Two LIRR trains en route to Penn Station were stuck in an East River tunnel Tuesday morning and several others were delayed due to an “Amtrak power problem,” an MTA spokesman said.
The trains got stuck at about 7 a.m., the agency said. One train, the 6:13 a.m. from Massapequa Park, remained in the tunnel for 75 minutes before it finally arrived at Penn Station.
The second, the 6:12 a.m. from Babylon, was being towed into another station at about 8:50 a.m., according to the MTA.
Westbound delays were averaging about 90 minutes at 11 a.m., hours after both disabled trains were removed from the tunnel. About 30 minutes later, the MTA said there were scattered delays, but normal service was resuming.
Many commuters took to social media to express frustration about the delays. “‘Please allow extra travel time’. Translation – Please leave before you already left,” one user wrote.
There were 1,000 passengers on the first train, all of whom exited safely at Penn Station, the MTA spokesman said. It was not immediately clear how many passengers were on the second train.
Amtrak, which owns Penn Station, did not immediately have more information about the power problem.
Tuesday’s issues are just the latest in a slew of delays caused by infrastructure malfunctions at the transit hub. Amtrak has outlined plans to fix some of the issues.
The repair project does not address Penn’s problem-plagued signal system or any infrastructure inside the East River tunnels primarily used by the LIRR to get into and out of the station. A planned project to repair Sandy damage inside the tunnels could still be more than a year away from commencing.
The recent problems have also led several elected officials, including Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, to call on Amtrak to turn over control of Penn to a different operator, such as the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, a private contractor or New York State.
With Newsday
