Evacuation Under The East River: LIRR Train Becomes Disabled In Tunnel, MTA Says

NEW YORK, NY — Long Island railroad service is anticipated to return to normal service during off-peak hours between rush hours Wednesday after a disabled train had to be evacuated early Wednesday morning, LIRR President Rob Free said.

According to MTA officials, the train was traveling under the East River on the way from Jamaica to Penn Station at about 6:15 a.m. when an engineer reported hitting debris. The train became stuck after hitting the debris, blocking an Amtrak East River tunnel that had seen an NJ Transit train get stuck and removed earlier on the same day.

"We don't know where it came from, we're not saying it's from this NJ Transit train, all we can say is, right now, that it hit a piece of metal debris down in the tunnel. We're still assessing the damage to the infrastructure," Free told the press Wednesday. "We evacuated people off the east end of the train with the following train, and the people in the west cars, we cut cars away and they operated into Penn Station."

Amtrak is currently investigating the incident, the MTA said, to see what took place in the tunnel. Free noted in his comments Wednesday that the tunnel is owned by Amtrak.

As for the train, the MTA said it’s no longer in the tunnel. Free said any impact to evening LIRR commutes would be assessed pending the results of Amtrak's investigation. The best way to stay on top of the latest train schedules, the MTA said, is to consult the MTA’s website or the TrainTime app.

Amtrak could not be reached for comment on this story.