Horse on tracks delays LIRR train in Yaphank

A wandering horse caused a westbound Long Island Rail Road train on the Ronkonkoma line to be delayed about 15 minutes Thursday afternoon, an LIRR spokesman said.

The 12:42 p.m. train departing Greenport had just left the Yaphank station, spokesman Salvatore Arena said, when the engineer spotted a horse on the track, at about 2 p.m.

Arena said the conductor was able to remove the horse from the tracks and put it back in a nearby gated area, where it presumably had escaped from.

The connecting train at Ronkonkoma, scheduled to depart for Penn Station at 2:11 p.m., was delayed about 15 minutes, Arena said.