A C train pulls into Rockaway Avenue station in Brooklyn on Feb. 29, 2024.
Photo by Ben Brachfeld
MTA subway crews ground service to a halt on the A and C lines Thursday morning, snagging thousands of commuters as they sought assurances of their safety after one of their colleagues was slashed on the job overnight.
A and C trains departing their northern terminals, at 207th and 168th streets in Manhattan, were delayed for more than an hour during the morning rush on Feb. 29, according to MTA transit data. The MTA informed riders on its social media channels that the agency was “running as much service as we can with the train crews we have available.”
The snag came after a subway conductor was brutally slashed on the job at the Rockaway Avenue stop in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn at about 3:40 a.m. Thursday, while in the cab of a southbound A train. Transport Workers Union Local 100 says the conductor, 59-year-old Alton Scott, was making observations out the cab window at Rockaway Avenue when an unknown assailant slashed him in the neck before disappearing into the night. The perpetrator has not been caught.
Scott, a 24-year veteran of MTA New York City Transit, was assisted by passengers on the train, including a doctor. He was taken to Brookdale Hospital in stable condition where he received 34 stitches for the gaping wound in his neck, which just barely missed his carotid artery; he was released from the hospital Thursday morning.
At a press conference outside Rockaway Avenue station on Thursday, TWU Local 100 President Richard Davis described the incident as “attempted murder,” noting this was the eighth major assault on a subway crew member just this year.
“We cannot do our jobs under these conditions. It’s not correct, it’s not right, it’s not ok,” said Davis. “When I saw the pictures this morning, my heart dropped. I felt tears in my eye automatically.”
Davis said the snag was not authorized by union leadership. Instead, he…
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