MANHATTAN — Service on the A, B, C, D, E and M lines was a snarled mess for close to three hours Friday morning after a power outage on the Upper West Side, officials said.
The outage at West 81st Street took out power to the third rail at 9 a.m., the MTA said, setting off a domino of disruptions that wasn't restored until just before noon. The cause of the outage was not immediately known, the MTA said.
Residual delays were expected along all affected train lines after service, officials said. The A and D lines had been suspended from Columbus Circle to 125th Street, while B trains were suspended from Brighton Beach to 145th Street. C trains were suspended from Euclid Avenue to 168th Street and M trains were suspended from Forest Hills—71st Avenue to Essex Street. And E trains were running on the F line until Second Avenue.
Among the passengers stranded during the nearly 3-hour outage was a pregnant woman on southbound A train near Central Park West and 82nd Street which stalled for approximately 45 minutes, according to passengers, the FDNY and the MTA.
"Trapped in the subway thanks to a power outage. This is my nightmare," Twitter user Lindsay Holmes sent out at 9:42 a.m. Friday, adding that she was aboard an A train. "A pregnant woman is about the have a breakdown."
MTA officials confirmed that there was a pregnant woman on an A train stalled in the tunnel north of the 81st Street stop. They said it was unclear how long the train was trapped in the tunnel, but train passengers said it was finally moved down to Columbus Circle, where passengers were allowed off at 10 a.m.
The pregnant woman, whose identity was not immediately released, was taken to St. Luke's Hospital, an MTA spokeswoman said.
Crews were working to resolve the issue, but an MTA spokesman couldn't say when normal service would resume.
Friday morning's power outage came ahead of a slew of other weekend service changes set to disrupt 14 subway lines.
