NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) – An elevated subway train derailed in Coney Island on Wednesday—less than a week after two subway trains collided on the Upper West Side.
The F train derailed around noon past the elevated West Eighth Street–New York Aquarium station, as the train approached the Neptune Avenue station, the MTA said. The train cars remained upright and on the elevated structure.
MTA spokeswoman Meghan Keegan said, "There were no injuries reported or medical requests."
In a press briefing following the derailment, President of New York City Transit Richard Davey said that 34 customers and 3 crew members were on board the train, and all were evacuated without injury.
“It was a relatively simple operation. We had two rescue cars pull up to the train on either side, and just evacuate the people from the north end and the south end,” FDNY Chief Mike Mandala said of the rescue, which took just about an hour to complete.
Officials said that the train had a seasoned operator on board, as well as an operator-in-training.
Police and MTA officials are investigating to determine the cause of the derailment, but as of now Davey said “Our focus will be on the track. It looks like there may have been a track issue.”
According to Davey, the F train that derailed was a newer train class that has event recorders, and officials will know more once that information is downloaded.
The MTA has an apparatus called a track geometry car, which is a train that goes through the entire system twice a year to check the security of tracks.
Davey said the geometry train went through this portion of the track in November, and there didn’t seem to be any issues.
The derailment “severely disrupted” F train service in Brooklyn, with the MTA saying there is no F train service between Avenue X and Coney Island, and the last stop on southbound F trains is Avenue X.
Officials hope to restore full service on the F train before Thursday morning’s rush hour commute.
A crane was brought in on Wednesday afternoon to rerail the train.
Last Thursday, an out-of-service train collided with an in-service 1 train just north of the 96th Street station on the Upper West Side, causing both trains to derail. Officials have said human error was to blame.
About 25 people suffered minor injuries, and the derailment knocked out normal 1, 2 and 3 service on the Broadway corridor between Midtown and Harlem for several days.
When asked how customers were supposed to trust the subway following this and last week’s issues, Davey confirmed his confidence in the subway system.
“Derailments do happen. They shouldn’t, but they do from time to time. And as I said we’ll take a look to see what the issue was here. But customers should feel safe taking the service, as I said, I will be tonight,” Davey said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.