Two train cars detached from each other on a subway carrying passengers on Sunday evening in the Bronx, causing a temporary disruption of service but no injuries.
The third and fourth cars on a No. 4 train heading into Manhattan uncoupled near the 149th Street-Grand Concourse station at 5:20 p.m., according to officials from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, the state agency that runs New York City’s mass transit system.
The New York Fire Department and emergency medical workers responded to a call regarding a stalled train at the station some time before 6 p.m., Fire Department officials said. Emergency responders assisted some 238 passengers off the train with no injures reported. The Fire Department said the incident was “under control” by 6:18 p.m., though the disruption to service on the No. 4 and 5 lines lasted for a few hours on Sunday. Service resumed at approximately 11:20 p.m.
An M.T.A. official said the cause of the detachment was under investigation.
Incidents like train derailments occur occasionally in New York City’s subway system, but the M.T.A. did not immediately respond to a question about whether a subway car detachment had ever happened before to a train in service.
Last year, a No. 1 train with about 300 passengers collided with an out-of-service train causing the train to derail. Less than a week later on Jan. 10, a Manhattan-bound F train went off the tracks in Coney Island with 34 passengers and three crew members. In both incidents officials said none of the passengers were seriously injured.
Lisa Daligan, the executive director of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the M.T.A., said that millions of people ride the city’s subways every day without any trouble, but she added that Sunday’s incident underscored the importance of continuing to invest in transit infrastructure.
“It’s not something that happens on a regular basis, and we have to make sure that it doesn’t,” Ms. Daligan said.
Samantha Latson is a Times reporter covering New York City and a member of the 2025-26 Times Fellowship class, a program for journalists early in their careers.
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