What to Know
- An Amtrak train that left Penn Station at 9:40 a.m. on Sunday morning was stuck in Queens for more than five hours
- As of 3:30 p.m., the train was still stalled, passengers said
- Passengers said toilets on the train were "filled to the brim," and said they could smell smoke
An Amtrak train en route to Boston was stuck in Queens for more than five hours on Sunday with "no functional restrooms," passengers said.
The toilets started flushing again and the train finally started moving after about six hours. It arrived in Boston at 8:29 p.m., more than 10 hours after it left New York, Amtrak said.
Amtrak said debris on overhead wires caused the delays, but it wasn't clear why the train was stuck so long.
The train first departed Penn Station at 9:40 a.m., but appeared to lose power as it passed through a train yard in Long Island City in Queens and was still stalled there as of 3 p.m., several passengers told NBC 4 New York.
The train started to move again around 3:15 p.m., but stalled again soon after and began to smell like smoke, passenger Steve Silverman told NBC 4 New York.
“There had been very little communication as to the nature of the problem other than vague references to towing us back to Penn Station with no timeline,” Silverman wrote in an email, adding that the restrooms weren’t functional and food and water hadn’t been provided to passengers.
Local
The toilets also started flushing around 3:15 p.m., a passenger tweeted.
Around 3:50 p.m., the train started moving again, passengers said. It made an unscheduled stop in New Rochelle to let passengers off if they wanted, then continued toward New Haven. About eight to 10 passengers chose to get off at New Rochelle, Amtrak said.
Amtrak said passengers were accommodated with food and water.
Several other stranded passengers took to Twitter as problems persisted, describing the smell of smoke and the lack of functioning bathrooms.
"We are now into our 6th hour on the train," one Twitter user wrote. "Bathrooms have become filled to the brim due to lack of power to flush."
In a tweet, Amtrak confirmed that the train had been stopped outside of Penn Station, but said it was "on the move operating about 5 hours 15 minutes late."
