03/10/2001 - Saturday - Page A 12 Power Outage on No. 7 Disrupts Service; Cause Being Investigated

by Mohamad Bazzi Staff Writer

A power outage on the No. 7 line in Queens snarled Friday morning's rush for thousands of subway commuters heading into Manhattan.

All service on the 7 from Main Street in Flushing to Times Square was suspended from about 7:30 to 8:30 a.m. because of disrupted signals throughout the line, said Melissa Farley, a spokeswoman for New York City Transit.

About 10:30 a.m., there was another outage between Queensboro Plaza and Times Square, Farley said. Service was suspended between 61st Street-Woodside and Times Square until 11:38 a.m. Delays continued for more than an hour after service resumed.

The 7 is one of the city's busiest subway lines, carrying an average of 400,000 riders each weekday.

Farley said the cause of the outage was under investigation.

The disruptions forced many to switch to E, F and R trains at 74th Street-Roosevelt Avenue in Jackson Heights.

"This is ridiculous," said Jose Santana, 36, who was stuck on a 7 train for 20 minutes before he got to 74th Street from his local stop in Corona. "Now my entire day is ruined because the subways are so messed up." Straphangers were fuming because there were no transit workers on the platforms to assist them. Some riders said they were further confused by announcements from conductors.

"It happens all the time. There are these big delays and you can't get any information," said Alfred Lieberman, 42, of Woodside. "I guess the riders don't really matter." http://www.newsday.com/coverage/current/news/saturday/nd6800.htm

-- Doris (nocents@bellsouth.net), March 10, 2001