Fire at Dekalb Causes Commuters to Contemplate Moving to the Suburbs

photo credit: Matthew Roe

A fire at deep in a manhole at Dekalb Station shut down five subway lines yesterday for more than three hours. And as though to spite us all, those three hours? A little after 4pm till about 7:30, also known as rush hour. With the N, R, Q, D, and B trains out of service and/or rerouted (the NYT has the detailed rundown), Atlantic-Barclays was something out of The Inferno. Certainly, it was infernal.

If you managed to miss the whole ordeal, consider yourself lucky. Considerably less lucky neighbor Matthew Roe was there. Here’s his account:

With the R, D, N, B and Q out of service, Atlantic-Pacific was a mass of molten humanity. I didn’t hear a single announcement about the track fire in the ten minutes I was at Whitehall Street, the 2 minutes I as at Bowling Green, the fifteen minutes I was on the 4/5 train, or the ten minutes it took to get from the 4/5 platform at Atlantic to the 4th Avenue/Pacific Street exit, where the attached photo was taken.

NYPD was blocking access to the N/D/R platform (I guess because nobody knew anything the crowd was still hoping for an R to Bay Ridge or somesuch) and was even blocking street-to-mezzanine access at 4th/Pacific. (NYCT staff wasn’t aware though, and directed people to that entrance.)

Meanwhile, of course, there weren’t any extra buses on the adjacent routes, and no emergency ones.  So it’s basically hopeless for anyone trying to get to Bay Ridge or Sunset Park in a timely fashion, unless they have cash for and can find a cab (both rather uncertain).

Fail.

Of course, a fire is a fire — a frustrating subway inevitability — and thankfully, no one was hurt (“unless you count the damage to straphangers’ already bruised and battered souls,” says Gothamist). But having also stood on the R platform at Union for what seemed like a significant portion of my life, with no announcement until the masses got angry, I can’t help but wonder if perhaps there situation couldn’t have been drastically improved via loudspeaker? An audible announcement goes an awfully long way. (Also, some extra buses.)

Actual subway breakdowns seem difficult and inherently time-consuming. I have sympathy! Communications breakdowns, on the other hand? Not so much.