Power Failure Hinders 1 Line Service

A power failure brought trains on the 1 line to a halt in both directions between 96th and 168th streets shortly after 7 p.m. Thursday, forcing students, commuters, and tourists to either walk east to the A/C line or to take the bus instead. Service resumed at 7:50 with “residual delays.”

Riders streamed out of the 116th Street station from all exits, and a glance inside revealed a small crowd gathered around the attendant’s booth next to the entrance turnstiles, everyone shouting their questions at once to be heard above the din.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority posted a service advisory on its Web site at 7:21, but did not give a reason for the incident.

This is not the first time a power failure has brought a section of New York’s subway system to its knees. Last June, Con Edison suffered an outage which affected subway service from Manhattan’s East Side to the Bronx. And in October, the entire 7 line went down for about two hours.

MTA officials could not be reached by press time.