Crumbling Subway Station In Bay Ridge Causes R Train Suspension

BAY RIDGE, BROOKLYN — Straphangers on an R train in Brooklyn faced a reality of New York City's crumbling subway system on Sunday – a panel covering the wall at the 86th Street station in Bay Ridge fell onto the tracks, halting service on part of the line for nearly 12 hours, the MTA said.

The wall panel fell onto the tracks around 5:30 a.m., the MTA said. An R train pulling into the station hit its emergency brake after striking the panel, officials said.

The panel got stuck between the train wheel and the track but didn't cause the train to derail, the MTA said. The 30 passengers on the train got off with no injuries reported.

The MTA suspended R train service in Brooklyn between 36th Street and 95th Street until 4:18 p.m. after workers removed the panel from the tracks. Workers inspected the rest of the station during that time, the MTA said.

The same corridor of stations got upgrades just two years ago as part of the MTA's Fastrack repair program. The 2015 fixes included removing debris from the tracks and cleaning up the South Brooklyn stations.

Blocked subway tracks caused 8,490 delays in September out of more than 58,000 total delays that month, according to MTA documents.

(Lead image by Mark Osborne/Patch)