'Human Error' Likely Caused MTA Subway Shutdown, Hochul Says

NEW YORK CITY — A person may have accidentally pressed an emergency power-off switch, causing Aug. 29's widespread MTA shutdown, an investigation has found.

Gov. Kathy Hochul blamed the power outage on "human error," saying a preliminary investigation revealed that a plastic guard that would have prevented accidental use of the manually-activated switch was missing.

In response to the investigation, Hochul is directing a "full review of operation control centers across the entire MTA" to find any other weaknesses, her office said in a news release on Friday.

The subway's 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and L lines all experienced outages that Sunday night, affecting 83 trains.

Five of those trains – carrying a total of around 550 passengers – were stranded between stations, leading to both personnel-run evacuations of passengers and self-evacuations that Hochul said led to a delay in the restoration of power.

Read more: MTA Subway Outage That Stranded 100s 'Unacceptable,' Hochul says

It took more than an hour for the power to come back on, which Hochul also said was likely because of "internal organization and process flaws."

The engineering firms that investigated the incident, HDR and WSP, found that the shutdown was exacerbated due to the New York City Rail Control Center's lack of a power distribution monitoring system. Such a system would have provided "visibility of the status of key electrical components in the power distribution system."

Thus, investigators recommended that the MTA create a "Building Management System" for the RCC, which would give officials greater visibility of the status of the building's electrical distribution, mechanical, and security systems.

In the short term, the report tasked the MTA with installing equipment that would alternate electrical circuits so that every circuit in the building is fed.

"I am directing mitigation steps to ensure riders are not interrupted by these causes ever again," Hochul said in a statement. "We will deliver the modernization, enhancements, and reliability that riders deserve."