Subway Service Still Snarled as M.T.A. Works to Remove Derailed Trains
Subway service remained disrupted on three subway lines on the West Side of Manhattan on Friday morning, transit officials said, a day after two trains collided and derailed, injuring 26 people.
Service was suspended on the 1 and 3 lines between Times Square and Harlem, and the 2 train was running on the 5 line in Manhattan. Officials said Friday they hoped service would be partially restored on the subway lines later in the day, and noted that extra buses had been deployed to carry passengers up and down the West Side.
The derailments happened when a northbound No. 1 train carrying 300 passengers and an out-of-service train carrying four transit workers collided at around 3 p.m. Thursday, the M.T.A. said.
One derailed car from the train that had been carrying the passengers was still stuck in a subway tunnel near 96th Street on Friday as crews worked to get the car back on the rails, as was one derailed car from the disabled train involved in the collision.
The other nine cars of the passenger train have been moved, said Janno Lieber, the chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. But the stuck car is in a low-height area, making it difficult to mount it back on the rails.
“With only inches to spare in this tunnel, it’s an incredibly delicate process,” said Richard Davey, the president of New York City Transit, the M.T.A. division that operates the subway. “Our hope is to try to get back some service today.”
The second train, which had been vandalized and taken out of service before the collision, remained in the area as well, officials said on Friday. The wheels on the front car came off, making it difficult to move.
The problems began on Thursday when vandals activated the brakes on a No. 1 train at 79th Street, officials said. That train went out of service and was slowly making its way uptown. As it passed 96th Street, it collided with the train carrying passengers as that train, also traveling north, was switching back to a local track.
Officials said the collision and derailments did not appear to have been caused by an equipment malfunction.
Representatives from the National Transportation Safety Board will arrive in the city on Friday to open an investigation into the collision, which will supplement the M.T.A.’s own investigation, Mr. Lieber said Friday.
Subway derailments involving passengers have been rare in recent years. The last one occurred on Sept. 20, 2020, when an A train came off the tracks around 14th Street with 100 people on board, and three passengers received minor injuries.
