I would have hated to be stuck on the A train in Queens for ALL of last night. No food, no water, and no heat! Sheesh. Just glad everyone made it out safely!
The two stranded A trains in Queens (see “Stuck on the A Train Since 1 A.M.“) are now unstranded.
Here are some more details from the ordeal:
The train that got stuck at the Aqueduct station shortly before 1 a.m. had 400 passengers aboard. Blowing snow drifts, which at times reached four feet high, had covered the electrified third rail of the subway track, rendering the train powerless.
The train had just started to leave the station, so most of the cars were still on the platform, allowing passengers to use the restroom facilities at the station. But the train had no heat, and food and drink were limited to what passengers had brought onboard. (A similar situation unfolded on an A train trapped at the nearby Broad Channel station, although the exact length of that ordeal was not immediately available.)
Attempts to send a rescue crew to the Aqueduct train were stymied because transit workers themselves could not travel through the city; highways were blocked or closed during the snowstorm, which lasted most of the night, and many subway lines in the outer reaches of Brooklyn and Queens were suspended.
A rescue train finally reached the Aqueduct station at 7:52 a.m., at which point the stricken A train was towed to the Rockaways terminal. A transit spokeswoman said there were no reports of injuries. Reports of anger and frustration, however, were legion. — MICHAEL M. GRYNBAU
