their rail yards will be a timely process. With no timetable in place yet, the MTA hopes to reactivate the bus network first as that equipment is “fine.” Getting drivers to work remains a challenge, and city officials anticipate a slow ride on Monday. “Tough commute tomorrow,” the Mayor said, “but we have tough commutes all the time.”
22 comments
Seems to me that the early shutdown was a huge bone thrown to the unions by MTA management. By ceasing work at noon Saturday, managers ensured that all MTA employees would be able to spend the peak hurricane hours with their families, not an inconsequential benefit. It reeks of Larry Littlefield’s “pay more, get less” theory of public services, however.
So you think they overreacted? Did you see the photos? Walder basically is saying the system is a mess right now.
Overreaction has nothing to do with it. If they had kept the employees working, they could have started up again more promptly. Instead they gave them the day home.
And what would you have them do? Stand out at the beach at Coney Island with plastic buckets grabbing the water and tossing it back out to sea?
God, I wish that the internet had an IQ requirement.
Right because a conductor knows how to work on the signal system, and a bus driver has the training to inspect track bed.
One of the reasons they couldn’t just have people standing there with buckets is risk of injury/death during flooding of critical areas of the subway. The MTA didn’t really have many options here.
As you can see by my username I’m generally rather caustic about the MTA. This time they got it right; by having the sea level yards empty they can inspect and repair those facilities a ton more quickly than otherwise. Water (presumably seawater) reached the trackbed in Coney Island, meaning that the storm came close to raising water enough – about 2 feet higher than we got – to make parked trains do the dog paddle.
I don’t know what amount of water parked subway cars can handle, but I suspect water resistance isn’t in the officially approved purchasing spec. Even if it was, normal wear breaks down seals and insulation, then you have water full of debris + electricity + mechanicals all mounted near ground level. Yeah the water at C. Island yard would not have reached the car motors etc *this time*, but had the storm gotten a little more energy it would have. Check out the storm surge from ’38 – they had streetcars go for a swim.
Course it would be fun to see what happens if the 3rd rail is on while in water.
Live third rail under water would be a linear oxyhydrogen generator.
lol WTF?
Wow. Mark this as the first time that hurricane damage and recovery has been blamed on Unions. That’s more than irrational, it’s plain old tinfoil paranoia.
If an asteroid strikes the planet and makes it uninhabitable, one of the survivors will blame the unions for it.
Where did the trains end up getting stored? On elevated tracks for fear of flooding, or was that too risky as well for fear of wind? Doesn’t seem like there’s anywhere that underground tracks would have been particularly immune from flooding, unlike in the typical snowstorm service pattern where express tracks are taken out of service and used to store yard trains.
There are “uphill” sections of track underground in lots of places.
‘For instance, there are, according to Walder, “virtually no trains” located in Brooklyn right now’
This is pretty incredible.
I can believe it though: look at Michael Calcagno’s subway map from nycsubway.org – http://www.nycsubway.org/maps/routeimg.html – and look at the number of Brooklyn subway lines that terminate reasonably close to the water (Bay Ridge, Canarsie, and the big one at Coney Island). Others may be close to rivers where there might have been concern about overtopping due to storm surge/high tides/rain.
Blizzard: That damn MTA getting us all stuck in a blizzard in their damn trains!
Hurricane: That damn MTA not ever running their trains! It’s only 3-6 feet of water! Why I definitely know better than them!
/Average New Yorker
USPS by far the least helpful during Irene
better something than nothing
I wonder how someone — me, for instance — takes a bus from Bushwick to Manhattan. I guess I’ll find out!
Take the 60 to Williamsburg Bridge Plz and walk from there. Bonne route!
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