Limited Southbound Train Service Restored
Restoration Comes One Day After Derailment
Governor Kathy Hochul today announced the Metropolitan Transportation Authority New York City Transit will resume limited subway service on the and lines to and from a reopened 96 Street Station at 5:00 p.m. today. The restoration comes one day after passengers were finished being safely evacuated from the derailed trains. The incident, at 96 Street station, involved a passenger train carrying approximately 300 customers and a vandalized train that had been taken out of service at another station.
“MTA has been working around the clock to safely restore this essential subway service to New Yorkers,” Governor Hochul said. “I am grateful to all our first responders who were able to evacuate passengers quickly yesterday, and to the workers continuing to ensure that full-service is restored as soon as possible.”
MTA Chair and CEO Janno Lieber said, “New York’s subway system is incredibly resilient and over and over has shown an ability to quickly bounce back. In this case, MTA teams have worked 24 hours straight to reestablish service, and we’ll keep at it until full service is restored.”
The and trains will run limited service in two sections with shuttle bus service provided at skipped stations. The train will run in both directions from its northern terminus at Van Cortlandt Park-242 Street to 96 Street, and from Times Sq-42 Street to South Ferry. The train will run in both directions from its northern terminus at Harlem-148 Street to 96 Street, and from Times Sq-42 Street to New Lots Av. Shuttle buses will provide service for customers in both directions between 96 Street and Times Sq-42 Street. Limited southbound train service has been restored, with every other train traveling down the west side and the remaining trains traveling south down the east side. Northbound trains will continue to run on the line. These service changes will be in effect until additional tracks can be cleared and any necessary repairs completed.
At approximately 3:00 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 4, two trains were traveling northbound leaving 96 Street Station at slow speeds at which time the trains bumped into each other and both derailed. There were no reported serious injuries.
Following the incident, crews made substantial progress overnight and through the day on Friday to rerail three cars that had left the tracks. The train that had been in service with passengers was removed and crews are currently addressing the vandalized non-passenger train that derailed on the local track and conducting an inspection of the area and making any necessary repairs to the tracks and infrastructure to enable resumption of full service on the .
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is on scene and their investigation into this incident is ongoing. Customers are advised to check mta.info and the MYmta app for the latest service updates.