NEW YORK (PIX11) — Train service ran with “extensive delays” on Monday night as rain poured down across the region, MTA officials said.
Video from the Dyckman Street subway station showed water pouring onto the tracks. While responding to pictures from the scene outside the station, the NYC subway Twitter account explained a single clogged drain can back up a street.
“When the streets above look like this, storm water inevitably makes its way to our tracks,” NYCTSubway tweeted. “That’s why coordination between the MTA and partner agencies is vital to keep trains moving.”
Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine also saw the pictures of the situation outside the Manhattan station. He attributed problems to climate change and extreme weather.
“We need a subway system that doesn’t produce tropical waterfalls every time there’s a heavy rain,” Levine tweeted.
Downed trees needed to be removed from the tracks near Eastchester-Dyre Avenue, officials said. That slowed down service on the Nos. 2 and 5 trains. Water also needed to be removed from tracks across New York.
The MTA pumps 14 million gallons of water from subway stations on an average day, so days with heavy rain pose challenges, MTA officials previously explained to PIX11. More than 400 of the MTA’s 665 miles of subway track are underground, which means they’re vulnerable to flooding.
