According to police and fire officials, a subway train derailed in Brooklyn on Wednesday afternoon. It was the second derailment incident on the New York City transit system in less than a week.
The train, a Manhattan-bound F train, left the elevated tracks between the West Eighth Street and Neptune Avenue stations in Coney Island shortly before 12:30 p.m., officials said. There were 34 passengers and three crew members on the train, Richard Davey, the president of New York City Transit, said at a news conference. No one was injured in the derailment and the cause is under investigation, officials said.
Mr Davey said one of the train's wheels had come loose from the tracks and that investigators were focusing on that as they searched for the cause of the derailment.
“The track has to be straight for a train to travel on it safely,” he said, although he did not identify a specific problem with the track at the derailment site. The tracks were inspected in November and no problems were found at that time, he added.
Mr Davey said the derailments that occurred last week were unrelated to the one on Wednesday and he sought to reassure passengers that the transport system was safe.
“Derailments happen. They shouldn’t, but they do from time to time,” he said.
Service on the F Line was partially suspended in Brooklyn due to the derailment, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the state agency that operates the city's mass transit system, said on its website. The agency aims to restore service by the morning rush hour on Thursday, transportation officials said. The MTA now operates a shuttle bus service along the route.
Mr Davey said the train was approaching the Neptune Avenue station when its emergency braking system automatically triggered. The train stopped and a crew member got out to see what had happened. Mr Davey noted that the train was a newer model and was equipped with monitoring equipment that could help officers determine the cause of the problem.
The stuck train's passengers were evacuated to two rescue trains within about an hour, officials said.
People who were near the construction site an hour after the derailment reported hearing a loud noise and the sound of debris falling from the tracks.
One passenger, Elisa Gales, who lives near the Stillwell Avenue station in Coney Island, was sitting in the first car of the train when she said she felt “a sharp jolt.”
“It just set us back in our place,” said Ms. Gales, 61. “And then it set us back again. And then I thought, 'Oh my God.' In my mind I thought, 'I hope this isn't a derailment.'”
She said the sound on the train's public address system was so weak that she and other passengers could not understand what was happening. She said she eventually learned that the train's third and fourth cars were involved in the derailment.
“We finally found out they were going to bring a rescue train,” said Ms. Gales, who explained that she had worked at cleaning stations along the F Line at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. “And we had to walk the plank to get into the rescue train.”
“There’s always something with the F-line,” she added.
Wednesday's episode came six days after a No. 1 train carrying 300 people collided with an out-of-service train on Manhattan's Upper West Side amid confusion over which train had the right of way. Both trains derailed and more than two dozen people were injured.
None of the injuries in those Jan. 4 derailments were life-threatening, officials said. Full service on the affected routes — among the busiest in the busiest mass transit system in the United States — was not restored for nearly three days. Investigators have suggested that human error was the cause, although it remains unclear who exactly was responsible.
Mr Davey said Wednesday's incident was “nowhere near as complicated” as last week's.
Previous derailments, which occurred just before the afternoon rush hour, occurred after vandals triggered the emergency brakes of a No. 1 train and it stalled at 79th Street, transit officials said at a news conference.
The stalled train's passengers got off, the train was taken out of service and began traveling slowly to a downtown storage yard with four transportation workers on board, according to three transportation officials with knowledge of the investigation. As it approached the 96th Street station, it collided at slow speed with the other No. 1 train carrying passengers.
Investigators from the MTA and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the crash. Issues under investigation include the performance of employees who worked on the trains and in the subway system's control center, according to safety agency officials.
“It's easy to blame people,” Safety Committee Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said at a news conference when asked if the crash was caused by one person's mistake. “Human error is always a symptom of a system that needs to be redesigned.”
Daniel Alicea, the supervisor of a team installing an elevator in a nearby building, was at McDonald's when the F train derailed Wednesday. Other crew members were having lunch near the tracks at the time.
“It was so loud, all the construction workers were out here, all scurrying like cockroaches,” Mr. Alicea said, pointing to debris on the ground that he said had been thrown out by the derailment.
“It all fell to the ground,” he said. “Thank God there was no one among them.”
Cesar Quintero, a construction worker who lays foundations for commercial buildings, was working next to the elevated tracks when the F train derailed. He spoke Spanish and said he was worried because his wife was taking the No. 1 train to work.
“My wife wanted to take that train,” he said of the No. 1 train that derailed last week. “She works on 96th Street. She saw the train that had derailed leaving the platform as she entered the station.”
He added that just two months ago he saw transit workers replacing parts of the track where the F train derailed on Wednesday. A piece of metal fell from the tracks and nearly hit a woman, he said.
“It's worrying because you want to get home healthy and safe, and something like this creates insecurity when you take the train,” Mr. Quintero said.
Before last week, it had been several years since a subway train carrying passengers derailed. On September 20, 2020, an express train with 100 people on board came off the tracks near 14th Street in Manhattan. Three passengers suffered minor injuries.