Apparently there’s been a serious fire at one of the towers at Jamaica. Every Long Island Rail Road line except Port Washington passes through Jamaica Station, meaning all service has been indefinitely suspended except for Port Washington trains. :eek:
They don’t know if repairs will be in place for the afternoon rush yet. This will make for some interesting commutes, I’m sure.
The NY Times reports an update: some lines are now running reduced service, with most trains skipping Jamaica.
The fire apparently destroyed part of the manual switching system that was built in 1913. (If it ain’t broke…) If you’ve ever seen Jamaica Station, you know that’s a pretty complex switchyard with eight revenue tracks and a couple sidings.
I got home just fine on the subway. 
Some of my coworkers will not be as lucky.
To anyone victimized by this . . . I feel your pain. A number of years ago, the LIRR workers went on strike, and I was a commuter from Long Beach to my job in Manhattan. It was not a good experience for many of us.
To think they were just about to upgrade that switching station after what… 97 years!?!
I find it funny they didn’t have a back up plan.
According to the Times this morning, they had guys out on the tracks with mallets manually operating the switches.