NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — Overhead wire problems caused major disruptions on the rails Wednesday morning.
Service on NJ Transit's Northeast Corridor, North Jersey Coast Line, and Midtown Direct was suspended in both directions for about an hour while Amtrak service in and out of New York faced residual delays.
Power was restored shortly after noon, but commuters were left stranded at Penn Station as they waited for service to be restored.
As WCBS 880’S Peter Haskell reported, commuters were facing over 40-minute waits in both directions at the NJ Transit platform in the station.
He noted that when the power went out, all NJ Transit and Amtrak trains stopped and at least three trains were stopped in the tunnels with people on board.
One passenger stuck on an Amtrak train said she was told by a conductor that "they have no idea when it will be fixed."
A passenger on a NJ Transit train tweeted a photo of a dark train car.
A passenger on a different train said his train was stuck in the middle of nowhere with no power or air conditioning.
When service resumed, commuters rushed for the first train in over two hours, but were disappointed to learn that the train had pulled into a different track.
Dozens of commuters expressed their frustration when they arrived at the platform. One, however, noted she wasn’t surprised by the delays.
“It's just annoying. I could have taken the 11:06, 11:37, 12:01, all of them have been canceled. It’s just New Jersey Transit,” said Sarah Goodman, of New Brunswick.
Her train took an hour and a half to arrive. Another commuter, Alberta Marino, told WCBS 880’s Haskell it took three hours to get from Middletown to New York City.
“We stopped at, I can't even remember, there was several stations, kept losing power all the time,” she explained.
PATH was cross-honoring NJ Transit tickets/passes at Hoboken, Newark Penn station and New York. NJ Transit bus and private carriers also were cross-honoring NJ Transit rail tickets and passes.