The North Wing of the Port Authority is closed. At this time, NJT buses are picking up and dropping off in the South Wing only. As a result, buses are operating with 35 to 40 minute delays.
Manhattan AMTRAK, NJ TRANSIT, AND LIRR SUSPENDED FROM PENN STATION. Due to signal problens there is no Long Island Railroad, Amtrak, or New Jersey Transit service from Penn Station. Service are as follows:
Long Isalnd Railroad stations at Jamaica, Woodside, and Flatbush are in operation and the Subway is honoring LIRR tickest to these locations.
New Jersey Transit is available at the Hoboken Station. Use the Path trains to Hoboken. New Jersey Transit tickets are being honored by Path.
Amtrak service from Penn Station is suspended until further notice.
—Getting home’s gonna be fun tonight. Good thing I always have a book with me.
One of my boys’ friends was nicknamed “Evil” (it had to do with his daredevil driving) and used to drive cab. If he still did, I’d be happy to send him to deliver you home – in view of your thread title, it would seem singularly appropriate to append
“Due to signal problems” is apparently MTA code for “fire”. From the horse’s mouth:
Thanks to the interconnected nature of the tunnels and signaling systems, a transformer fire under the East River delayed service to New Jersey, on trains that don’t go any farther east than W 33rd St. Great system they’ve got there, no? As of now, the NJT trains are running again, but with “significant” delays and limited service. Hope you got home safely and as quickly as possible.
It’s not really the same, though, is it. You can run a train slowly. Perhaps even slowly enough that you could stop in time given only visual warning. You can’t fly a plane that slow unless you’ve got a helicopter.
Well, OK, what happens when two trains get in each other’s way? One reverses, blind? Plus, you’re forgetting that most of the signalling revolves around how pointwork is set, which can’t always be identified easily or reliably from the cab.
Signalling systems developed into a recognisable form the best part of two centuries ago. For good reason. Should we abandon that just so a few New Yorkers get home for dinner on time?
New Yorkers (greater New Yorkers, actually, since it’s suburbanites who’re affected by this) would say yes. Nobody ever accused us of being reasonable.
Got home OK, happily, via Hoboken. NJ Transit trains, by the way, are not only suicide magnets, but have a disconcerting habit of bumping breezily into one another.
I love this, from the 1010 WINS news site: “About 60 people, many using cell phones, were left milling around in front of Penn Station, on Eighth Avenue and 33rd Street, during the evacuation.”
There are always about 60 people milling around in front of Penn Station, yelling into their cell phones!
So, I’m sure you people probably didn’t catch the 5 o’clock news.
This from a Ch.7 reporter on the scene…
They have the power shut down, and, these firefighters that you see gathered behind me are just waiting for the electricity to drain down before they go in…
A HAH! I just KNEW that electricity leaks out of my meter. That’s the cause of my high electric bills.
It never ceases to amaze me how people can make such stupid comments about topics they know nothing about.
First, this was no mere signalling problem. It was a fire caused by a fallen power line inside the tunnel. The entire tunnel, third rail and all, had to be shut down in order to put the fire out and ensure that everything was safe. That means there was no possible way for any LIRR and for many NJ Transit trains to run anywhere, slowly or not.
Secondly, you cannot run trains without signals, even if you have third rail power. Signals tell you where you’re going, how the switches are set, and when it is safe to proceed to the next block. Even if you’re stupid enough to try to make your way down the track by visually inspecting the points, there is no way for the tower to know where you are, and nothing to prevent them from throwing a switch while your train is driving over it.
Not that it would work, anyway. The safety tripcock at the switch would put your train in BIE the second you try to leave a block with no signal. The tripcock is up by default; it takes hydraulic pressure to push it down, guaranteeing that it won’t permit a train to pass if there is a signal malfunction. In other words, it is completely fucking impossible to move the train more than a couple hundred feet without signals.
Hell, even when everything’s “working,” we have sleepy or drugged-out conductors or one blown-out signal light, and the trains go merrily whacking into each other. Happens several times a year on my line.
Plus, my train route is “suicide alley,” it seems. Some damn Anna Karenina is always making me late for work or—worse yet—getting home.
