A fire near New York’s Penn Station has led to a travel nightmare for morning commuters, disrupting services along the busy East Coast corridor.
The fire broke out in an Amtrak contractor maintenance vehicle outside the Hudson River tunnel overnight, according to Amtrak. Five people were injured.
Penn Station, a critical transit hub beneath Madison Square Garden, typically serves around 600,000 passengers daily across Amtrak, the New York subway, New Jersey Transit, and the LIRR.
Amtrak suspended services until at least noon, citing maintenance from the “now extinguished fire” and warned of lengthy delays for northern routes.
NJ Transit service was also suspended in both directions after the two-alarm fire. The transit agency said the Amtrak carriage fire caused “overhead wire damage” and warned of impacts “through the morning rush hour.”
Amtrak said service to and from New York and New Jersey and points south was not expected to be restored until afternoon. Service to and from areas north of New York has been temporarily reduced.
LIRR service at Penn had resumed by around 7 a.m but equipment issues caused further cancellations.
Commuters faced more chaos earlier this month as LIRR service was halted during a strike, the first walkout for the LIRR since a two-day stoppage in 1994.
The initial impacts of the walkout were felt by baseball fans who were forced to find alternative transportation to Citi Field in Queens for the New York Mets’ games against the New York Yankees.
The strike involved five labor unions representing approximately half of the train system’s workforce. It halted service for roughly 250,000 commuters who rely on the rail system to connect New York City with its eastern suburbs every weekday.
