Thursday’s bomb cyclone has covered every inch of New York City with snow — even the subway platforms.
Snow caked underground stations, particularly in Brooklyn, adding an additional hazard to the usually slippery, slush-covered steps.
Commuters posted photos on Twitter showing stations around the city covered in snow, including 59th Street, Clinton-Washington Avenues and the Bergen Street station.
“Are we shoveling subway stations as well? Real question,” tweeted Brooklyn Councilman Justin Brannan, with photos of two snow-swept subway platforms. Brannan speculated that the snow was coming down fast enough to fall through subway grates, and that it was cold enough underground to have not melted right away.
“To see snow building up in some of the stations was a little bizarre. You’re stepping out of your train into a little pre-snow,” he joked, adding that he had been forwarding photos constituents sent to him of snow-covered platforms to the MTA.
The agency, meanwhile, currently has 1,200 workers out clearing snow, according to MTA spokesman Jon Weinstein. Despite Gov. Andrew Cuomo calling a state of emergency for the region, the agency has managed to keep subway service running without major outages.
“We’re running the system, and we are extremely proud of the people who are doing really difficult jobs to keep New York moving,” Weinstein said in an email.
Joseph Lhota, chairman of the MTA, said the agency had been prepping for the storm since Wednesday night, when it began moving train equipment underground.
“[That] resulted in most people seeing a slowdown in the number of express trains that we had,” Lhota said during a news conference earlier Thursday. “But we were fully running our normal service and we will continue to do that throughout the day.”
