NEW YORK CITY — E and F trains were delayed and crowded because MTA workers didn't stop their weekend work by Monday morning, a transit spokeswoman said.
Crews doing weekend track work on the express lines were supposed to finish by 5 a.m. Monday, but kept going just north of the Kew Gardens-Union Turnpike station until about 6 a.m., which sparked widespread delays, the MTA spokeswoman said.
The MTA initially said that the delays were caused by "an earlier incident," but the spokeswoman said there wasn't any one disruptive incident apart from the crews working.
The platform at Penn Station was so crowded that commuters couldn't even get through the turnstiles to reach it.
Riders said they were left in the dark about the transit problems and the MTA didn't tell them why the delays were happening.
"Communication: that's all it takes. That's the problem. I've been through so many other things here in New York. I really want to know what's going on," said Pauline Grierson, who traveled in from Philadelphia.
"They never tell you what's going on. The announcements are horrible," said Antoinette Pepper, who was commuting to her job as a paralegal.
"You pay a lot for the service and the service pretty much stinks," Pepper added.
Meanwhile, riders vented their frustration on social media with reports of widespread crowding and delays.