The MTA sent out an odd notice on Monday, stating that trains had to skip the 72nd Street station on the Broadway line because of a “dust condition.”
The dust was originally thought to be smoke, according to the Daily News. People were apparently having trouble breathing on Sunday night too because of the poor air quality.
https://twitter.com/ChaimDauermann/status/935214000945684480
The MTA says it was caused by a dust cloud formed when workers scraped gunk out of drains and troughs.
“The work involved scraping the roadbed of nontoxic sediment and caked dirt composed of trash, newspaper, lint and hairs from the throngs of commuters who pass through the station every day.
Tarek said it was unusual that the gunk would dry up and create a dust cloud, but the area was parched and arriving trains kicked up the dirt.”
A transit blogger also weighed in.
So I've heard more about this morning's dust condition. It's related to part of the Subway Action Plan related to ROW maintenance. Material related to drain cleaning dried out too soon and turned to dust. I have no idea what anyone was breathing.
— Second Ave. Sagas (@2AvSagas) November 27, 2017
File photo of 72nd Street station.
The MTA in the morning announced about 50 times at 96th Street — including a woman on the platform with a bullhorn — that all trains were by bypassing 72nd. Then the packed 2 train started to go south at the slowest pace possible. Then about five minutes into the trip when we were at about 79th they announced that the train would stop at 72nd. Then after we stopped at 72nd they announced that we were stuck there because of a sick passenger, so everyone piled out and tried to squeeze on the next 1 train that pulled in. Then that train took about ten minutes to get to 42nd.
Sounds like a pretty typical trip.
On the subway uptown on Saturday night – same crawling ride from 42nd to 72nd – there was a really acrid, unpleasant smell too. I wonder if it was the same thing. It smelled like a tire fire and had a lot of riders coughing.
Thanks WSR for being a lifeline to our part of town!
How truly bizarre. I’ve lived near 72nd St station almost all my life and this never happened before. Could they be spraying poison for rats? Could it maybe not even true? I do have asthma, not bad, but enough so that all day Sunday I had to use my inhaler 3 times. Which is a record for me. Strange stuff.
while waiting for the downtown local at 79th i noticed what i thought was smoke at the far front of the platform shortly after a trash train hauling construction debris went uptown on the express track .. when i got to 72nd the ‘smoke’ was much thicker and another trash hauling train went uptown on the local track .. this was between 6:10 and 6:20AM
All we are is dust in the wind.
Woah! What’s the respitory health of the lungs
On this one? Sounds bad. Hope people had
The good sense to cover their mouth and nose with something.
people in the area of 72nd St. subway station when this dust occurred should visit your doctor for the next six months the possibility of lung disease. Contact your dr. and attorney immediately.
They should use a water misting spray to keep dust down That’s SOP on private construction projects
They shold perform regular maintenance to prevent this
Especially harmful to children and people with breathing problems. Really inexcusable.
Call Governor Como & the mayor to tell him they need to do something or better yet that this is unacceptable! We do not know how toxic that is. Why are they dong this at this time.