Explosion that knocked out subway power, leaving thousands stuck – NBC New York

Intense new video shows the electrical substation explosion that knocked out subway service for multiple lines in Brooklyn Wednesday night, trapping thousands of riders underground for hours.

More than 24 hours after riders were left stranded for two hours, only escaping the stalled trains by navigating darkened subterranean tunnels, repair crews were underground Friday morning to begin inspecting the damage left by the blast captured on camera.

“The team had been waiting for the air to clear. Following the fire, we had to wait for an assessment of the air quality to be done,” explained NYC Transit President Demetrius Crichlow.

After a subway meltdown in Brooklyn, Gov. Kathy Hochul is calling for a full investigation into what caused the commuter chaos. Con Edison is also trying to figure out what sparked a fire that then led to a massive power loss on the A, C, F and G trains. NBC New York’s Melissa Colorado report.

Transit officials say they had backup systems in place when the substation blew. But the backup facilities, much like the equipment beneath Smith Street, are nearly a century old.

“It’s a risky thing. It can only handle that additional load for so long,” said Jamie Torres-Springer, president of MTA construction and development.

MTA executives said they have asked Albany for billions of dollars to modernize the grid.

“The failure of one substation means we have redundancy. We can power through adjacent substations but those substations are substantially at a state of disrepair,” Torres-Springer said.

The first repairs came a day after New York Gov. Kathy Hochul called for an investigation into the subway meltdown, demanding the MTA do a deep dive into what went wrong. Con Edison is also investigating.

The MTA said power was lost around 5:30 p.m. between Jay Street-Metrotech and Hoyt-Schermerhorn stations in Brooklyn because of the underground fire, which disrupted service on the A, C, F and G lines at the height of the evening rush. Trains along those lines lost power, trapping customers below ground, or had to be rerouted.

According to the MTA, 3,500 riders had to be helped off two F trains that were stalled due to power loss. It took several hours to complete the evacuations, the agency said, which escalated reports of underground chaos.

“New Yorkers deserve a world-class subway system, and thousands of commuters experienced unacceptable service issues last night due to an electrical issue,” Hochul said in a statement Thursday. “No one deserves to be trapped underground for two hours, or face such significant delays when trying to commute home from work.”

“For that reason, I have directed the MTA to do a full review with Con Edison of this incident to determine the cause of the delay and make sure it cannot happen in the future,” she added. “We must invest in the system’s state of good repair and fix problems that should have been taken care of decades ago.” 

Three additional trains also lost power and were briefly stuck, but managed to move backward to stations with power.

A total of four people suffered minor injuries, according to the FDNY. The incident was declared under control about three hours after it started, though service on A, C and F lines remained impacted into early Thursday.

“We thank the hundreds of transit workers, firefighters, NYPD officers and responders from other agencies who worked to quickly assist riders on two trains stuck between stations following a Con Ed power failure,” NYC Transit President Demetrius Crichlow said in a statement late Wednesday. “Fortunately, evacuations were orderly and there appear to be no serious injuries. NYC Transit will work with Con Ed to understand how a limited outage in a redundant system could create a significant disruption to service.”

MTA CEO Janno Lieber stressed the need for funding to improve the aging train system.

“This is bad stuff. This is what you never want to happen to riders. We are investigating it with Con-Ed. This is a 90-plus-year-old facility, we need repair and investment,” said Lieber.