The New York herald., 1922-06-20
Two East Side Elevated and
Many Surface Lines Are
Blocked 40 Minutes.
SUBWAY TRAINS SLOWED
Generator Breaks Down, Pos
sibly Because Of Poor Coal
in Strike Time.

Trouble with generator in the
the Interborough Rapid Transit last
night resulted in one Of TIE most seri-
Gus transportation tieups New York
city has experienced in many years.
rush hour. from 6 10 to $3.50 o'clock,
not a wheel moved on the Second and
Third avenue elevated lines, important
arteries of travel for the homeward
bound downtown worker. and in many
sections Of the city large stretches of
surface lines were tied up. In the
subways the speed Of the trains was
so greatly reduced that for miles they
crowded one another end to end.
Many thousands Of New Workers
| missed their evening meals. and many
other thousands lost their trains at the
Pennsylvania Station and Grand Central
Terminal due to the slowness Of the
| subway trains and the cessation alto.
gether of traffic on the Third and Sec
ond avenue elevated lines and the sur
face lines.
Crowds Try to be Patient.
On the platforms Of the elevated sta.
tions great crowds Of homeward bound
| persons waited as patiently as possible
| for the trouble to be rectified. and ir
some quarters the jam became so heavy
that the police closed the stairs.
| The breaking down OF the generator
| threw q part OF the load 81 the Seventy.
fourth street plant onto the plant a.
| Fifty-nInth street and the Hudson River
There was not sufficient power gene.
ated at the latter plant to handle the
load. and the following lines were tied
UP for the forty minutes:
Second avenue elevated.
Third avenue elevated.
Broadway surface line. from Thirty
fourth street to Flfty-ninth street.
Sixth avenue surface line. from
Twenty-third street to Fifty-ninth street
Lexington avenue surface line, from
Seventy y-second street to 130th street. .
Lenox avenue surface line. from 109th
street and Columbus avenue to 146th
street and Lenox avenue.
One hundred and sixteenth street
crosstown line.
Thirty-fourth street crosstown line
from Sixth avenue to the Hudson River.
Seventh avenue line from Twenty
third street to Forty-second street.
The lines over the greensboro Bridge
were slowed considerably by the lack
of power, but were not compelled to
stop.
Transit Board Gets Reports.
In addition to these. the Transit Com
mission said that 1t had reports OF
trouble on the Fourth avenue lines,
several lines In Queens and the Eighth
street crosstown line.
Virtually all of these lines handle
large parts of the evening homegoine
crowd, and on every corner crowds
gathered and stood until the police
notified them that no cars were rum
ming. The Interborough said that
shuttle cars were run on those parts
of the lines that were not shut down.
and that everything possible was done
to handle the crowds.
Thousands. finding that they could
not get home on the surface lines. and
the Second and Third avenue elevated
lines into Harlem and The Bronx. rushed
congestion already there. But in spite
OF the crowding and the pushing and the
inconvenience. the police had no re-
ports of accidents or of conditions that
the patrolmen could not handle.
The engineers OF the Interborough
said that the only explanation was to
say that the generator had '1ost its
field" probably because of a short cir
cult This. they said. was very likely
due to poor coal. bought in the open
market when the strike closed the usual
sources OF supplies