Today in History: The Northeast Blackout That Stranded Half A Million Subway Passengers

By Idy Perl

In these mid-August days back in 2003, the historic Northeast Blackout left over 400,000 MTA passengers stranded as the entire system shut down.

The Northeast Blackout was North America’s biggest blackout and effected more than 50 million people. It was caused by an overheated power line in Cleveland that led their system to shut down, and due to an error, the surrounding power systems picked up the load and overheated as well, which started a ripple effect of power lines shutting down across the northeast. 

When the blackout struck New York roughly 400,000 people were on 413 trains which abruptly stopped in tunnels and in the middle of subway tracks.  Within roughly 10 minutes, crews began escorting passengers off the trains using flashlights to light up the subways and battery-powered radios to communicate. 

In under three hours all passengers were safely rescued from the various trains with only three passengers sustaining minor injuries. 

photos: NY Transit Museum