What to Know
- No injuries have been reported after an NJ Transit train derailed at Penn Station on Thursday night
- Limited service was restored into and out of the major hub, but delays are expected for the morning; MTA said LIRR trains aren't impacted
- A months-long overhaul of Penn Station, which has been beset by derailments, power issues and other problems, is set to begin Monday
New Jersey Transit says limited service has been restored in and out of Penn Station following an earlier train derailment at the nation's busiest train station.
Service was suspended in and out of Penn Station Thursday night for several hours after a NJ Transit train derailed in a tunnel at 9:10 p.m., officials said.
NJ Transit said a North Jersey Coast Line train with nine cars was traveling in a Hudson River tunnel towards Penn Station when it derailed.
Officials said limited Northeast Corridor and New Jersey Coast Line service has been restored in and out of Penn Station with up to 90-minute delays.
About 180 passengers and crew members were on board the train at the time, but no injuries were been reported, according to officials.
NJ Transit also said customers should expect delays for the morning rush due to "station congestion."
"I'm sitting on the train, all of the sudden we're going through the tunnel and it just jolts, and people are like pushed forward," Michelle Bove said.
"We weren't sure what was going on and we started backing up into the train station, and everyone's kind of like, 'What's going on? What's going on?'" Bove said, adding that people were "chaotically trying to get out of the train."
Local
The train eventually returned to Penn Station, although it's unclear how it got there. Earlier in the night, fire officials said the FDNY was working with Amtrak crews to bring a rescue train for passengers.
But passengers told News 4 that crews were able to put the train back on the tracks. One passenger said officials tried different strategies before eventually placing the train on a different track. It was then sent back to New Jersey before returning to Penn Station.
“It seems like they were trying multiple tactics,” passenger Luke Uttaro said. “They basically shuttled everyone to the front of the train, then they shuttled us to the middle of the train, then they shuttled us to the back of the train.”
In Pictures: Another Derailment at Penn Station
NJ Transit issued an alert saying train service was suspended in and out of Penn Station due to "a minor NJ Transit derailment." The agency said all Midtown Direct trains will be diverted to Hoboken.
An announcement at Penn Station said service was canceled until further notice, and Amtrak said riders traveling between New York and New Jersey should expect extensive delays.
NJ Transit says it's working with Amtrak to determine the cause of the slow-speed derailment.
Rail tickets will continue to be cross-honored with NJ Transit bus and private bus carriers, the agency said. PATH had discontinued its cross-honoring around 4:30 Friday morning.
The MTA said the derailment did not affect Long Island Rail Road trains or subway service.
Photos on social media show fire trucks outside Penn Station and firefighters inside the station. Video taken from a nearby building shows at least a half-dozen fire trucks parked in front of the station on Seventh Avenue.
The derailment comes less than a week before extensive trackwork is to be done at Penn Station in a months-long project Gov. Cuomo said would be a "summer of hell" for commuters.
The busy Northeast Corridor around Penn Station has been beset by problems in the last few months. Two derailments, a power failure, signal problems and other issues at Penn Station have pushed Amtrak to begin replacing aging tracks and other equipment and have caused numerous delays for commuters.
In early April, a minor NJ Transit derailment left eight of 21 tracks inoperable at Penn Station for days. Delayed and canceled trains wreaked havoc for hundreds of thousands of travelers and commuters in the tri-state. Less than two weeks before that derailment, an Amtrak train derailed and bumped into a NJ Transit train.
In mid-April an NJ Transit train with about 1,200 passengers became stuck in a Hudson River tunnel for nearly three hours. Tension escalated at an overcrowded Penn Station when police response to a belligerent man sparked a stampede. Since then, signal issues and power problems have caused repeated headaches for LIRR and NJ Transit commuters at the transit station, which is the busiest in the U.S.
