New York City subway train derails in collision with another train, injuring more than 20 people
A New York City subway train derailed Thursday after colliding with another train at low speed, leaving more than 20 people with minor injuries and causing major service disruptions across Manhattan during the afternoon rush hour, authorities said.
At about 3 p.m. on the Upper West Side, a 1 train carrying about 300 passengers and an out-of-service Metropolitan Transportation Authority train with four workers on board hit each other near the 96th Street station, police and transit officials said at the scene. A “derailment” is when at least one wheel of a train leaves the track.
Photos posted on social media by city emergency management officials showed the passenger train partially off the tracks in an area that had a track-switching mechanism. Officials said there were no immediate signs of equipment failure and investigators were seeing if human error was involved.
I'm pretty ignorant about this. How tf is this even possible?
Sounds kinda like the same thing with above ground trains, someone didn't run the correct track and ran into a out-of-service train. Says right in the article that it happened near a track switch, so likely human error/someone didn't get the memo on don't go track "A" go track "B" today kinda thing.
Honestly why are humans even there to make these decisions? It's a train
IIRC the NY subway is infamous for running on ridiculously outdated, patchwork tech because they aren't allowed to shut down long enough to implement the necessary modern improvements, nor does the MTA get the funds to do so.
There are plenty of subway systems where this could never have happened.
Indeed, the whole system is massively complex and serves a megacity with one of the world's oldest systems 24/7. Maintenance is insanely costly and difficult. It's like repairing airplanes while in flight.
Makes sense for "the city that never sleeps"
Because upgrading to an automated system costs too much.
Not enough money to do it right but enough to do it twice.
Shit broke yo.
Train was going too fast, lack of maintenance on the track, etc etc
Surprisingly similar to standard train derailments.
Nowhere does it mention he was going too fast, and the article clearly says there are no signs of mechanical failure, and they are looking into human error.
It's more likely he missed the memo to switch tracks during maintenance because the old NY subway doesn't have an automated system.
The other person asked what common reasons for subway car derailment were, I wasn't speaking specifically to this incident.
That being said this, thanks for the clarification.