Subway Service Is Fully Restored After Derailment in Manhattan

Subway service on the 1, 2 and 3 train lines in Manhattan was fully restored on Sunday, more than 60 hours after a collision between two trains left 26 people injured, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said in a social media post.

The service disruption began around 3 p.m. on Thursday when a train carrying about 300 passengers collided with an out-of-service train near 96th Street on the Upper West Side and both trains derailed, Richard Davey, president of New York City Transit, said at a news conference on Friday.

Officials swiftly suspended subway service on the 1 and 3 lines between Times Square and Harlem, a stretch that includes very busy stations. The 2 train was diverted to the East Side in Manhattan.

Soon after firefighters evacuated the passengers, M.T. A. crews began to repair the subway trains. The out-of-service train had pinned the passenger train, and the passenger train had smashed into the ceiling of the subway tunnel, according to officials and photographs in an M.T. A. social media post. The trains were later removed from the area to a storage facility, and the tracks were repaired.

Service interruptions continued on Saturday as the temperature dropped and snow flurries were followed by slushy rain. Full service was restored around 6 a.m. on Sunday.

Both the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which operates the subways, and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the crash. Human error appears to have caused the collision, according to three transit officials with knowledge of the investigation.

Before the collision, a No. 1 train had gone out of service at the 79th Street station, and trains behind it were rerouted to the express track. The out-of-service train, containing four workers and no passengers, made its way uptown to a repair yard. Near the 96th Street station, officials with knowledge of the investigation said, it received a red light, while the train with 300 passengers got a green signal to go around it on the express track and then reroute to move back in front of it on the local track.

The out-of-service train still went slowly forward, leading to the collision, the officials said. Some of those aboard the passenger train were taken to nearby hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries.

It was not immediately clear who was at fault. The officials said the crew on the out-of-service train made the error; the leader of one transit workers’ union suggested that a decision made by a supervisor precipitated the crash.