Trains Out 2 1/2 Hours Due to Newark Fire

It was a chaotic afternoon for Morris and Essex line passengers, with service suspended around 4 p.m., leaving at least one train stranded and forcing passengers to walk on the tracks to the next station.

Around 4 p.m., New Jersey Transit announced that service on the Morris & Essex line had been suspended due to "fire activity" in Newark.

The train that left Maplewood shortly before 4 p.m. rolled to a stop on the tracks between South Orange and Mountainside.

Patch general manager Jon Brod, who was on the train, reported that conductors announced they would try to coast the train to the next station, but that attempt failed.

Brod described the walk on the tracks as "quite surreal - people with bikes, parents carrying children, women in high heels. Someone told me this was the second time this (evacuating a train mid-station) happened to him in the past two weeks."

Initially conductors said that a diesel train would carry passengers on to New York City. But on arriving at South Orange station, they were told they would instead take buses to Newark and catch a train there into the city.

Westbound service was restored around 6 p.m., and NJ Transit said eastbound service resumed around 6:30, but with delays of 60-90 minutes. By 8:30, according to NJ Transit, service was back to normal.