Marathon Morning on the Subway: 6 Trains Delayed After a Person on the Tracks at East 149th Street, D Trains Held by a Door Problem

Marathon Sunday asks the subway to carry a city whose streets are closed, and on Sunday morning parts of it ran late. The system's live alert feed carried delays on the 6 in both directions — downtown severely — after the NYPD responded to an unauthorized person on the track at East 149th Street in the Bronx. By the time this desk read the feed, downtown 6 trains had resumed making their scheduled stops, the standard sign that the worst of an incident delay is passing.

The other two unplanned items were mechanical. Uptown D trains ran with delays after a train with a door problem was removed from service at 155th Street. Downtown N and R trains were delayed after a train's brakes activated near Times Square-42nd Street; the feed says those trains, too, have since resumed making scheduled stops.

Layered under the incidents is the planned weekend: the live board counted 8 of the subway's 26 lines disrupted on Sunday morning, including the L's suspension east of Broadway Junction, the 1 train's 125th Street bypass and planned work on the 4 and 7 — all filed by this desk across the weekend. The marathon adds its own footnote underground: stairways at Fulton Street, 59th Street-Columbus Circle, 66th, 72nd and 81st Street stations may be closed during the race, so a familiar entrance may not be the open one.

The practical advice is the marathon's oldest: the train under the course beats any street beside it, but build the delay into the trip. Spectators heading for First Avenue or the Central Park finish should check the MTA's alerts before leaving — on a morning when the feed has already changed twice, the plan you made at breakfast may not be the service you meet at the station.