Home Asides Cable fire torpedoes Brooklyn subway service

Cable fire torpedoes Brooklyn subway service

by Benjamin Kabak

Update (6:30 p.m.): Due to a two-alarm cable fire near the DeKalb Ave. subway station, service to and from Brooklyn is seriously snared right now. According to the latest from Transit, there is no service between Lower Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn on the B, D, N, Q or R lines right now, and customers traveling between the two boroughs are being urged to take the 2, 3, 4 or 5 trains.

As of around 5:30 p.m., B and D train service is running Manhattan north of 34th St., and D trains are running south of Atlantic Ave. to Coney Island. Q trains are operating in Brooklyn only between Prospect Park and Coney Island, and Brooklyn N trains are running between 36th St. and Coney Island only. Some downtown F trains are running along the G from Queens Plaza to Jay St.-MetroTech. Bus service too in the Downtown Brooklyn area is delayed as well.

In other words, it’s a mess, and the MTA doesn’t expect service to be back to normal any time soon. Be prepared for a messy evening commute. I’ll try to update this as more information becomes available, and in the meantime, keep an eye on the MTA’s service advisory page.

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19 comments

Larry Littlefield August 14, 2012 - 5:55 pm

Just pray it was a power cable and not a signal cable.

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Tower18 August 14, 2012 - 6:21 pm

Oh yeah, things were all cocked up on the way home tonight.

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Tower18 August 14, 2012 - 6:40 pm

Why are R trains only running between 36 St and 95 St? You would think running R trains to Atlantic would be MUCH MUCH more useful, given the connections with the remaining Manhattan-Brooklyn lines, the 2/3/4/5 and F, and an out of system connection to the C at least possible.

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Phantom August 14, 2012 - 8:51 pm

Its an easy turnaround there

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Andrew August 15, 2012 - 1:17 am

There’s no way for locals to turn at Pacific.

There are clearly some errors here. If the F is running on the G, it can’t get to Jay, and I don’t see how the Q could have possibly turned at Atlantic.

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Alek August 14, 2012 - 7:23 pm

Why is the F is running on the G? The F doesnt use Dekalb ave. What a mess!!

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alek August 14, 2012 - 7:29 pm

Update: It is over the trains are resuming with delays.

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Phantom August 14, 2012 - 7:52 pm

It was a slow slog home, with a painful transfer at Atlantic

To keep this miserable, the Metrocard reader at Wall St 4 station deducted a fare, but sis not let me pass until a second fare was collected. A token clerk said that it happens ” all the time “

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Think twice August 14, 2012 - 9:39 pm

Couldn’t get the R at Whitehall, so I caught a packed 5 at Bowling Green. I’m glad I didn’t get off at Atlantic Ave for the B/Q and instead stayed on the 5 till Brooklyn College.

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Fred August 14, 2012 - 11:15 pm

I got caught in this mess earlier. I was on a Manhattan bound Q that was only running to Prospect Park. Once I got off at Prospect Park we were told to take the Shuttle to Fulton Street for the A, which was of course bad advice. Anyway the shuttle was so packed that the train operator had to yell at passengers to get off and out of the way so that he could squeeze in the car to drive the train. Bad idea for the MTA to have that shuttle train run only a 2 car set. The scene at Prospect Park was unbelievable. I’ve never seen so many people try to squeeze onto the shuttle.

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Andrew August 15, 2012 - 1:19 am

The shuttle can only fit 2-car trains.

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Joe August 14, 2012 - 11:19 pm

The MTA’s service advisory page for this was hilariously incomprehensible.

“Brooklyn bound N, Q and R train service will terminate at the 57 Street- 7 Avenue Station, 34 Street- Herald Square Station, the Canal Street Station and the Whitehall- South Ferry Station.”

What the hell?

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IanM August 14, 2012 - 11:37 pm

Whah…? Seriously, anyone know what this actually was intended to mean? I’m genuinely curious. It sounds like a joke.

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Andrew August 15, 2012 - 1:18 am

N, Q, and R trains that were supposed to go to Brooklyn are instead terminating at various other places – specifically, 57th, 34th, Canal, and Whitehall.

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mike d. August 15, 2012 - 1:25 am

Its not a joke, MTA had to churn trains around in order to stop feeding more trains to Brooklyn.

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Matthias August 15, 2012 - 2:16 pm

Not exactly Brooklyn-bound then, are they?

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Andrew August 15, 2012 - 9:47 pm

No, but what language did you expect them to use? (For some reason they don’t like to use “southbound” and “northbound”, which would solve the problem.)

throcko August 16, 2012 - 12:00 pm

“Southbound” would work, as would “downtown” which is a more familiar term.

Andrew August 16, 2012 - 9:35 pm

True.

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