The Wednesday afternoon commute on the Long Island Rail Road (LIRR) came with a few bumps in the road when a third rail fire caused one of its trains to be stranded in one of four East River tunnels. The incident caused a commuter headache for many travelers, but service is back up for this morning’s commute.
A fire broke out at about 1:15 p.m. on Wednesday in the East River tunnel and caused a Penn Station-bound train from Babylon, holding about 100 people on board, to be stranded for two hours.
The incident caused power to be shut off as the fire was put out. A diesel locomotive was also called in to pull the stranded train out of the tunnel and into Penn Station.
LIRR service was disrupted until about 5:10 p.m. There were also 14 trains from Penn Station to Long Island that were cancelled as well as other delays. Penn Station’s 8th Avenue entrance was also closed for an interim as a result of overcrowding.
For the latest update on LIRR service, visit mta.info/lirr.
Photo courtesy of Metropolitan Transportation Authority of the State of New York, via Flickr.