NYC Subway Riders Trapped in Tunnel Shows Limits of Aging System

A day after thousands of New York City subway riders were stuck underground in Brooklyn for more than two hours due to a power outage, transit officials said the incident illustrates the dire need to modernize the aging system.

A fire at a nearly century-old power substation during Wednesday’s afternoon rush hour left about 3,500 riders trapped on two trains and delayed service on other subway lines, Janno Lieber, chief executive officer of the state-run Metropolitan Transportation Authority, said Thursday at a news briefing. Governor Kathy Hochul directed the MTA and Consolidated Edison Inc. to investigate the cause of the outage, calling the incident “unacceptable.”