Grows up. 30 (UPI) – A power surge that lasted a split second stopped hundreds of people on dozens of trains along New York City’s subway system Sunday night, a setback that New York Gov. Kathy Hochul qualify as “unacceptable” and “unprecedented” failure.
Hochul called for an investigation into the breakdown that left half of New York’s subway system without electricity from Monday to early Monday.
Consolidated Edison, or ConEd, of New York City, said the momentary disturbance occurred in an underground transmission feeder. Officials said it affected more than 500 passengers and 80 trains. About 300 people were trapped between Bronx railroad stations, and some had to be helped by firefighters.
“Let me be very clear. Last night was unacceptable,” Hochul said in a statement provided by the New York City Metropolitan Transportation Authority.
“If you’re one of those pilots or people who rely on safe transportation, the system failed you. The MTA is the lifeblood of the city and an disruption of this magnitude can be catastrophic.”
Hochul said two power plants and generators were disconnected at the same time, causing a momentary interruption of the backup system.
When the system tried to return to normal, it created an overvoltage that caused the subway to lose signaling and communication capacity between the command center and trains throughout the system.
“This ended up causing evacuations in the tunnels and two of these evacuations were ordered and directed by emergency personnel,” Hochul added. “In two more cases, the experience was what was known as self-evacuation, where the pilots decided to leave alone.
“We never, ever want the pilots to do it. It’s dangerous and it caused a delay in the restoration of power.”
“The disruption lasted a fraction of a second for all customers in our service territory,” ConEd said, according to WABC-TV. “We are still in contact with the MTA to understand why they lost this communication at their railway center during the voltage disturbance.”
An MTA spokesman said the affected cars were initially still receiving electricity, allowing them to be lit and air-conditioned, but workers had to cut off the grid for safety reasons when two-car passengers decided self-evacuate.
“The confluence of events that led to this had never occurred until now,” added Hochul, who took office and replaced former Governor Andrew Cuomo last week.