NEW YORK — The MTA said trains are expected to run close to normal for the Friday evening rush after they used backup generators to power signals throughout the system, the MTA said.
"We should expect a normal pm rush with the possible exception of trains still bypassing 7 Av.," MTA spokesman Kevin Ortiz said in a statement Friday afternoon.
A power outage at 7th Avenue-53rd Street Friday morning triggered chaos, anger and crowding in the stations, leaving commuters scrambling to get to work — as the A, B, C, D, E, F, J, M, N, R, Q and Z lines were delayed, rerouted or suspended.
Service resumed at 11:30 a.m. after the MTA connected backup generators at the station, officials said.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo — who oversees the MTA — ordered the MTA and New York State Department of Public Service to investigate the Con Ed equipment failure.
"The loss of power due to a Con Edison equipment failure during the morning rush hour caused a cascading effect and impacted the lives of thousands of commuters," Cuomo said in a statement.
"The New York City subway system is the lifeblood of the city and a critical means of transportation for millions of people, which is why we are making unprecedented capital investments into modernizing the system. The MTA will continue to deploy emergency resources to address the short-term issues, and our investigation will address all aspects of today’s events to get to the bottom of what happened."
Con Ed officials said they were working to restore power.
"We’re working jointly with the MTA to make repairs to underground equipment serving the subway system," the agency said in a statement. "We will work with the MTA to complete the repairs as expeditiously as possible."
The outage, which struck at 7:25 a.m., tripled the length of some commutes and stranded a D train full of passengers inside a northbound train for more than an hour as it sat in the tunnel just before the station.
"When we thought we made it back to the platform, people stood up and almost fell due to the train braking hard," said Ambreen Khan, 37, of Jackson Heights, "We were asked to sit back down. There was a lot of jerking. As we stepped out, the platforms were dimly lit. It looked scary. The MTA told us to be careful exiting."
The outage also knocked out service to the B train in both directions between Brighton Beach and Bedford Park and the M train between Chambers and Forest Hills-71st Ave.
Crew running and hooking up cable, working to restore service along E/D/B lines after a Con Ed outage in the 53 St area. pic.twitter.com/qOZXSeGpy4
— NYCT Subway (@NYCTSubway) April 21, 2017
The D train was temporarily rerouted to the C line between the West 4th Street Station and 59th Street in both directions, and some trains were terminating at 34th Street-Herald Square, the MTA said.
The E train was temporarily rerouted to the F line between West 4th Street and Roosevelt Avenue in both directions.
Due to power outage, no B/M trains and A,C,E,F service changes & delays. Use alt routes. https://t.co/ENIxXVnNZ4. https://t.co/WDXBcKR1x4
— NYCEM - Notify NYC (@NotifyNYC) April 21, 2017
Riders took to social media to vent their rage.
Wow. Basically all trains are not running due to power failure at 59th. Now hundreds are just trying to get out of station #TGIF #MTA pic.twitter.com/T627tOkZGT
— Sarah McLellan (@sarahmclellanny) April 21, 2017
People cannot even make it to the train platforms due to this #MTA power outage in #NYC pic.twitter.com/A0iSwbH8Xc
— Cassie Dagostino (@casatino) April 21, 2017
The NYC @MTA needs to seriously get it together!!!! #ridiculousCommute #whydowepayforthis pic.twitter.com/vdZnIx0JCo
— Lauren Leb (@LLeb17) April 21, 2017