A subway power outage snarled service across the city Friday evening, leaving some riders trapped on trains for upwards of two hours.
A series of partial suspensions and long delays plagued parts of some lines in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens for the better part of the evening, starting before 7 p.m. Multiple service alerts were sent out by the MTA, alerting that E, F, M and R lines between Manhattan and Queens were all severely delayed, or rerouted altogether.
New York City Transit pinned the blame for the service suspensions on a power outage on the third rail.
But that explanation didn't make those stuck on board feel any better. Dozens of riders, likely including some who had only recently returned to using the subways as ridership numbers go up, were left in limbo.
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Sophie Spinellie said her Queens-bound E train was standed just outside the Roosevelt Avenue station, with people "laying on the floor, sleeping" as the train halted and didn't move for quite some time.
After hours of no resolution, people were evacuated from at least one train.
"They just got a bunch of crew and service members on there, and it was moving inch by inch, and then it stopped again. They continued to move it to the station over a 30-minute perioid," said Spinellie. She ended her journey still four stops away from home, but said she was going to take a break before getting on another train.
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By the end of the night, the MTA said that some service had been restored on local tracks, and were working with Con Edison to restore full power.
