WOODSIDE — Service on the E and F train was restored Monday in the wake of the F train’s derailment Friday morning, which caused an evacuation of and injured 19 straphangers, the MTA announced.
All train service along the Queens Boulevard line was suspended after the 10:30 a.m. derailment south of the 65th Street station, preceding overnight removal of four of six derailed subway cars from the tracks.
By early Sunday, the MTA had removed all of the derailed F train cars from the express tracks. On Monday, express service had been restored with residual delays.
Officials have yet to determine what exactly caused the train to derail, but preliminary efforts find that the rail in question was manufactured in the United States in November 2013 and had been installed in March 2014.
The rail will be sent for metallurgical testing as part of the ongoing investigation.
The area along the Queens Boulevard line between 50th Street and 71st Street/Continental Avenue in Forest Hills is a “critical rail break” corridor according to the MTA.
An agency release explained it as one of five sites that experiences the largest number of rail breaks.
The MTA has a respectable safety record and implements sophisticated maintenance programs to prevent rail breaks, the MTA said in a release.
The subway system has experienced only 17 mainline derailments in the last decade, a derailment rate that is less than half the national average, the release noted.
Updates to the status of MTA services are available at www.mta.info.
