A Jeep Cherokee somehow ended up nearly a mile deep inside Buffalo's underground Metro Rail system before police hauled its driver away on drunk driving charges. The SUV sat in the tunnel for days before crews finally freed it.
The NFTA confirmed the SUV was driven into the subway on a recent Friday night, according to Buffalo Toronto Public Media, which reported the vehicle traveled a Jeep Cherokee nearly one mile into the subway system. Police arrested the driver for driving while intoxicated, among several other charges, the outlet reported, citing the NFTA. As Country 106.5 WYRK also noted in its coverage of the incident, the vehicle had traveled roughly a mile through the underground tunnel before it came to rest.
An NFTA spokesperson said the tracks sustained only minimal damage despite the SUV's lengthy detour underground, per the same BTPM report. That's a small bit of good news for a transit system that otherwise had to deal with a very strange logistical puzzle: how to get an SUV out of a subway tunnel built for trains, not cars.
Riders Spotted the Jeep Before Officials Said Much
Riders Spotted the Jeep Before Officials Said Much Numerous social media users pointed out over the weekend the presence of an abandoned vehicle underground near the Allen/Medical Campus and Summer-Best stations, the station's report notes. The Jeep was eventually removed on November 9, according to the same account, days after it first came to light.
Not the First Vehicle to End Up Underground
This isn't the first time a vehicle has found its way into Buffalo's underground transit tunnels. Back in February 2016, a woman from Olean was driving around downtown Buffalo, got lost, and ended up in the underground tunnel for the Metro Rail, according to WKBW. That SUV ended up on the tracks between Chippewa Street and Tupper Street, and Metro Rail service was suspended until crews were able to pull the vehicle out of the way, WKBW reported at the time. The evidence does not establish whether this latest incident disrupted Metro Rail service in the same way.
Buffalo's underground infrastructure has drawn curious attention before for reasons that have nothing to do with wayward SUVs. The Scajaquada Creek Tunnel Drain, a separate underground culvert system, made headlines in 2024 when urban explorer and photographer Mark James decided to take his camera and walk the entire 3.7-mile length of the drain, according to We Are Buffalo. Nearly four miles of that creek are buried and run under the streets and homes of Buffalonians before it comes above ground again in Forest Lawn Cemetery, the outlet reported.
Together, the Metro Rail tunnel and the Scajaquada drain make up two very different slices of the hidden infrastructure running beneath Buffalo's streets, one built to move trains and commuters, the other to move stormwater. Both have, on occasion, ended up hosting things they were never designed to carry, whether that's a lost driver's SUV or an explorer with a camera.
