It was one of the worst commutes in years. A power outage stranded more than 3,500 New York City subway riders in stuffy, crowded train cars for more than two hours on Dec. 11, 2024, during the evening rush.<\/p>\n
Firefighters evacuated riders from the disabled trains, but not before some passengers were forced to relieve themselves between cars, according to people who were present. The ensuing delays, which affected the A, C, F and G lines in Brooklyn, stretched well into the morning, snarling the commute for thousands more riders.<\/p>\n
But the foul-up didn\u2019t start on the tracks \u2014 it began about 40 feet beneath the sidewalk, in a concrete bunker called a substation, like this one.<\/p>\n
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which runs the New York City subway, operates 225 of these substations. They provide the electricity that keeps trains moving.<\/p>\n
Some are deep underground, while others are in fortresslike buildings close to train tracks. Dozens of the facilities are nearing 100 years old, and some components have gone decades without substantial upgrades.<\/p>\n
The electrical outage in 2024 started after a critical failure in a Downtown Brooklyn substation that dates to the 1930s. Heavy rainfall most likely seeped into equipment and caused an explosion so forceful<\/a> that it knocked a door off its hinges, according to the M.T.A.<\/p>\n Without adequate electricity, trains that were closest to the damaged substation could not move, and their ventilation systems shut down.<\/p>\n Such major failures are rare, but are responsible for some of the subway\u2019s worst logjams, said Jamie Torres-Springer, the head of the authority\u2019s construction and development division.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s what causes the most difficult, painful disruptions in the system that drive people out of their minds,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n