There continued to be delays on the L line late Thursday evening after service was suspended between Brooklyn and Manhattan for about eight hours earlier in the day because of a smoky underground fire. NY1's Jose Martinez filed the following report.
It was an L of a commute for riders on one of the city's fastest-growing subway lines.
"I can't get to work. I don't know how to get to work now," said one commuter. "I guess I have to get a cab across the bridge."
The trouble for L train riders began at 9:17 a.m. Thursday, when smoke in a tunnel linking Brooklyn and Manhattan forced a train to stop at First Avenue and all riders to get off. That led to a service shutdown from Lorimer Street in Brooklyn to the western end of the line at Eighth Avenue and 14th Street in Manhattan that lasted nearly eight hours. It meant no service at all five of the line's Manhattan stops, and left thousands of riders angry.
"It's rush hour. People got to get home. How are we supossed to get home?" said one commuter. "Service, I mean what's the excuse? What's the reason for service not being restored?"
"See, if it's at 9 this morning, it should've been corrected by now," said another. "What it does is allow people to not go where they need to go."
"I was supposed to be somewhere before 6. I don't think I'm going to be there. Running late about a half hour now," said a third.
The Fire Department said the smoke came from an electrical fire in an underground vault near 14th Street and Avenue D. It was brought under control by 10:50 a.m.
It was a brief preview of the disruptions that will occur in a few years when the MTA halts all L service in Manhattan and part of Brooklyn for long-delayed repairs to that tunnel under the East River.
Once limited service resumed at 5:15 p.m. Thursday, riders were glad to catch a ride, and not on a bus or another line.
"I'm happy now it's working. I hope it will stay good," said one commuter.
That's a sentiment shared by the line's more than 225,000 daily riders.