Updated on Feb. 20, 2:53 p.m.
Another day, another signal problem.
Due to issues with the MTA’s signal system at the 5 Av-59 St station, commuters in Astoria were scrambling to get to work this morning. N and W trains were experiencing massive delays starting at about 7:30 a.m., which forced straphangers to take the M60 bus.
But the line to get on the bus wrapped around the block, according to Twitter user Julie Huntington.
https://twitter.com/mieletpiment/status/965945471737978881
Commuters used Twitter to vent their frustration with the MTA, with one Twitter user criticizing the conductor for suggesting that passengers use the 7 train instead.
“How is the back up plan provided by the conductor to ‘get to the 7 train’?” wrote Twitter user @CaptJackHaddock. “Queensboro Plaza is a 45 minute walk from here. How can I ‘get’ there? Magic?”
Ashley Steele, an Astoria resident who uses the Astoria Boulevard stop to get to her job in Manhattan, said commuters received “generic train announcements offering no information.” She got to the platform at 8:15 a.m. and 45 minutes later the platform was full and no trains had come, she said.
“Swarms of people were on their phones scrambling to find open cabs, Lyfts and Ubers and still no information from MTA employees on the scene,” Steele said. “The amount of delays, changes and frustration we experience as Astorians is appalling and the MTA, this anonymous being with seemingly no accountability for any of its issues, should be ashamed.”
Steele had to rush back home for a meeting through video call and then walked 15 minutes to the M/R Steinway station to find that the R train was also not working. She was two hours late to work.
https://twitter.com/StephenReynolds/status/965962130389454854
N and W trains ran along the Q line between 5 Av-59 St and 96 St. The Queens Plaza station in Long Island City also experienced signal problems so southbound R trains ran along the F line from Jackson Hts-Roosevelt Av to Lexington Av-63 St.
All train service on the N,W, Q and R lines resumed by 1:30 p.m.
