Cortelyou what: let’s bust out of here!
So said a group of straphangers who found themselves trapped on the Coney-Island-bound platform of a Flatbush subway station on Thursday morning after a train deposited them there despite that side being closed for repair work. A Community Newspaper Group production artist was among the dozen unlucky souls who climbed the stairs of the Cortelyou Road station at 6:30 am to find the door chained shut.
“We walked to the exit, but it was just locked,” said office legend John Napoli.
Napoli said a station attendant did nothing to help the stranded travelers pounding on the door.
“It seemed like the lady didn’t give a damn,” said Napoli.
Ten minutes elapsed and another train passed the station without stopping before the marooned riders took matters into their own hands and busted through the exit, which turned out to be attached by a flimsy zip-tie next to the padlocks and chain.
“I don’t know what else we were supposed to do,” he said.
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority claimed it would investigate the incident after an inquiry by The Brooklyn Paper, a spokeswoman for the agency said.
Napoli simply has not been able to catch a break this week. The morning before the Cortelyou debacle, the office legend was stuck in Flatbush for more than two hours when all Manhattan-bound Q trains, including the one he was riding, stopped in their stations to await the removal of a stalled subway at the Prospect Park stop. He ultimately made it to work that day by catching a 2 train, but not before walking all over creation and failing to find an open seat in overloaded cabs or buses.
Napoli’s brief detention at Cortelyou Road was less of a time suck, but he said he always braces for the worst when reaching for his MetroCard.
“I always leave early to compensate for our horrible transportation system,” he said.
The Coney-Island-bound sides of the Cortelyou, Beverly, and Parkside Q stations have been closed for structural work and repainting since February. The Beverly station’s platform reopened on Wednesday afternoon and the transportation authority had said the Cortelyou stop’s was supposed to reopen today, but later changed its tune, saying work will continue on all three stations this weekend, the blog Ditmas Park Corner reported.
