MTA subway passengers face darkness, rattled nerves during Manhattan power outage
Written by David C. Lester, Editor-in-Chief
MTA New York City Transit / Marc A. Hermann
Part of the New York City subway system in Manhattan was cloaked in darkness as part of the massive power outage the city experienced on Saturday evening, beginning just before 7:00 p.m. EDT. As would be expected, passengers aboard the subway had no idea what was going on when the darkness hit and the trains stopped. According to the New York City CBS affiliate CBSNew York (cbsnewyork.com), one passenger said “I was coming to 59th Street, but the power just stopped suddenly, went out. Lights went out. It’s pitch black down there. We were stuck down there for, I’d say 40 minutes.”
Another passenger reported that “Kids on the train with their mothers, everybody crying, kids are crying. Everybody get off the train. It’s just crazy.”
Restoration of power began around 10:00 p.m., according to the New York Times (nytimes.com), and power was fully restored by midnight. ConEd reported that they believe a problem at a substation triggered the outage, but that the precise cause is still under investigation.
