It’s just another day in L!
The L train suffered its third consecutive day of delays on Wednesday afternoon after some electrical cables went haywire in the Canarsie Tunnel.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority slowed trains to a crawl within the East River-spanning tunnel between the Bedford Avenue station and Manhattan at around 1:50 p.m., giving workers time to repair underground cables that started throwing off sparks, according to agency spokesman Andrei Berman.
Some trains bound for the Big Apple were brought to a halt at Myrtle-Wyckoff avenues or Bedford Avenue stations 20 minutes after the initial social media announcement by the Authority’s Five Borough arm.
“Some Eighth Avenue-bound L trains are ending at Myrtle-Wyckoff avenues or Bedford Avenue,” the New York City Transit Subway account posted on Twitter. “Expect delays in both directions.”
Authority workers temporarily patched up the malfunctioning wires ahead of the evening rush, with regular service resuming by 4 p.m., although Berman noted that agency repairmen will have to conduct a more comprehensive fix at some time in the near future, possibly this weekend, when the Authority plans on shutting the line down between Broadway Junction and Manhattan to accommodate a Union Square escalator upgrade.
Berman insisted the cable crisis was unrelated to a larger project to repair the tunnel, which was inundated by caustic salt water during Hurricane Sandy, and has necessitated cutting L train service on weeknights and weekends.
Wednesday’s hassle marks the third day in a row that the northern Brooklyn line has suffered major delays, and follows a suspected track fire that snarled service during the morning rush Monday, and the bicycle left on the rails near Broadway Junction that triggered the emergency breaks on an approaching L train Tuesday morning.
