Man Found on Q Train; Probably Died Hours Earlier

[madinmaryland]

A 64-year-old man was found dead during the morning rush yesterday inside a subway train, the authorities said, and had apparently been riding for more than six hours before anyone noticed.

The man, whom the police identified as Eugene M. Reilly of Midwood, Brooklyn, was a mail handler who had worked for the Postal Service for 35 years.

Mr. Reilly's body was found in the last car of a northbound Q train near the 14th Street-Union Square station at 7:11 a.m., according to New York City Transit.

The passengers were let off, the police and emergency medical workers were called, and the train was moved to Times Square at 7:28 a.m. while the authorities investigated. Northbound N and Q trains were rerouted to the local track, slowing those lines and also the R and W lines, which use the same track. At 9:40 a.m., the Q train in which Mr. Reilly had been found was moved to an unused track north of 57th Street, and normal service resumed.

If Mr. Reilly boarded a Brooklyn-bound Q train at 34th Street at 1 a.m. after going straight to the station from work, as was his routine, he could have traveled back and forth on the line six times before someone realized he had died, according to the published schedule for the subway line. It takes 50 to 54 minutes for the Q to travel between its northern terminus, at 57th Street and Seventh Avenue, and its southern terminus, at Stillwell Avenue-Coney Island.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/20/nyregion/20dead.html