NEW YORK – There was double trouble for New York City commuters Tuesday morning – and it’s not over yet.
Long Island Rail Road riders should prepare for more delays and crowded trains this afternoon as crews work to fix the damage caused by an electrical fire at a switching station.
An electrical fire Monday in a switching tower had halted train service for four hours and disrupted the evening commute.
There were power problems for NJ Transit, as well. Amtrak’s system succumbed to low voltage problems and train service was shut down along the Northeast Corridor Tuesday morning.
The LIRR canceled 33 out of 144 westbound trains Tuesday morning and said it could take several days to make repairs.
LIRR spokesman Rich Mendelson said the effort to fix the problems plaguing commuters is an ongoing one, warning that things won’t be back to normal for the evening rush home – though he does say there is a plan for the afternoon.
“We even have a plan out for the PM rush hour today,” Mendelson told CBS 2 HD. “So I guess you can surmise that we are not going to be back to normal even at the end of today, the PM rush.”
For the evening commute, the LIRR plans to provide 60 percent of the railroad’s regular 120 trains leaving Manhattan between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. Riders can expect delays and cancellations. There will also be no scheduled connections at Jamaica Station.
To avoid overcrowding at Penn Station, MTA Police will carefully regulate the number of people entering the LIRR section of the terminal, allowing customers in as trains become available. Crowding is also a concern at Jamaica.
LIRR is will be offering Hempstead and Far Rockaway-bound trains only from Atlantic Terminal in downtown Brooklyn, which can be reached by subway. There will be no Hempstead and Far Rockaway service from Penn Station.
LIRR customers were also advised of service changes if heading for the following destinations:
- Oyster Bay: Travel to Mineola for connections to all Oyster Bay branch stops.
- West Hempstead: Travel to Valley Stream where buses will be available to take them onto to their home stations.
- Patchogue, Speonk and Montauk: Customers can connect to those trains at Babylon.
The switching system that was damaged in the fire was installed in the 1920s, said LIRR spokesman Mike Charles. It features a network of pneumatic switches that control which tracks trains will use entering and leaving the Jamaica depot.
The Monday morning fire was possibly caused by a short in the electrical system following a torrential rainfall earlier in the day, Charles said.
Commuters were neither happy nor surprised.
“The railroad has a lot of problems. There’s a lot of stupidity and incompetence. There was just a little more today,” one passenger said.
“I’ve been riding this railroad since 1950. So I’m used to stuff like this,” said Jack Brown of Fort Salonga.
While crews try to get the tower’s charred electrical system back up and running, they’ve been forced to operate the system the old-fashioned way, by manually locking train switches into place.
“Your question is ‘Why can one small cable fire affect this?’ Because it is enormously complex,” said Helena Williams, LIRR president.
In addition to complex, commuters say it’s antiquated. The tower’s technology that controls 155 switches at Jamaica Station was designed nearly a century ago.
“I think it’s pretty sad. I think they should have had some handle on it by now,” said Sima Casillo of Valley Stream.
“I think it’s ridiculous, there’s no redundancy, you sit there you pay all this money for monthly tickets and services and you wind up getting nothing out of it,” John Coleman, of Floral Park, said.
The LIRR said a $60 million replacement project on the switches had already been planned for this fall.
For LIRR cancelations, click here.
Meanwhile, power problems forced Amtrak and regional transit agencies to halt trains throughout the Northeast for more than an hour Tuesday during the middle of the morning rush.
Amtrak initially suspended service along the entire Northeast corridor. Trips that were ordinarily one-way runs to and from the city turned into connecting commutes which dumped thousands of people in Hoboken and forced them to scramble for the PATH train.
The electrical problems forced NJ Transit to halt their trains and riders on the Northeast Corridor and North Jersey Coast trains faced delays of up to 90 minutes.
CBS 2’s Jay Dow spoke to Manhattan resident Christen Madrazo who said he would be at least half an hour late.
“Maybe more,” he said. Only because we did some real running around trying to make it.”
