Nearly all train service on the Long Island Rail Road has been suspended since 11 a.m. after a fire broke out in a crucial control tower at the railroad’s major hub at Jamaica Station in Queens, the railroad said. Officials do not know yet whether repairs can be made in time for the afternoon rush.
The railroad is currently unable to control the switches that allow trains to change tracks just east of Jamaica Station, a juncture point for 10 of the railroad’s 11 branches. The problem means that trains headed to and from New York City cannot pass that point.
The railroad has suspended nearly all its trains until the problem can be resolved, but trains on the Port Washington branch, the one route that does not pass through Jamaica Station, are continuing to operate on its route through northeastern Queens to Nassau County.
The railroad is working to restore the signals, but it could not say whether service would be restored by the afternoon rush, when about 240,000 passengers travel on its trains.
A spokesman, Michael Lewi, said that the railroad was “currently assessing the damage to the tower and its impact on evening service” and did not know when service would resume.
The fire, believed to be an electrical fire, began in the switching tower around 11:10 a.m. and was under control by noon with no injuries, said a Fire Department spokesman, Steve Ritea.
“It was fairly contained, not a lot of damage,” Mr. Ritea said. But the flame apparently did enough to throw the railroad’s switching system out of commission.
It remained unclear what options would be available to riders if the signals are still malfunctioning in the afternoon rush.
If operations cannot be restored, “You’re talking a major disaster here,” said William Henderson, executive director of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Council, a riders’ group. “You are going to have a lot of people who are looking for ways to get home tonight.”
Jamaica Station is accessible by subway, via the E, J, and Z lines, but Mr. Henderson noted that the station is not built to handle the capacity of the railroad’s primary terminal, Pennsylvania Station in Midtown Manhattan
“Jamaica is not really designed as a station for people to come in from the outside,” Mr. Henderson said. “It’s designed as a station for people to walk across the platform and transfer to another train. It doesn’t have the capacity to handle a big crowd coming in from the subway.”
