NJ Transit, Amtrak trains halted Wednesday due to wire problem

NEWARK — Problems with overhead wires brought NJ Transit and Amtrak trains to a halt on Wednesday morning. Service was restored early Wednesday afternoon with 60-minute delays.

Service on the Northeast Corridor, North Jersey Coast Line and Midtown Direct was suspended because of an Amtrak power problem between Trenton and Philadelphia, according to Amtrak spokesman Jason Abrams, who said a cause was under investigation.

Two other power related issues also caused problems.

There was also a second outage between New Rochelle, NY and Philadelphia just after noon that was quickly restored by 12:20 p.m.

Abrams also reported there was a transformer issue between Metropark and New Brunswick but it is not known if its related to the power issues.

It was not clear early Wednesday afternoon when full service would resume.

PATH will cross-honor NJ Transit tickets /passes at Hoboken, Newark Penn station and New York. NJ Transit bus and private carriers will cross-honor NJ Transit rail tickets and passes.

Trains already en route about 11 a.m. were allowed to continue to their destination, according to NJ Transit spokeswoman Nancy Snyder, who said no additional trains were leaving their respective stations.

Two NJ Transit trains — one eastbound, one westbound— became disabled in the Hudson River tunnels and had to be towed, according to Snyder. A westbound Amtrak Acela train was also disabled. All three trains were out of the tubes by 11:15 a.m.

Snyder said one person on board the train towed to New York was treated for a “medical emergency” by EMS.

Former Morris County Prosecutor Bob Bianchi was one of the hundreds of stranded commuters on a train headed into New York. He said on his Twitter feed that the power knocked out the air conditioning and it was quickly getting hot on his train, which rolled back to Hoboken. He said he made it to New York 45 minutes late.

Contact reporter Dan Alexander at Dan.Alexander@townsquaremedia.com or via Twitter @DanAlexanderNJ

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