Commuters who frequent the Amtrak line between New York City and New Haven breathed a sigh of relief as full service was restored yesterday evening, following a series of fires that caused significant disruptions. According to
NY Daily News
, the chaos began with a transformer fire in the Bronx, further escalated by a brush fire along the tracks, which led to Amtrak service coming to a complete stop on Tuesday afternoon.
Emergency repairs were underway yesterday with Amtrak hoping to quickly restore the service by 2 p.m., but it wasn’t until around 2:50 p.m. that power was returned to one of the tracks. Finally, before 5:30 p.m., full service resumed. To temporarily alleviate the travel disruption, Metro-North Railroad had been accepting Amtrak tickets to help reroute the stranded passengers, as reported by
Hoodline
.
Fire Department of New York personnel were challenged not only by the scale of the fires but also by the concurrent nature of the emergencies. “It took us quite a while to extinguish that fire,” FDNY Chief of Operations Kevin Woods told
NY Daily News
. The intensity required a shutting down of train traffic and the de-energization of the overhead catenary wires and the transformer for the safety of the crews.
While the causes of the fires are still under investigation, what is clear is that the brush fire’s proximity to the Amtrak transformer created not only a significant hazard but also compounded the problems faced by the emergency response teams. “We had to have [power removed from] the overhead catenary wires. We needed power also removed from the transformer,” Woods explained to
NY Daily News
. Amidst the crisis, frustrated travelers found themselves stranded at stations like New Rochelle, searching for alternative travel options as they were directed towards other lines like the Metro-North Railroad, which had stepped in to assist during the service outage. The expected restoration time, initially projected at 2 p.m. by Amtrak, was eagerly awaited by many, as detailed by
Hoodline
.
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