Long Island Rail Road: Equipment failure causing eastbound delays

Eastbound LIRR trains are experiencing 15- to 20-minute delays due to one train's equipment failure during the Thursday evening commute, officials said.

The problem also caused cancellations on eastbound and westbound trains even as work crews patched up a broken rail that had snarled the start of the eastbound rush.

At least one train on the Port Washington line, due in Penn Station at 5:20 p.m., was canceled, and eastbound trains en route to Farmingdale and Long Beach were canceled due to their own equipment trouble or to another train's issues up ahead, the LIRR said in its alerts and tweets. It was unclear how many trains were delayed or canceled by equipment failure, but they include, according to the LIRR's tweets, a 6:36 p.m. train from Ronkonkoma, due at Penn Station at 7:56 p.m.; a 7:01 p.m. train from Penn Station, due in Port Washington at 7:37 p.m.; and a 6:24 p.m. train from Port Washington, due at Penn Station at 7:03 p.m.

Those problems surfaced after a broken rail on tracks near the Woodside LIRR station caused delays averaging around 10 minutes and prompted some cancellations on eastbound trains originating at Penn Station, LIRR officials said.

The Long Island Rail Road announced the problem in tweets and on its website in several updates since the problem was reported at about 4 p.m. It was fixed by 6:10 p.m.,  but the mess it caused forced officials to require some westbound trains to bypass Kew Gardens, Forest Hills and Woodside, said Aaron Donovan, a LIRR spokesman.

In a tweet, the LIRR said New York City Transit was cross-honoring LIRR tickets “on the E train at Jamaica (Sutphin/Archer), Kew Gardens (Union Turnpike) and Forest Hills (71st Avenue); and on the 7 train at Woodside (61st).”

It was unclear how many trains were delayed or canceled because of the broken rail.

The line running to Port Washington was unaffected by the rail problem, though.