Feb. 20, 2018 By Tara Law
Astoria commuters who attempted to ride the subway this morning faced crowds, lines and confusion as signal problems at Queens Plaza and 5th Avenue/59th Street stations caused serious service delays.
Delays lasted from about 8 a.m. until 12:45 p.m.
N/W-line commuters were forced to walk to the 7 line (Queens Plaza), hire cars or wait for the bus. Lines for the Q102 bus line, which runs down 31st Street along the N/W line, ran around the block.
Many commuters took to social media this morning to express their displeasure, posting photos and videos of packed platforms.
“I assume they think everyone in Astoria can just walk/swim into Manhattan,” wrote Shea @Eat_Work_Run.
Today’s delays occurred during a strained time for the MTA in Astoria.
Queens lawmakers have criticized the MTA for failing to upgrade service as they revamp the N/W stations in Astoria.
Councilmember Costa Constantinides, who has been critical of the renovations, tweeted that today’s delays indicate the need for service improvements.
“The disaster this morning along the N/W line is demonstrable of the MTA’s broken priorities in Astoria,” he wrote. “Instead of closing down stations & spending money on cosmetic updates, they should make long-term improvements to subway service in our neighborhood.”
Yikes! With morning N train service disruptions, the line for the M60 bus from Astoria is wrapped around the block! ? #MTA #Ntrain pic.twitter.com/7VUYhv9mqT
— Julie Huntington (@mieletpiment) February 20, 2018
How is your morning commute? Mine requires a 2-part video of a line to board a bus that won’t come when all of the subways are down. #MTAFail #MTA #Astoria pic.twitter.com/7leO8rjorF
— Joshua A Bruner (@JoshuaABruner) February 20, 2018
Another day another dystopian nightmare. Why do I pay for a monthly metro card?! #mta #mtafail #nwtrain #astoriatrainfail #fixthemta pic.twitter.com/LbvZl80Ent
— benaroya (@benaroya) February 20, 2018
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32 Comments
Living in NYC, its good to leave a little money to the side for days like this where you might have to take a taxi to work.
Millenials stop complaining and be proactive. Theres numerous ways to get around in this city if you really want to and don’t want to just complain and take photos to post on your SnapChat stories.
I was more stressed out about my glasses fogging up that morning than the train delay.
Why cant they use flags or hand gestures when there is a problem?
And yet you “progressives” keep send these morons back to office.
I’m a progressive and didn’t vote for Blasio. Thugs and project dwellers put him back in office.
Astoria has a fair share of more serious problems. One train delay and everyone is an uproar. Lets focus on some affordable housing and reducing all these assaults around here people!
@elen -Astoria already has affordable housing in the Astoria Houses, Queensbridge and Ravenswood. Do we really need or want anymore? It’s not just one train delay.it’s one of many daily delays and suspensions.
You have a good point. However, I would rather move out of Astoria than live in one of those old housing complexes you mentioned above. The hallways smell like urine, weed and dog. At night all you hear is loud salsa music and rap, a bunch of people cursing and smell curry and fried food. People hang out in the corner waiting for cars to drive by and make a stop (i seen it with my own eyes and it is the hidden part of Astoria that no one likes to talk about). Its not safe. If the city can open up homeless shelters in the nice areas around here then they can also build affordable housing right next to the luxury apartments they are building instead of putting them all in the same place and ruining large sections of Astoria. Plus those housing complexes have no vacancies.
I’m glad the complaining was through texts. Can you imagine waiting in line listening to a bunch of whiners and cry babies talk among themselves. There was a signal problem and safety comes first when dealing with mass transit.
This is NYC, for what you are paying to have a monthly MTA card and to live in Astoria you should have a way to get to work. It is 2018 and this clearly shows how behind on technology this old generation really is. Hire new young blood that grew up with technology to fix these problems. At the moment no one cares how the stations look on the outside. I have the option to drive my bike but on bad weather days I take a train and looks like at this point I may just drive those days as well.
This is why u moved out of Astoria ? this has been happening since I went to high school I had to walk with many others to queens borough plaza from 30th ave
I started daily commuting from Astoria in 1969. It was like this back then and never changes. I went through 38 years of commuting hell. So, build more condos and highrises and add even more commuters.
The media only likes to focus on the negative feedback. Some of the folks took some nice selfies and posted them on line. Others snap chatted and enjoyed the view. I caught up on my social media accounts and spoke to some friends.
The city needs to do something when there is a transit problem. Perhaps make the city bikes all over Astoria free that day as an option for some instead of wasting time texting like a bunch of babies.
I saw this mess. The uber driver and I had a good laugh.
Whining hipsters. You think the train is a tragedy, wait until one of your parents dies. That’s tragedy, you sniveling spoiled little brats.
The MTA are criminals! What if YOU went to a client with this type of garbage service and said “Thank you fu yo patience.” You’d be out of a job. Cuomo is a disaster so let NYC run NYC.
How about you transplants go back to where you came from and leave the OG Astorian’s alone. No one likes your G** culture anyway.
Ooh “hipsters”, very, very clever! Being so smart, you must do not work or you’d know that the morning rush hour is us working stiffs. The “hipsters” like yourself, do get up until 11. Dick.
Whiners? When you pay for a service, you expect it to work.
Also, hipsters aren’t the people who are whining. As you should know, hipsters don’t work.
How do you get to work? And does your boss say oh it’s ok that you are hours late.
Who said anything about a tragedy? When a person’s livelihood depends on public transportation that is disrupted daily, it’s frustrating. Not tragic, but frustrating. And, I’ll blame your ignorance, but you must not have been on a subway if you think the only riders are hipsters.
“dystopian nightmare”
Dear editors:
Y’all know that the word you were looking for was either “torpid” or “horrid,” right? That headline does not mean what you think it means.
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/a-torrid-time
How the MTA, Cuomo and DE Blasso have riders and especially Astoria riders is criminal! NYC public transportation is truly, and honestly the worst in the world. MTA EXECS SHOULD BE FIRED AND THE MTA UNION EMPLOYEES SHOULD BE FIRED! CRIMINAL!!!!!
Signal problems. It’s 2018 and we’re still having major disruptions due to “signal problems”
As if the crime, assaults and tragic happenings in Astoria are not enough for everyone to hear, see and read about we now have a bunch of whiners complaining about their commute to and from Astoria! I had it with turning on the news and hearing something negative about Astoria every other week. People used to smile when I told them I live here and now they think it sucks or could care less!!
Then go back to Boise.
I’m glad I biked to work today.
Glad I moved out of NYC
Feels so empowering to cut through traffic and leave those MTA suckers in the dust! #TheWheelLife!