We’ve landed on the moon, but you’d never believe it if you live or work off the F train in New York City. Because it is the transportation equivalent of a Song Walkman.
I don’t need to remind passengers yesterday who had the pleasure of being trapped in a sweltering underground tunnel with no air conditioning or light after an F train lost power and got stuck for more than an hour. Cellphone pictures and video revealed just how dire the situation was, with people trying to pry the door open after the train finally arrived at the Broadway-Lafayette Street station
https://twitter.com/chelseahbelle/status/871867107050487808
One passenger even wrote ‘I will survive’ on the window, fogged from intense heat.
@MTA spent two hours stuck on the f train. An hour this morning and an hour tonight. So hot we could write on the windows. Awful pic.twitter.com/SecfeggkRT
— Samantha Mushnick (@SamanthaMush) June 5, 2017
Michael Sciaraffo, who was riding home on the F train when it broke down at around 6.30pm, described dangerous conditions in a long-winded Facebook post.
Just had a very memorable, yet not so fun experience on the train ride home. I was taking a packed F train home, that had no working AC, when we abruptly stopped in a tunnel. The engines shut down, the lights go off and with no exaggeration, we were stuck there for 45 minutes in what felt like 120 degree heat.
First, we were told it was train traffic ahead of us (we all know that lie all too well). As we waited with no further communication, people started getting very worried. Almost everyone began fanning themselves with paper, as it felt as if it was just getting warmer and warmer. Beads of sweat began rolling down people’s faces. We started to tell everyone to open the side windows and open the doors the three inches we could pry it open to, with books, to get the cross ventilation from the passing trains. Coats started getting removed, and then people were sweating so much from standing in this crowded oven, that people starting taking off shirts and some pants. One lady disrobed while others covered her with a jacket so no one could see. Some people started getting faint, and we started to try and see if we could identify any elderly people or pregnant women on the car who were standing or needed water to see if they needed to sit and drink. Claustrophobia, panic and heat exhaustion began to set in for many folks. At this point, the windows started getting steamed up.
Michael continued to describe how after they eventually arrived at the station, they had to wait another 10 minutes in the dark while people on the platform began taking pictures and filming the fogged up car. People started to yell things like “please get me” out and “I feel sick.”
Everyone eventually made it out of the incident unharmed, but it remains to be known if the MTA will treat this as an investigation or just a whoopsie. My money’s on the latter.
[h/t Fox 5 NY]