Gov demands probe as power outage strands thousands of subway riders for hours

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is calling for an investigation into the subway meltdown that stranded thousands of riders for hours below ground Wednesday night, demanding the MTA do a deep dive into what went wrong.

Con Edison is also investigating.

The MTA says power was lost around 5:30 p.m. between Jay Street-Metrotech and Hoyt-Schermerhorn stations in Brooklyn because of an underground fire, which disrupted service on the A, C, F and G lines at the height of the evening rush. Trains along those lines lost power, trapping customers below ground, or had to be rerouted.

According to the MTA, 3,500 riders had to be helped off two F trains that were stalled due to power loss. It took several hours to complete the evacuations, the agency said, which escalated reports of underground chaos. Some people said they had to exit the trains using underground maintenance tunnels.

"New Yorkers deserve a world-class subway system, and thousands of commuters experienced unacceptable service issues last night due to an electrical issue," Hochul said in a statement Thursday. "No one deserves to be trapped underground for two hours, or face such significant delays when trying to commute home from work."

"For that reason, I have directed the MTA to do a full review with Con Edison of this incident to determine the cause of the delay and make sure it cannot happen in the future," she added. "We must invest in the system's state of good repair and fix problems that should have been taken care of decades ago.” 

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Three additional trains also lost power and were briefly stuck, but managed to move backward to stations with power.

A total of four people suffered minor injuries, according to the FDNY. The incident was declared under control about three hours after it started, though service on A, C and F lines remained impacted into early Thursday.

"We thank the hundreds of transit workers, firefighters, NYPD officers and responders from other agencies who worked to quickly assist riders on two trains stuck between stations following a Con Ed power failure," NYC Transit President Demetrius Crichlow said in a statement late Wednesday. "Fortunately, evacuations were orderly and there appear to be no serious injuries. NYC Transit will work with Con Ed to understand how a limited outage in a redundant system could create a significant disruption to service."