An MTA work crew performs emergency track work at 81st Street and Central Park West, which caused a suspension of B train service and severe delays to A. C, and D trains on Monday, Aug. 31.
Marc A. Hermann / MTA
The MTA suspended B train service in Upper Manhattan and the Bronx on Monday, while having downtown C trains continue to skip a slew of local stops, as construction crews work to make emergency track repairs on the Upper West Side.
The transit agency said on its website late Monday morning that it expects there will be no B train service in Upper Manhattan or the Bronx through “at least today.”
Instead, the B, which normally terminates at the Bronx’s Bedford Park Blvd stop, is switching to the M line from 47-50 Sts-Rockefeller Ctr to Lexington Av/63 St, where it will then move onto the Q line north to 96 St on the Upper East Side and terminate there.
At the same time, the C train, which along with the B normally runs local in Upper Manhattan, was skipping all downtown stops between 125 St and 59 St-Columbus Circle on Monday morning.
The C, A, and D trains were all facing severe delays running downtown and delays going uptown, with some D trains going local in that direction.
The cascade of service changes and delays was sparked by emergency track work the MTA announced late Sunday night. The agency said the emergency work is necessary to repair cracks its workers discovered underneath the trackbed at 81 St and Central Park West as it conducted a scheduled track replacement over the weekend.
Crews are conducting temporary maintenance now, with plans to do more permanent repairs at a later date, the agency said.
The MTA is encouraging B train riders to take the 1, 4, D, and Q trains instead. It’s also urging straphangers who normally take A, B, C, and D trains in Upper Manhattan to take the 1, 2, and 3 trains as an alternative.
Visit MTA.info for the latest updates on subway service.