Building Collapse


The news reports this morning said 5-10 minute delays on Metro-North today after yesterday’s building collapse, and those were downgraded to no-delay by the time I left my house.

Apparently my 8:16 train didn’t get the memo, as a normally 48-minute ride turned into an hour-nine minute debacle. All was fine until around Botanical Gardens, when the train began to crawl.

On the bright side, I noticed some things out the window that I don’t normally notice at 80 mph. The House of Yahweh located smack dab next to the Holy Ghost Ministries. What looked like an extremely jammed train station parking lot near the Melrose station, cars parked up on grassy knolls and at every odd angle, but upon closer inspection, each car had a smashed windshield or major-league ding. A scrapyard!

Oddly, the Metro-North advisory awaiting me when I finally made it to work announced the following:

Train service is operating with 10-15 minute delays which are related to yesterday’s building collapse at 124th Street and Park Avenue .          

Unfortunately, it was time stamped 9:17 a.m.–about the time the 8:16 was creeping into the GCT tunnel.

A building tumbles to the ground on 124th Street. The evening commute comes grinding to a halt for Metro-Northers.

All I can say is, it was a great day to be working from home. (Call it luck of the Irish!)

Let us know your horror stories from yesterday. Were you jammed cheek-by-jowl on the 6:33 to Chappaqua with a few thousand of your favorite Westchesterites? Were you crawling up I-95 on your company’s nickel?

Or were you smart and riding out the maelstrom from a comfy barstool in Annie Moore’s?

The Metro-North Website has not one word about yesterday’s debacle on it–uh, wouldn’t people be more interested in whether trains are still delayed than March 15’s “Bunny Express Excursion”?–so we’ll assume service is back to normal.