Power outage and traffic accidents in New Jersey disrupt train and bus services on Tuesday morning.
The morning commute for thousands of New York City-bound commuters was disrupted once again due to Amtrak’s outdated power system. Amtrak, the owner of Pennsylvania Station and the connecting tracks and tunnels, experienced a power outage in New Jersey that caused delays of up to an hour for both Amtrak and New Jersey Transit trains. The power failure, which lasted about 40 minutes, affected the electrical substation in North Bergen, N.J., through Manhattan to Queens.
Passengers, like Eric Jackson, were stuck on trains without power in tunnels under the Hudson River for nearly 90 minutes. New Jersey Transit suspended its train service into New York due to overhead wire issues in the Hudson River tunnels. To accommodate affected passengers, the agency announced that train tickets would be accepted for bus rides to the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan.
However, bus service on the New Jersey side of the river was already disrupted due to incidents in the Lincoln Tunnel. A motorcycle crash in the tunnel’s center tube and a breakdown of a New Jersey Transit bus in the city-bound south tube caused significant delays. The center tube remained closed until 9:15 a.m., leading to traffic congestion on the New Jersey Turnpike.
As a result, New Jersey Transit buses were diverted to train stations in Secaucus, N.J., and Newark, causing further inconvenience to commuters. Passengers were seen walking along roadways after being dropped off by buses near the turnpike. The situation created a cycle of chaos with buses redirected to train stations and suspended train service replaced with bus rides.
New Jersey Transit’s train service was restored to schedule by 1 p.m., bringing relief to commuters who had been caught in the morning’s transportation turmoil.
Source: The NY Times
