The Latest Excuse For MTA's Mess: Chairs On The Subway Tracks

BROOKLYN HEIGHTS, NY — We've had signal problems, track fires, overcrowding. Now the latest excuse for the meltdown of New York City's subway system is chairs on the tracks.

The A train was hit with delays Wednesday night after Gilberto Ramales, 24, threw a chair on the trackbed of the Jay Street-MetroTech Center station, according to the MTA and the NYPD.

The chair caused a Brooklyn-bound A train to stall as it entered the station at about 11:23 p.m., a spokeswoman for the MTA said. Two legs of the chair were close to the third rail of the tracks and workers needed to turn off the power to get rid of it.

Regular service resumed nearly 20 minutes later when the chair was taken off the track, according to the MTA.

Ramales was charged with reckless endangerment by police, a spokesman for the NYPD said.

Image: Marc Osborne/Patch