NEW YORK (WCBS 880) -- Trains on six subway lines were held in stations across Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Bronx Saturday morning amid a "highly unusual" technical problem, the MTA said.
A loss of signal controls on the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 lines meant trains had to stay where they were in the city for about an hour. A “troubleshooting a network communications issue” caused widespread commuter problems around 10:30 a.m.
Trains were held in stations for about an hour as the MTA investigated.
Shortly before 11:30 a.m., the MTA said some trains were moving again as crews "restore our connections with the system facilitating train movement on numbered lines."
Service was fully restored to trains in all three boroughs by 12:15 p.m.
"Trains are resuming their planned service but please expect longer travel times as we recover from a very disruptive outage," the MTA said.
The agency said it's working to determine the cause and that "we deeply apologize to our customers."
"Our ongoing work to modernize the signaling system will help ensure these types of failures do not occur again," the MTA tweeted.
Much of the lines' signal equipment is up to 80 years old. Updating those signals is a major part of the system's "Fast Forward" plan to improve service.
The MTA had been advising 1, 2, 3 riders to take the A, C of E lines for service and 4, 5, 6 riders to take an M101, 102 or 103 bus.