NYC commuters face more fire delays
Blaze under tracks snarls travel at least through Friday
Transit authorities said it will be Friday at the earliest before the 150,000 commuters who flow into Grand Central Terminal can expect even a partial return to normal service after a fire damaged tracks in East Harlem.
Fire officials say the blaze that broke out beneath elevated train tracks Tuesday evening has been ruled an accident. More than 150 firefighters responded to the fire, with one suffering a minor injury when he slipped.
Authorities were only able to restore service on two of Metro-North’s four lines in time for the Wednesday morning rush hour and even then train speed was reduced from 60 mph to 30 mph.
Metro-North, the nation’s second-busiest commuter line, was operating on a Saturday schedule at 60% of capacity, Metropolitan Transit Authority spokeswoman Meredith Daniels said, according to the Associated Press.
The MTA said crews were installing six temporary steel columns because of structural damage to a column supporting the elevated tracks. The MTA said the damaged column, located near the center of a viaduct, was an older column with parts dating to the 19th century. The undamaged columns to the sides are from the 1990s and are made out of single blocks, The Journal
News reports. Commuters were warned that they could face delays and extremely crowded conditions at least until Friday and were encouraged to consider working from home or finding alternate transportation.
Most seemed to take the inconvenience in stride.
“I had to stand the whole time. I was only delayed like 30 minutes,” said Mike Joshi, who got on at Southport, Conn., headed for his teaching job in Brooklyn.
A train that left White Plains, N.Y., at 6:30 a.m. was so crowded that by the time it traveled seven stops, no one could get on. The conductor announced that another train behind would make all local stops. Passengers included many teens on their way to school.
The four-alarm fire that caused the disruption broke out Tuesday evening below elevated tracks at a construction site at 118th St. and Park Avenue.
“Thank God that ... there was no loss of life in this situation, because it was horrendous,” Gov. Andrew Cuomo said after inspecting the site of the massive blaze. “The fire was so hot that they could hear the rivets, the bolts popping.”