MTA's Lieber: 'Unacceptable situation' after Amtrak train fire causes LIRR disruptions into Penn

In announcing midday Friday that LIRR service was back after an Amtrak train car fire overnight, MTA Chairman and CEO Janno Lieber ripped into Amtrak for fully closing a tunnel during repairs instead of the piecemeal closure favored by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

"This is an unacceptable situation," he said at a news briefing at Penn Station following the fire that delayed the Long Island Rail Road and injured five people. "This is, like, the third time in a row in a matter of a couple weeks that we have knocked out Penn Station — we have had Penn Station knocked out by problems with Amtrak."

Amtrak owns and operates Penn and the four tunnels the LIRR uses to access the train station.

At an online news conference hours later, Amtrak's Gery Williams, executive vice president and chief operations officer, said the fire had nothing to do with the tunnel out for repair.

"Since this was in North River Tunnel," he said, "it has nothing to do with the East River Tunnel and our rehabilitation plan."

He said the fire broke out on a contractor's equipment involved in cleaning the ballast, the rocks that support the tracks, just outside of the tunnel portal. The fire damaged signals, track and other equipment, he said.

Amtrak’s work on the East River Tunnel began in 2025 to repair damage from Superstorm Sandy. The work is expected to keep one of the four tunnels out of service through at least the end of 2027.

On Friday, the FDNY received a call of a reported train car fire around 1:32 a.m. at Penn Station, at 31st Street between Seventh and Eighth avenues.

A second alarm was called at 2:43 a.m. and 46 units, or 141 fire and EMS personnel, responded to the work train fire on Track 11. 

The FDNY said out of the five civilian patients injured, two suffered serious injuries and were taken to Bellevue Hospital and three declined medical attention. 

The fire was under control around 4:05 a.m. The cause is under investigation, the FDNY said.

This is the second time in two weeks service was suspended at Penn Station due to a fire.