A tripped breaker knocked out subway signals beneath W. Fourth Street in Manhattan Tuesday morning, stranding trains underground, the Daily News has learned.
The subsequent loss of power caused a string of red signals from north of W. Fourth St. to Spring St., causing havoc on the A and C lines, with scattered outages on the B, D, F and M trains, as well, transit sources told The News.
The signal outage was first reported shortly after 8:30 a.m.
“Signals were at red and stop arms were up,” NYC Transit President Demetrius Crichlow told The News. “When teams got to the scene, they found the signals had power, so we started investigating what caused it and a second [crew worked on] how to we get trains moving.”
An unknown number of trains were stranded underground by the outage, unable to move against a red signal. Since power to the trains comes from the third rail, which was unaffected, multiple sources told the News that air conditioning aboard the stranded subways was unaffected.
Crichlow said his teams were able to lower the emergency stop arms to allow trains to move slowly through the red signals.
As of 10 a.m., all stranded trains had been able to move out of the affected area, an MTA spokesperson said.
Service was slowly being restored late Tuesday morning, with full service expected to resume in time for the late afternoon / evening rush.
The cause of the tripped breaker remained under investigation.
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