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 A day after a deadly snowstorm slammed the region, extreme delays
crippled Boston's subways, including the most heavily traveled Red
Line, which sees about 273,000 riders each day.
"A week of constant exposure to frigid temperatures, ice, and record
snowfall has taken a major toll on the MBTA's vehicles and
infrastructure," the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority said in a
statement.
"We're incredibly late and we're incredibly annoyed," Jeremiah
Graves, 31, said as he and a companion waited for a bus to get to
work after no train showed up at the Harvard stop.
"The decision should have been made yesterday to shut down
everything and have time to clean up for today," he said, referring
to the second major storm in less than a week to pummel the
Northeast. It was blamed for at least seven deaths, including some
in the Midwest, where it struck first.
In New York City, icing on Monday was blamed for paralyzing the
Number 7 subway line - which serves 500,000 riders a day - and
doubling commuting times for some who scrambled to squeeze onto
buses or taxis.
"'7'th ring of hell for frozen Queens riders," proclaimed a Daily
News headline about the end-to-end shutdown for six hours, which
began when workers tried to remove an umbrella burning on the
electric third rail and wound up allowing ice to form on the third
rail, which stalled a train and brought the line to a halt.
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"Am I going to be stranded in Queens all day?" Helen Gutowski, 24, a
performance artist, recalled worrying after the train went out of
service, and she waited for a bus for two hours in the cold before
she started walking the snowy streets to head home.
On Tuesday morning, three other subway lines were delayed because of
signal problems that could be weather related, said Amanda Kwan,
spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which
oversees the subway system, including 220 miles of track that are
above ground and exposed to the elements.
Commuter delays due to weather also were reported on trains in
suburban New Jersey and Long Island, and ice closed the sidewalk on
the George Washington Bridge spanning the Hudson River.
(Reporting by Barbara Goldberg in New York and Elizabeth Barber in
Boston; Additional reporting by Ellen Wulfhorst in New York; Editing
by Scott Malone and Doina Chiacu)
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