#NYC subway commute plagued by delays as riders gripe over crowds

Crowded, late subways are back — now with the added threat of a pandemic.

Delays on at least seven lines led to dangerously-crowded trains Thursday morning, straphangers reported.

The bulk of the delays stemmed from a signal malfunctions at the West Fourth Street and 34th Street-Herald Square stations, which impacted the A, C, E, B, D, F and M lines, the MTA said.

“This is 9 am today on the F train,” Twitter user Ridwana Islam posted along with a photo of a rush hour train with at least one person not wearing a mask, in violation of MTA rules.

“People aren’t even wearing masks correctly! How do you expect to reduce the spread of COVID if there’s no improvement to Mass Transit?!” Islam posted.

Another commuter, Savannah, who declined to give her last name, told The Post her D train was waylaid just outside Broadway-Lafeyette station, and straphangers had to file to the front car in order to exit.

With the D, B, F and M all out of commission, Savannah opted to take the 6 train. She said her normally 45 minute-long commute from Chinatown to Astora took an hour and a half.

“I am more apprehensive about taking the 6 — I’ve heard it gets really packed and gets really tight,” she said, “but I had no option.”

MTA spokesman Shams Tarek said equipment failures began at 6:35 a.m., and were fixed by 9:02 a.m.

Tarek said the incident was “rare,” and under investigation.

“Emergency crews responded immediately to this morning’s issues, working through the busiest time of day to restore service as quickly as possible,” Tarek said in a statement.

“The fact that incidents like this are rare is a testament to the significant strides made in subway reliability over the past few years and we thank our customers for their patience while we fixed this morning’s problems.”

Subway ridership plummeted to 90 percent of pre-pandemic levels in March and April. It has rebounded but remains well below where it stood before COVID-19, when delay-induced crowding was a nearly-daily experience for most commuters. Daily train trips currently average around 1.7 million, according to MTA stats — compared to over 5 million before coronavirus.