Power outage during L-Bahn rush hour affects commuter traffic on Monday morning
An L train on Livonia Avenue in June 2022.
Marc A. Hermann / MTA
Service on the L Line was suspended during rush hour between Brooklyn and Manhattan on Monday morning after a power outage occurred on the route.
The MTA reported at 8:15 a.m. on August 19 that the power rail in the 14th Street Tunnel under the East River, through which all L trains travel between Brooklyn and Manhattan, had failed. This forced the transit agency to suspend service in both directions on the line between Myrtle-Wyckoff Avenue and 8th Avenue in the middle of the morning rush hour.
An hour later, service had largely been restored in Manhattan and Brooklyn, but service between the boroughs was still suspended and the MTA advised passengers to take the A, C, J or M trains instead.
L service across the river was restored at 9:41 a.m., the MTA reported, and regular service resumed at 10:30 a.m., though still with significant delays.
The MTA is still investigating the cause of the outage, but an agency spokesman said it does not initially appear to be related to Sunday’s rainstorm.
L riders weren’t the only ones to experience a morning storm from hell. In Connecticut, the MTA suspended service on Metro-North’s Waterbury and Danbury branches after weekend rainstorms caused flooding. The Waterbury branch in particular was flooded after a landslide. Riders were instructed to take trains from nearby stops on the New Haven or Harlem lines instead.
