After a broken water main flooded Metro Rail's Delavan-Canisius College Station and caused extensive damage more than a year ago, the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority is now seeking damages in court.
The Jan. 22, 2020, incident caused the most serious service disruption in Metro Rail history, prompting the NFTA to now sue the City of Buffalo, its Water Board, the Buffalo Municipal Water Finance Authority and Veolia Water North America (the city's system operator) to recover the significant damages stemming from the break.
The suit was filed Friday in State Supreme Court, and was first reported by Spectrum News.
During the incident, torrents of water rushed into the subway at Delavan-Canisius College, the deepest point in the Metro Rail tunnel. It disrupted service for several days as the NFTA cleaned up the flood, repaired damage and shuttled disrupted commuters on special buses along Main Street.
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The authority also was forced to hire a private contractor with special pumps capable of handling 500 gallons per minute to reclaim the station, it notes in its suit. It was also forced to fix damaged electrical components, clean up debris and test trains and other equipment before restarting service.
The NFTA now accuses the city and its associated agencies and contractors of being "careless and/or reckless" in failing to train its employees and maintain its system, in not preventing the flood waters from entering subway air intakes and in not warning Metro Rail of any impending breaks.
As much as 5 feet of water flooded the tunnel in and around the Delavan-Canisius College Station, which at close to 100 feet below the surface is the deepest part of the system. During the worst period of the incident, water rose to about a foot below the platform, NFTA officials said at the time.
They also said then that the water knocked out two pumps, while the Buffalo Fire Department brought inflatable boats down to the track to help Metro crews reach the pump area.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages. City spokesman Michael J. DeGeorge said "the City is aware of the claim and it's currently being evaluated."
