LIRR riders faced yet another day of delays and canceled trains on Thursday after two separate issues – one in the morning and one in the evening – snarled commutes to and from the city.
The LIRR was forced to suspend westbound service for more than two hours beginning around 5 p.m. and eastbound service was plagued with service disruptions due to an Amtrak power problem that rendered 12 tracks at Penn Station unusable, the MTA said. Normal service was restored around 7:40 p.m.
Fed-up commuters took to Twitter Thursday evening to voice their frustrations.
“I’ve literally never had hatred like I have hatred for the #LIRR @LIRR,” Alex Rinaldi tweeted.
“Customers should expect incompetency from the trains EVERYDAY, apparently. Maybe one day a real company will take over the train system,” tweeted Carolyn Paul.
LIRR riders also faced canceled and delayed trains during the morning’s peak commute Thursday after a train got stuck near the East River tunnels due to a “track condition,” the MTA said.
The train, carrying about 500 passengers, got stuck at about 5:50 a.m., an MTA spokesman said. The problem was with the third rail just outside the tunnels, but the MTA did not have any other information about the cause of the issue.
The disabled train connected with another train about two hours after it got stuck and the passengers were taken to Hunterspoint Avenue, the spokesman said. There were no injuries reported.
Amtrak, which owns and maintains the tracks in the tunnels, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Meanwhile, the issue canceled or rerouted 17 trains, and trains heading into Penn Station were delayed by an average of 20 to 25 minutes, the agency said.
There were also LIRR cancellations and delays due to damage caused by a fire near the Mastic-Shirley train station, the agency said.
