After being shut down for more than two hours during the start of the evening commuter rush Thursday, Amtrak crews have repaired overhead wire problems in Secaucus and it and NJ Transit trains are rolling again.
NJ Transit spokesperson Jim Smith said shortly before 6 p.m., trains to and from New York were back, with 90 minute delays after Amtrak suspended service on the busy Northeast Corridor line between New Haven and Philadelphia. Amtrak officials said “significant delays are anticipated due to rail congestion and single-tracking,” in an alert.
The problem, which Amtrak blamed on a circuit breaker, abruptly changed the plans of thousands of commuters and intercity rail passengers on a day where high temperatures soared to the 90s, challenging infrastructure on the corridor, which already is multiple decades old.
Efforts to repair the wire problem were hampered by a significant brush fire in the the vicinity of County Road and the New Jersey Turnpike’s eastern spur in Secaucus that affected repair efforts and traffic on the highway’s eastern spur.
Around 5:20 p.m., there were some glimmers of hope, a few trains operating on the NEC between Trenton and Newark, Smith said. The Northeast Corridor is owned by Amtrak, which leases space to NJ Transit.
The outage sent commuters scrambling to PATH trains, which honored NJ Transit tickets, but that transit system initially had its own problems when train communication issues in Newark delayed service on the Newark-World Trade Center line.
The Amtrak suspension followed an earlier alert warning of one-hour delays due to an overhead power outage between Newark and New York. A later Amtrak alert on X said service was suspended and warned of “significant” delays while crews work to repair the wires. NJ Transit suspended service at 3:26 p.m. and diverted Midtown Direct trains to Hoboken.
Amtrak almost foreshadowed the problems with an alert on X that warned of high temperatures that could result in train operating at slower speeds and 60-minute delays earlier on Tuesday.
That was in line with what an expert told NJ Advance Media interviewed about the affects of extreme weather. The region is in the midst of an extreme heat wave with super hot temperatures.
“What excessive heat does is permeate every part of the railway system,” said Bryan Sooter, American Public Transit Association’s Director of Standards. “You’ve got an abnormal weather event that just takes over every part of the operation, not just on the mechanical and engineering side but the human element.”
Amtrak said in a statement that a malfunctioning circuit breaker is the suspected cause of a widespread issue, resulting in a loss of power on the tracks between New York Penn Station and Newark Penn Station, affecting service between New Haven and Philadelphia.
Amtrak had terminated and canceled several northbound trains in Philadelphia due to the problem and canceled an Acela Express in Westchester, and passengers put on Metro North trains.
The latest problems come after similar issues on the Northeast Corridor line Monday evening and Tuesday morning and afternoon.
The rash of problem since a May 22 servcie suspension and resulting commuting nightmare resulted in some terse communications between Gov. Phil Murphy and key Amtrak officials. While NJ Transit and Amtrak officials met last month and formed a committee to improve response to issue that halt service and find the causes, Murphy was still critical of Tuesday’s delays.
Overhead wires that power trains on the Northeast Corridor between are at least 40 years old or older and part of a power distribution system that has been problematic since problems in summer 2015 caused similar service suspensions.
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Larry Higgs may be reached at lhiggs@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on X @CommutingLarry
