31 hours later: subways back in action!

Johnny Trains Aug 16, 2003

  1. Johnny Trains

    Johnny Trains Passed away April 29, 2004 In Memoriam

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    31 hours after the lights went out, NYC Subways are rolling!

    660 miles of track and signals had to be inspected before trains could operate again.

    Some delays are expected, and some scheduled weekend track work has resumed.

    The real MTA heroes of the incident are the bus drivers who kept our busses running in darkness and traffic jams. The buses were packed beyond anything anyone has ever seen before. All City buses were free on Thursday night and all day Friday.

    An estimated 350,000 people were on the trains when the lights went out. No one was injured during the evacuations.

    Also, as of last night people were already wearing "I SURVIVED THE BLACKOUT OF '03!" tee shirts!

    I LOVE NY!

    GOD BLESS AMERICA!
     
  2. Peirce

    Peirce Passed away April 3, 2009 In Memoriam

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    Where else but New York. I was there for the 1965 blackout--on a subway train heading uptown. Nowhere else could the T-shirts go on sale almost before the event.
     
  3. Johnny Trains

    Johnny Trains Passed away April 29, 2004 In Memoriam

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    NEW YORK DAILY NEWS STORY:

    Getting back
    on track

    City's subways were rolling again this A.M.

    By PETE DONOHUE and DAVE GOLDINER
    DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS

    The familiar rumble of the subway returned to the city early today, transit officials said.
    The gargantuan transportation system slowly powered up, inch by inch, as Con Edison worked to juice the tracks. By 12:01 a.m., full service was restored on the 1, 7, A, J, L and M lines. Partial service was back on the 2, 4, 5 and 6 lines, Transit Authority spokeswoman Marisa Baldeo said. "We're definitely going to have service restored by morning," she said. Officials had said earlier it could take as long as eight hours to get trains running again after power was restored, but Baldeo said workers were able to make inspections while the power was down. "By the time we had power, we were pretty much ready to go," Baldeo said.

    Before the trains could run, officials had to test 12,000 signals that tell trains when to stop and when to move, and 1,600 switches. The return of the subway came as a relief to New Yorkers, who got around yesterday as best as they could riding on four wheels or rolling on two.

    A day after trudging for hours to get home, some commuters walked, biked or skated back to near-empty office buildings in Manhattan yesterday.
    His Hugo Boss suit tucked in a backpack, Vandon Nixon zipped down along the West Side Highway on his inline skates to his job at Goldman Sachs. "When you work on Wall Street, you don't stop work for nothing," said Nixon, 38, of the upper West Side. "It's a beautiful ride. I may take it more often." Mark Cedar stuffed a granola bar, a Swiss Army knife and a first-aid kit into a pouch and steered his bike onto the Brooklyn Bridge around 7 a.m. to get to a midtown video shoot. He rolled through nearly empty streets and rolled right back again when the gig was canceled. He was counting on collecting a full day's pay. "You bet they pay me," said Cedar, 40, of Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn. "They had me show up."

    Traffic-free streets and highways opened invitingly in front of Jackie Raab and Evelyn Vale, who needed just 30 minutes to drive from Ozone Park, Queens, to lower Manhattan. John Brodsky, 46, had no trouble driving in to his Wall Street job from the Jersey Shore but found his building shut for the day. "I thought the power was going to be up," he said. Getting back to New Jersey was to prove a bigger challenge. By midafternoon, New Yorkers clogged highways headed upstate or to Long Island and Jersey beaches, hoping to parlay the blackout into a three-day weekend.

    With the subways out yesterday morning, many buses in Manhattan were packed, with passengers cramming in through the back door. The ride was free all around town. But at the height of the morning rush, bus driver Francis Sampson had a single passenger in his Bx34 bus, which normally carries dozens to the subway in the Bronx.
    "It's Friday. I guess they are making a long weekend of it," said Sampson, 46.

    Here and gone

    On the sparkling summer day, commuters packed the Staten Island ferry, but many turned right back around when they found the subways were out. "I'm going home," said Joyce Beekman, a clerk at Brooklyn Criminal Court. "I gave it my best shot."
    After spending the night at their Wall Street office, Fran Stadt, 57, and John McMahon, 55, took a ferry to Long Island City, Queens, a van to Sunnyside and a cab to Jamaica.
    Five hours and a bus ride later, they were in Hicksville, L.I., still far from their Suffolk County homes. "I'm retiring," Stadt said wearily.

    At Grand Central Terminal, hundreds of people milled about, looking for Metro-North trains to Stamford, Conn., White Plains or Poughkeepsie.
    The terminal usually handles 70,000 commuters daily, but spokesman Dan Brucker estimated that fewer than 10% of that came yesterday. Commuting was the last thing on the mind of Jennifer Goldfarb, 36, who nursed a blister on her toe from a marathon trudge Thursday. She sat on a bench as she waited in Brooklyn's Grand Army Plaza for a ride to the beach."Work? Forget it," Goldfarb said. "Look at my foot. I can't even wallk."

    Originally published on August 16, 2003
     
  4. CNJ_1526

    CNJ_1526 New Member

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    If there was ever a group of people who can ride out adversity, its New Yorkers!
     
  5. rush2ny

    rush2ny TrainBoard Member

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    This is indeed good news. I saw on one of the local reports, Metro North motormen, sitting stranded with their trains. One motorman for over 21 hours! I believe that they have to stay with the train in order to secure it. (Wouldn't want no joy riding out there).
    My family faired very well as we were very well prepared for such an emergency. We actually had FUN too. It isn't that often that you can see so many stars in the eastern skies.
    I do feel terrible for those that got stuck in elevators and the subway.

    Russ
     
  6. Johnny Trains

    Johnny Trains Passed away April 29, 2004 In Memoriam

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    Peirce, we would love to hear your story about being stuck on a train back in the '65 blackout!

    I was lucky and caught maybe the last cab downtown just minutes before everyone else was to find other means of getting home. We got stuck in heavy traffic and I abandoned the cab in favor of walking. I did walk 48 blocks home, but according to Yahoomaps, that wasn't bad. It says it's 8.2 miles from my house to where I work!

    My daughter was home at the time the lights went out and my wife had to walk down 20 floors of her office building and then had about a 2 mile walk.

    We were all lucky.

    [ 17. August 2003, 01:54: Message edited by: Johnny Trains ]
     
  7. Peirce

    Peirce Passed away April 3, 2009 In Memoriam

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    OK, JT, here is what I remember of the '65 blackout.

    I was working downtown on Rector Street at the time and was on my way home up on West 89th St. I don't remember which subway line it was.

    We had reached the upper 50s when the power went down. As is typical, everyone on the car where I was just sort of sat it out. No panic or even much show of concern. The conductor didn't know much more than we did at that moment.

    After about 45 minutes we were informed they would attempt to move the train forward on battery power until it could join with the train ahead, which managed to move its lead one or two cars into a station. They succeeded in doing this. We were then able to walk through the two trains and onto the station platform. If I remember correctly, it was the one just north of 57th street. I do remember coming out somewhere near the south end of Central Park. Then it was just a matter of walking uptown to W. 89th. I lived about a half block from Central Park West at the time.

    The next morning I made a feeble attempt to get to work, but after several busses came along that were already overloaded, I decided to take the day off.
     
  8. Johnny Trains

    Johnny Trains Passed away April 29, 2004 In Memoriam

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    Wow! I too tried to get the #1 train at Rector after the lights went out. I live on West 75th St.
     
  9. Peirce

    Peirce Passed away April 3, 2009 In Memoriam

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    Wow, is right. What a small world!
     
  10. CNJ_1526

    CNJ_1526 New Member

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    My wife was living on Bainbridge Ave in the Bronx during the '65 Blackout. He father was stuck at work over on E. Tremont Avenue, and her mother was at work by Yankee Stadium. Took them both quite some time to make it home.

    I was living in Elizabeth N.J.....We were fortunate that we had power.
     
  11. Johnny Trains

    Johnny Trains Passed away April 29, 2004 In Memoriam

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    I was 8 during the first one. I vaugely remember listening to the transistor radio and staring out at the pitch black streets that would only have light when a car went down the street.

    The second one of '77, I was deep in the heart of the South Bronx trying to rescue a buddy of mine who was working in his uncle's bodega. My friends and I saw all kinds of looting and burning and people going wild!

    After 9/11, I must say that those cities and towns affected by this blackout came out unscathed. We should be proud of our citizens this time. Can't say much for our power companies though.

    Unfortunately, my buddy Dave who was with me that night in '77 is no longer with us and I miss telling him about our most recent one. :( Hope he is in a better world than we live in lately.

    [ 18. August 2003, 23:02: Message edited by: Johnny Trains ]
     
  12. cthippo

    cthippo TrainBoard Member

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    Only 31 hours late? Amtrak should take lessons from these guys.
     

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