Service was partially restored on the Long Island Rail Road around 3 p.m., as five trains departed Pennsylvania Station, including ones bound for Ronkonkoma, Babylon and Huntington.
But thousands of riders still remained stranded there in a state of increasing agitation. Nearly all train service on the Long Island Rail Road was suspended since 11 a.m. after a fire broke out in a crucial control tower at the railroad’s 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, but service is not expected to be fully restored.
“We are not going to be able to operate all of our trains in the evening rush hour,” said Sam Zambuto, a railroad spokesman.
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 their tracks through northeastern Queens to Nassau County.
The fire, believed to be electrical, 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.
About 240,000 daily commuters use the railroad. Mr. Zambuto said that details about alternative travel options for commuters would be provided at a press conference later this afternoon.
Alternative options for evening commuters remained unclear. 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.”
Riders leaving Manhattan and Atlantic Terminal in Brooklyn may be able to reach Jamaica Station via the E, J, and Z subway lines, but it was unclear whether the railroad would be able to restore eastbound service out of Jamaica.
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.”
