'Are You Kidding Me?': Partial Ceiling Collapse Rains Debris On Busy Barclays Subway Platform

Tomorrow is the last official day of summer, and to mark the passing of the season—one that saw its fair share of subway-induced threats to human and rodent life—the MTA has some extra rush hour destruction up its sleeves. Just after 8 a.m. on Friday morning, a ceiling collapse at the Barclays Center station sent commuters scrambling, as heavy debris rained onto a busy Manhattan-bound 4/5 platform. No one appeared to be hurt, according to witness Sarah Grether, who added that the situation was "not great."

"The station just became really quiet," Grether told Gothamist. "Everyone seemed to be checking to make sure no one was hurt. Then there were a lot of loud reactions, people saying things like 'this is unacceptable,' 'they are raising the prices and not fixing anything' 'are you kidding me' 'we don’t have a choice, we just have to deal with this shit.'"

She also noted that the frightening collapse happened on the 4/5 platform—on the same line, and just a few stops from where the ceiling caved in at Borough Hall just a few months ago. In that instance, one woman was struck on the head by the falling ceiling, and suffered a concussion.

After this morning's ceiling collapse, the imperiled commuters stared at the troubling hole above, as if it were a portal to another dimension—one in which decades of disinvestment and mismanagement hadn't led to the full-on collapse of a once-functioning mass transit system. But instead of a gateway to a better commute, the hole contained only concrete, dust, and peeling paint. Enjoy your last Summer Friday, it seemed to say—possibly ever.

The MTA did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but noted on Twitter that they're aware of the situation, and "crews are responding."