The MTA has revealed new details about an explosion in December at an electrical substation in Downtown Brooklyn that left some 3,500 commuters stranded in the tunnels for hours and disrupted service for days.
Long story short: the MTA accidentally made a bomb.
MTA spokesperson Laura Cala-Rauch said this week that the State Street substation’s oil-water heat exchanger — which uses water to cool an oil mixture that in turn prevents an electrical transformer from overheating — “became contaminated.” She said that led to a fire, which “ultimately resulted in a short circuit.”
Kaboom!
The aftermath of an electrical substation explosion that left F train riders stranded for hours last year. (Image courtesy of the MTA)
The MTA has 224 substations that convert alternating current electricity from Con Edison’s grid into 650-volt direct current power used for the subway’s third rails. Transit officials said 114 of its substations still rely on similar oil-heat exchangers, technology that dates back to the 19th century. Inspections after the explosion found them all to be in working order.
Experts said the systems are generally reliable, but can turn into powder kegs.
“ You could have a catastrophic failure,” said Joe Crispino, an electric power engineer who specializes in building medium- to extra-high-voltage substations. Crispino added that without proper insulation, the transformer can heat up and create an electric arc.
When it comes to transformer explosions, Crispino said “ there's the heat part, there's the sound part, there's a concussive force part.”
“So all of that can create enough pressure to blow a door off the hinges, especially if that door is very close to the piece of equipment,” he said.
MTA officials disclosed the details of the explosion this week, seven months after the Dec. 12 incident at the State Street substation. The agency said it’s replaced the oil-water heat exchanger that caused the explosion and installed a modern one that’s cooled by fans. “This type of failure should not occur again,” Cala-Rauch wrote in an email.
The explosion highlighted the dire state of the subway’s aging electrical power systems. The MTA plans to spend $3 billion over the next five years to rebuild and repair 81 substations in the subways that are prone to failures like the one that exploded in Brooklyn.
At a similar substation in Harlem that uses the same type of oil-water heat exchanger, MTA Chief Superintendent Joseph Daidone told Gothamist last year one of his biggest concerns is the condition of the pipes in the walls that feed water to the equipment. Workers have little sense of when the pipes might fail.
“ The pipes are from 1969, they corrode,” Daidone said. “They're degrading as fast as the outside. And the outside [pipes] have already changed. They haven't changed the inside. So we're all hoping that the stuff down the inside is still in great condition.”
Curious Commuter
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“I’ve noticed that some MTA bus drivers will refuse to continue driving the bus if a passenger enters and does not pay the fare. Sometimes this turns into a standoff between the passenger and the driver … Is this an official MTA policy?”
- Mitchell from Queens
Last August, the MTA boosted enforcement on the city’s bus system with a crew called the EAGLE team. Teams of MTA employees, sometimes accompanied by NYPD officers, will randomly check if riders on select buses have paid the fare. Those teams enforce a new route every week. At its peak, fare evasion on the MTA’s bus system reached nearly 50%.
But MTA bus drivers aren’t required to enforce the fare. It’s a policy that’s been in place since 2008, when Brooklyn bus driver Edwin Thomas was fatally stabbed by a rider who refused to pay the fare.
When the MTA tested out free bus service on certain lines, driver assaults dropped on routes that offered a free fare.
Ultimately, the MTA tells its drivers to inform riders of the fare price if they avoid payment. If the rider doesn’t pay, bus drivers are told to defer to an EAGLE team member or the NYPD, if they’re on board.
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We're also talking about...
Fare hikes. Subway and bus fares are expected to go up from $2.90 to $3 on Jan. 4, officials announced at yesterday’s MTA board meeting.
“We’re not part of the affordability problem, we’re part of the affordability solutions.”
Meltdowns at West Fourth Street. Power outages at the station on Tuesday and again this morning caused widespread delays throughout the subway system.
Booze ads are back. By revising its seven-year ban on alcohol ads and allowing them on select billboards, digital displays and shuttle train wraps, the MTA said it can bring in an extra $7 million to $10 million a year.
Lagging signal upgrades. Every one of the subway system’s signal upgrades now faces extensive delays — ranging from nine months to three years — according to an independent engineering firm hired by the MTA.
Tragedy at the Prospect Park station. Police said a man died after being struck by a train following a fight on the Prospect Park B/Q platform early Wednesday morning.
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