NEW YORK — New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has ordered an independent review of a Sunday night failure that shut down about half of the New York City subway system, seeking to determine what happened and what changes are needed to avoid a recurrence.
amNY.com reports that a brief power dip by electricity provider Con Ed triggered a switch to the subway system’s battery backup on eight lines, but when the power was restored, the system did not switch back to the primary system and did not alert managers to the problem.
The battery system ran out of power at 9:14 p.m., affecting 83 trains, including five, with about 550 riders, that were stuck between stations. Two trains were evacuated by MTA workers and first responders; another was brought to a nearby platform. But passengers on two other trains left the stranded cars on their own and walked the tracks to get out.
“We never ever want riders to do that,” Hochul said, appearing with Metropolitan Transportation Authority officials at a press conference outside MTA headquarters. “It is dangerous and it caused a delay in the restoration of power.” The subway tunnels had to be searched for riders before power was turned back on, she said.
“Last night was unacceptable,” Hochul said. “… I’m immediately directing a review to find out the root cause of the service issues last night. We need to know why the system broke down and why there’s a breakdown of communications between … the rail control center and the trains.”
Two engineering firms will assist the MTA in a “thorough deep dive” into the incident, she said.
Does the battery backup system even get tested on a regular basis…my guess is not, otherwise this issue would’ve already been discovered from a failed test.
Atlas shrugged.