LIRR: Most service restored for morning commute

The LIRR expects to operate "near normal" rush-hour service Friday after a lightning strike suspended service twice Thursday evening, according to a statement released by the MTA early this morning.

Customers should expect some canceled trains and delays, MTA officials said.

Last night, frustrated commuters sat for hours in trains idling between stations, and on platforms throughout the LIRR system, after service was twice suspended due to the lightning strike that caused signal problems at Jamaica station.

Hourly eastbound service was restored by midnight to Babylon, Huntington, Long Beach and Ronkonkoma, and resumed from Atlantic Terminal to Far Rockaway and Hempstead.

In the peak of the service disruption, seven trains filled with commuters were stuck in and around the Jamaica station. On some stationary trains, commuters took matters into their own hands and abandoned the trains, jumping onto the tracks and walking along them despite the danger.

LIRR officials turned off the current to the third rail to avoid electrocutions. MTA police searched the tracks near Jamaica after receiving reports of the self-evacuations.

Police and firefighters boarded trains to assist panicking passengers as LIRR officials used the public address system to urge people to stay calm.

SEE PHOTOSLIRR trains and commuters through the years

"It's so frustrating," said Michael Caputo, 54, of Forest Hills, who was riding westbound when his train stalled just east of Jamaica station. "Thank God there's no medical emergencies . . . I was just about ready to go out the window."

People did just that on the train carrying Priscilla Aitken of Sea Cliff, who had spent three hours on an Oyster Bay-bound train that hadn't entered Jamaica station by 10 p.m. after leaving Penn Station at 7 p.m.

"We're starving, we're thirsty," she said, adding that she could see Jamaica station up ahead. "There was a sick person on the train and it wasn't very pleasant. . . . We need someone to come and get us off this train."

The scene at Penn Station was chaotic about 9:30 when the gates to the Seventh Avenue entrance to the LIRR station were closed to prevent overcrowding.

Two hours later, riders cheered when an announcer said Long Beach service was returning. Others lines followed shortly after.

The shutdown was a result of the LIRR losing function at the Jamaica operations tower that controls signals and switches for a portion of track east of Jamaica. The tower controlling signals and switches west of Jamaica lost power earlier after being hit by lightning around 4:40 p.m.

The LIRR suspended service from Jamaica to Penn Station and to Atlantic Terminal for about 90 minutes before restoring some trains shortly before 7 p.m. But then the system went down again.

Communal frustration

Barbara Cronan said she boarded a train out of Penn Station to Babylon at 5:40 p.m. and was still stuck between stations near Jamaica after 9:30 p.m. She said she saw some customers jump out of the train and onto the tracks.

"So far most commuters are frustrated, but the atmosphere is communal," Cronan said.

Lightning strikes that knocked out the LIRR's signal system in Babylon last month caused service disruptions that lasted from one afternoon through the following morning's rush hour.

Just after 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Brett Smith of Huntington was standing with a friend waiting for a car service in Manhattan. He said they had boarded a train, gone to the West Side yards, then returned to Penn Station and were told to disembark.

"I'm tired of it," Smith said of the service disruptions. "We pay too much for nothing."

In front of Penn Station, Hank Harvey of Brightwaters was a bit more mellow. He left work early, only to have his departure delayed. "It's part of the business," he said. "The railroad moves a lot of people. By and large the service is good."

Tom Lapinski, 49, of Garden City, a currency broker, got on a train at 7:05 p.m. and was still on that train about 300 yards west of Jamaica at 11:30 p.m. Lapinski was angry that his calls from the train to 311, a nonemergency city help line, were transferred to the Long Island Rail Road and that got him nowhere.

"It just rang and rang and rang, with no pickup. I had to hang up," he said.

Ventilation was almost nonexistent on the train, Lapinski said. In an interview from the train, he said, "There's no air. We opened some doors a little to get air. . . . They threatened us with arrest if we tried to leave the train." Then he quipped, "They should bring back the bar car." He arrived at Garden City at 12:05 a.m.

"I'm just glad to be home," he said.

But Frantz Casseus, 44, of Roslyn, stepped away from the LIRR information booth in Penn Station at about 11:30 p.m., disappointed that service on his Oyster Bay train had yet to be restored. "It's horrible," Casseus said. "They just raised the fare and the service never gets any better."

LIRR Commuter Council member Maureen Michaels, who was stuck herself, said, "It is what it is . . . I'm beginning to think that Mother Nature has it out for commuters."