NJ Transit briefly suspended in and out of New York Penn Station in yet another rush-hour commuter nightmare
Penn Station commuters faced yet another transit nightmare on Monday.
New Jersey Transit service in and out of the major Manhattan hub was temporarily suspended during Monday evening’s rush hour – the fourth time in less than a week travelers were burdened by delays and cancellations.
The latest headache was blamed by NJ Transit on “Amtrak overhead wires issues in one of the Hudson River tunnels.”
Service was halted around 7 p.m., but resumed 30 minutes later – albeit with delays of up to an hour, NJ Transit announced in a series of tweets.
The train disruptions left commuters fuming.
One rider traveling back home to Linden called the past week a “f—cking nightmare” and said he was “really f—cking annoyed” because of the constant disruptions to NJ Transit.
“It’s just been really awful,” said Jordan Garcia, a makeup artist who has dealt with the constant service snafus.
“I told my friend right now, I don’t even know if I’m going to work tomorrow because you don’t know if sh-t’s going to be working,” the 29-year-old said.
Another irate traveler just wanted to get back to Florham Park.
“I’ve been angry the whole day … not because of transit, but I’ve been angry all day and I would like to go home,” Carl, 45, said as he blew off some steam.
“And then I get here and it’s delayed and I’m even more angry now.”
Hannah Ahn, a human resources tech, was coming into New York from Princeton when she was told her train would be stopped. She and other riders remained on the tracks for more than an hour.
“You’re raising our fares, you’re not doing anything to improve,” the 25-year-old said.
Amtrak service was also affected by the wire problems, with all trains traveling between New York and Philadelphia operating on delays.
Train service at Penn was slowed last Tuesday because of a disabled train, while equipment issues left commuters stranded on Thursday and again Friday as temperatures soared.
The agency blamed faulty overhead wires for the late-week snags.
The service woes are reminiscent of the so-called “Summer of Hell” of 2017, when commuters faced travel nightmare after nightmare at Penn — with Amtrak’s power supply at fault.
Commuters in the past have dealt with a stuck NJ Transit train in 2017, an Amtrak derailment the following year and server/signal issues this past New Year’s Eve.
The problems coming out of Penn can lead to commuters flooding the PATH Train in Hoboken and buses.
Amtrak and NJ Transit have long pointed the finger at each other — and officials have blamed the delays and service suspensions on crumbling equipment and aging wiring belonging to both agencies.
Carl, the fed-up Florham Park resident, said his message to both agencies was “get this fixed, fix it.”
