B Train Woes Snarl Sheepshead Bay Commuters
MTA workers labored to restore service to the A, B, C and D trains while commuters slept, finally bringing the lines operational again after spending nearly 19 hours in suspension and leaving hundreds of thousands of commuters confused or stranded.
The service was shut down Monday morning after a 95-year-old water main ruptured in the upper west side of Manhattan, flooding streets and subway tracks. That led to a full shut down of the four subway lines, affecting about a half million riders. The lines were restored this morning, shortly after 5:00 a.m.
Athough the shut down made headlines on local newscasts, and the MTA provided updates through its website, many commuters from the Sheepshead Bay area had commutes slogged down by the absence of the line.
We asked local riders about their experience via our Facebook page.
Some blamed the agency for a failure to communicate.
“My daughter waited and waited and their were no signs posted,” griped Tina Maffeo.
Once commuters figured out the closure, they were forced into Q trains that reader Natalie Grinman Udall called “supercrowded” – and suffered an unusually long ride.
“Q train was about to explode with people,” wrote Alejandro Torres. “They didn’t announce it enough and people kept waiting for the b train.
“Its 7:50pm and I just got home,” said Mike Nemoy. “40 minutes later than usual in an overstuffed Q. Today was miserable.”
Others, though, found the coverage on Sheepshead Bites – which sent several reminders of the shutdown throughout the day via Facebook and Twitter – helpful in navigating their commutes home.
“Thanks to Sheapsheadbay Bites I knew before I left work and walked to 42nd street to take Q,” boasted Angela Krivolapova . “So i had a sit and arrive home without problems.”
Reader Stan Desyatnikov was rather smug about the whole situation, though, saying “Glad I took a sick day today…”
Judging from the number of likes, however, people felt more sympathetic to Enrique Mui, who perhaps most succinctly captured the sentiment of the current generation of commuters.
He wrote: “I hate the MTA.”
How was your commute home on Monday?