A subway operator and conductor have been grounded while transit officials investigate how an A train they were controlling went the wrong way on a downtown track.
“This is a very serious incident,” MTA spokesman Adam Lisberg said Tuesday about the Aug. 11 near-miss.
There was a signal problem that day in a tube under the East River, he said, and all of the downtown A trains operating were ordered by radio to stop.
But the operator and conductor of one A train at Canal Street said they didn’t hear an order telling them to switch onto a spur track, which would allow the train to change directions by switching to a northbound track so it could head uptown. Instead, they headed uptown on the southbound track they were already on with an undetermined number of passengers aboard, Lisberg said.
The operator was moving less than 10 mph and was able to stop at West 4th Street when she saw the headlights of a stopped downtown train dead ahead.
“She was operating at a very slow speed, and as soon as she sees the beams of the southbound train, she stops,” Lisberg said.
No passengers were in danger, the MTA said, adding that the operator and conductor would remain off the job until an investigation is completed.