Subway station ceiling tile crumbles

NEW YORK (FOX5NY) - The Borough Hall subway station in Brooklyn is more than 100 years old and is known to have water problems. That issue led to a ceiling collapse on Wednesday.

A 10-feet-by-10-feet section of ceiling tile came crashing down onto the 4/5 subway platform. Luckily, only one rider suffered a minor injury to the arm and didn't require medical attention.

New York City Transit President Andy Byford responded to the scene and encouraged the transit workers who banged away at the ceiling to make sure any other loose pieces came down. He said that crews believe that water that leaked into the ceiling and loosened the tile.

With service seriously disrupted on the No. 4 and No. 5 lines, agents and officers tried their best to redirect riders. The  MTA's social media account stayed just as busy sending updates.

The grumble of New Yorkers won't be happy to hear what they probably already know: that this isn't an isolated incident. All one needs do is look around to see that the infrastructure is crumbling.

Even Byford put it plainly to Fox 5.

"This absolutely reinforces the need to push on with the modernization of transit that we've called for in our Fast Forward plan," he said.

The Fast Forward plan calls for 150 station renovations over the next five years and another 150 in the five years after that. Whether it has the support of Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who runs the MTA, is unclear.

Subway service was restored by the end of the evening rush hour.

But the problem of the aging infrastructure will persist.